Rocky Point students connect with local history

As educators are encouraged to make and teach local historical connections in the grade 4 social studies curriculum, Joseph A. Edgar Intermediate School students are learning to make these connections through field trips to the Hallock Homestead, just minutes from the school.

Maintained by the Rocky Point Historical Society, each fourth grade class at JAE took a personal tour with an experienced docent through Rocky Point’s oldest standing house, which was listed in the New York and National registers in 2013.

JAE Assistant Principal Benjamin Paquette and teachers Pat Alberti, Mara Lopez and Theresa O’Brien met with Historical Society members last year to tour the house and frame the field trips that took place in mid-October. This project was spearheaded by Ken Krapf, a retired JAE teacher and Rocky Point Historical Society board member.

The students viewed the 15 rooms filled with furniture, artifacts and archival photographs of Rocky Point’s unique history. The teachers witnessed how students connected with the local history as the staff helped bring the social studies curriculum to life, right in their own neighborhood.

“Students and staff were in awe of all the history that exists within Rocky Point,” said Mr. Paquette, a graduate of Rocky Point High School. “Growing up here, I heard bits and pieces of Rocky Point’s history, which has been fascinating to put everything together. Each time I visit the Hallock House, I leave with new information.”