Students Visit NJ's Old Barracks for History Lesson

Steve Adubato sits down with Brian Tobin and Todd Wilson, 4th Grade Teachers at Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School in Trenton, New Jersey, to hear about their Old Barracks program where they take their students out of the classroom to experience the history of the Revolutionary War in Trenton.

5/7/19 #2216

 

 

 

 

Excerpt:

"Hi, I'm Steve Adubato. This is One on One. We're coming to you from the Agnes Varis NJTV studio in Newark. It is our honor to introduce two very special guests, two educators, making a difference in the lives of fourth graders every day, Brian Tobin... How you doing? Todd Wilson... How you doing? Fourth grade teachers, Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School in beautiful Trenton, New Jersey. Good to see you guys. How you doing? Thanks for having me. This is as part of our collaborative series we're doing in cooperation with the NJEA, part of the Classroom Close-up initiative that continues to... set this up, we're about to see a clip. This is from your students. You take the fourth grade students to the Old Barracks in Trenton? Yes. Yep. Describe what that is. It's an area where they talk about the Revolutionary War, and we were lucky enough to get a grant from the Crossroads of the Revolution that actually paid for us to get there. And the kids had an awesome experience. This is good stuff. Yes. Want to talk about it when we come back? All right. Come right... let's go to the Old Barracks. This is  Classroom Close-up. Check it out. [Music] I need two equal length lines coming off of their shoulders. Shoulder to shoulder towards the barracks. It means something to them they have some sort of ownership over the whole experience because they're putting themselves into it. These fourth graders from Martin Luther King Junior Middle School are experiencing firsthand what it was like to be a soldier during the American Revolution. We are working with the Crossroads of the Revolution, and we have an opportunity to come here and see what's going on in Trenton. Crossroads is one of 49 national heritage areas in the country. We're the nonprofit that's set up to manage all of the Revolutionary War sites in the state of New Jersey. There are students from all over the state that come to the Old Barracks. But generally, they don't come from the Trenton schools. And so, we wanted to change that. What Washington decided to do was that in the middle of the night, he would take our army and side skirts Trenton altogether. It's history from where they are from. They are from Trenton, New Jersey, this is Trenton. And it's an experience that even though it is for some within walking distance for them, this is somewhere some kids have never even seen, never heard of, and some don't know that these battles and the whole war happened here, that..."