Tenement Museum Teacher Institute Day 1 by TM Education

Displacement of African Americans when Central Park was created.

2025-07-21 21:12:54 UTC

2025-07-21 21:13:27 UTC

I am tickled that you have stories of the actual people that lived here. We tell the students that history is happening all around them, and these stories help them understand that they too have a role!

How to tie in a current oral history assignment I currently require

2025-07-21 21:13:39 UTC

Map of German bars. Excerpt of response to 15th amendment

2025-07-21 21:14:55 UTC

I would like to use this at the beginning of the year to not only get to know the students and start building community, but also to have students understand that their histories matter and connect to the timeline we are studying.

2025-07-21 21:15:51 UTC

2025-07-21 21:15:59 UTC

I’m intrigued by the presence of mutual aid societies. I’d love to learn more about how they functioned and when they “fell off” in New York history. I’m interested in connecting the history of mutual aid societies to the current resurgence of these organizations—Mandy

2025-07-21 21:16:54 UTC

More diverse voices and how they weave into what we have in our textbooks.

2025-07-21 21:17:04 UTC

Challenge students to interpret an object orally to practice analytical and public speaking skills.

2025-07-21 21:17:24 UTC

To connect with my newcomer students receiving ESOL services. I love to connect anything back to their culture and lives and this would allow me to get to know them in more meaningful ways.

2025-07-21 21:17:50 UTC

Classroom culture: encouraging students to build connections with one another and learn their stories

2025-07-21 21:19:53 UTC

I’d love to access images of the teens/families we learned about so I can do visual thinking and exercises with them—Mandy

2025-07-22 10:53:28 UTC

I teach at the 5th most diverse school in my district, with 30 different nationalities represented. I’m very excited to do this project with my students this year so others in the building and school community can learn more about the cultures represented at the school.

2025-07-22 11:02:50 UTC

This is a wonderful performance about Ellis Island which came out in the early 2000’s. The music is poignant and beautiful, the immigrant’s monologues are good and it’s just a really well-done project by composer, Peter Boyer. You can find some clips of it on You Tube. If you can find the whole production to rent or watch, do so. This link is the background story on how it was made.

https://youtu.be/hEvCYDGp2aw

2025-07-22 11:04:42 UTC

2025-07-22 12:52:12 UTC

What is sticking with me the most from our first day is the reshaping of how we look at history through the lives of individual people. Being able to step into some of the homes really allowed me to gain insight into the day to day lives of working class individuals.

2025-07-22 12:55:13 UTC

I am interested in using YSOS in my US History classroom. I think that I would like to set the scene first by providing students with artifacts to examine, describe, and discuss to expose them to some of the writing that they will be doing.

2025-07-22 12:56:33 UTC

Deep dive analysis and interpretation of physical artifacts

2025-07-22 19:42:08 UTC

I have always loved telling the stories of history rather than following a timeline. I love the idea of using individual people or families to tell the stories of our history. Finding different perspectives and having students examine those to better understand what actually happened.

2025-07-22 19:43:05 UTC

I actually want to use this with my 8th graders. We do an immigration project with all of our 7th graders so this could be a follow up for them on that. It would also help them better connect to their own history.

2025-07-22 19:44:21 UTC

Using YSOS in my class as a way to help students understand that the American story is a story of immigration. I also love the idea of examining the events around the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments to help students understand what a big deal these were.

2025-07-22 19:45:17 UTC

I would love some more options for primary sources about celebrations and reactions to the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments.

2025-07-22 19:48:39 UTC

The idea of telling the stories of “regular people” is a hook that I can use to pull in my students when they ask the inevitable, “why do we have to learn this stuff” question. The stories we learn are as important as the stories they tell, and I think that’s amazing!

2025-07-22 19:50:37 UTC

I think it might be a great way to introduce our study of world history, since almost none of my students have not come from immigrants at some point. I think it will make a strong connection between their actual lives and our content.

2025-07-22 21:24:59 UTC

How will I bring all of this back to my students!!

Stories

2025-07-22 21:25:05 UTC

How important it is to keep asking questions and uncovering stories

2025-07-22 21:25:45 UTC

YSOS will be useful in my semester projects where we dive into decades and culture.

2025-07-22 21:26:10 UTC

I will use the 15th amendment parade activity.

2025-07-22 21:26:22 UTC

Everything!

2025-07-22 21:35:15 UTC

Given the privilege of family history, the Tenement Museum is doing social justice work, and at both personal and national / ‘mythic’ scales!

2025-07-22 21:35:51 UTC

The simplicity is deceptive for how powerful and profound this activity is!!

2025-07-22 21:36:53 UTC

I will use tour facts / data for story-driven inquiry into the specifics of working-class immigrant life at the time!

2025-07-22 21:40:59 UTC

As mentioned previously, using YSOS as an intro to world history for relevance purposes

The Composite Nation

2025-07-23 01:32:58 UTC

Something that spoke to me was Harris’ discussion of Black Gotham; of the historical reality that abolitionists pushed the notion that immigration can only be a positive for the Nation (economically, socially, politically). Moreover, I kept thinking of Douglass and was so happy to hear Annie Polland reference it!

Importance of Material Culture

2025-07-23 15:11:18 UTC

I've reflected on the importance of material culture --- the things humans create and use that give meaning to our world.

I've also been reflecting about the role of material culture for groups of people, such as mine, that have had their material culture intentionally stolen, destroyed, and separated from historical and cultural context.

Sometimes it feels like so much of African American culture, and African Diasporic cultures in general, transcends the material because our material conditions are often predicated on the whims of white supremacy.

Unit Zero Assignment

2025-07-23 15:20:38 UTC

Definitely using YSOS as a culminating task in Unit Zero at the beginning of the school year for my students.

I plan to connect their objects to the required sources and analysis within the AP African American Studies framework. As an interdisciplinary course, the required sources students engage with are extremely diverse. In the course we analyze the African Diaspora through pottery, maps, songs, poems, artwork, figurines, mask, and many more.

YSOS will be a great start to conceptualizing objects as primary sources.

YSOS Tutorial & Teacher Exemplars

2025-07-23 15:22:03 UTC

Would love student facing tutorial and examples/exemplars of teachers that have implemented it in the past.

10 Million Names Project

2025-07-23 15:23:19 UTC

10 Million Names will be great for AP US and AP AfAm when we discuss the impact of chattel slavery.