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Sailing into learning Embarked on excursions in New York 's harbor, teachers and students gain new perspectives on history, science and more 
December 9, 2004 Skyward ho! UFTers Kristin Cunliffe, Glenn Golz and others raise the sails as they head for open waters aboard the historic schooner Pioneer. With the waters of New York Harbor slapping the sides of the 1885 schooner, teachers strain to pull lines and hoist the sails, some squatting on the deck to hold down the halyard while others strain arms upward as if yanking the rigging from the sky. "Haul away!" shouts Maggie Flanagan, the ship's educator. "Nice and salty!" Here, aboard the Pioneer at the South Street Seaport Museum , professional development is as basic as rope. Teachers can leave behind brick school buildings and cultivate lesson plans on the rim of the river. Museum educators aboard the historic schooner model ways to instruct students using navigational maps, knot-tying, history, navigation, immigration and some of the sea's tiniest creatures. While the Pioneer plies the waters off lower Manhattan most frequently for student educational outings, voyages can also be arranged for professional development for teachers. One such trip was organized by Melinda Spataro for United Federation of Teachers members in New York City under a gifted and talented magnet schools program. It is one of four professional development outings for UFTers funded by a 21st Century American History grant. "The Pioneer is working to keep kids in touch with the history of this great city," Flanagan said. With a crew of four to seven, the schooner holds up to 35 passengers. School and summer school outings can be accommodated from early May to the end of September; now is a good time to plan ahead for spring/summer trips. In season, the ship is docked at a pier on the East River in lower Manhattan off the South Street Seaport Museum . (The Pioneer relocates to the Chesapeake Bay for the winter.) The museum offers free admission to members of New York State United Teachers under a new agreement. (See item, on right. ) School programs designed to meet New York state's learning standards are available on board the museum's ships, in its galleries and throughout its historic waterfront district. Programs can be tailored to meet local curriculum and specific student needs. Professional development workshops are conducted by museum staff in all areas of its educational programming, including science, social studies, literacy and geography. Initiatives are also available in marine and environmental science, archaeology and oceanographic programs. "This is the beginning of American history right here," said Regina Noer, a fourth-grade teacher at PS 151 in Queens . "It's right in our backyard." She noted that inventions and transportation in the 19th century are embodied in schooners, and students "can see how important the Hudson River was to the explorers." Students learn through hands-on experience sailing the ship. The "all-hands-on-deck!" call on this vessel summons tap students as young as third grade to help with the ropes, Flanagan said. Showing kids how to use the ship's pulley system demonstrates the physical principles of distance and work force, along with discipline. Older students can learn math concepts by analyzing navigational charts. They can measure the depth of the water through sounding. Harbor charts show them how to find marshy areas by color, and how to study the amazing rhythm of the tides. This two-masted schooner is an iron-hulled classroom where the blackboard is a white sail snapping in the wind. Once used to transport goods and raw materials, the Schooner is a natural as a classroom. She's always been a working girl. Looking out at the watery spread before her, teacher Noer is flooded with ideas. Glinting in the sun off the starboard side of the ship is Ellis Island , and history comes into focus. "We study all the way to immigration," she said. "If they can understand how important boats are to our history ..." Some immigrants arriving at Ellis Island by steamer were rejected for entry into America because of illness, Flanagan recounted. "My mom and sister came through Ellis Island from Italy ," shared art teacher Richard Cecco of PS 212, Jackson Heights . His stories in the classroom imprint a face on history. He mixes social studies and art like paint, assigning students to draw historical ships while discussing their importance for travel and trade. Schooners like the Pioneer carried food to the markets, along with wood and bricks for building. Women were not allowed to work on the ships. Men who worked coastal trade were gone for two weeks at a time; others shipped out for six to nine months; and whalers were gone two to three years. Cecco sees field trips as "a critical element of any curriculum" for teachers and students. "Part of schooling your kids is to school the teachers," he said. The Hudson River is not only vital for commerce; it was the "crossways of the new world," Flanagan said. In 1825, when the Erie Canal opened, "you can imagine the boom down here. There was incredible growth." In the late 1800s, the Statue of Liberty arrived, and the Brooklyn Bridge was built — monuments that now spell home. Aboard Pioneer, the only remaining iron-hulled sailing vessel built in the United States , students and teachers can see it all from the harbor, topside. On ecology trips, they view what's beneath them as well. A net is dropped off the side of the schooner and sea life is scooped up to be studied. When Native Americans were the main residents in this part of New York , Flanagan said, the waters held an abundance of edible marine life such as clams and mussels. Then pollution and recklessness garbled the river. Since the federal Clean Air and Water Act of 1972, the river is rebounding, said Flanagan. She held out a hermit crab, a spider crab and a sea star, which breathes through its skin. "I try to bring the wonders of nature to my class," said John Talbot of PS 92 in Queens , who keeps a fish tank in his second-grade classroom. Looking around him at the open harbor, he added, "This connects it to the world." Teaching a majority of students who are recent immigrants from the Dominican Republic , Talbot said he incorporates life experiences: "I want them to be aware of what's around us, instead of just our immediate neighborhood." "Many of our children do poorly because they have no experiences," said Spataro, organizer of the trip. "Here, they put themselves in places of people who lived in this time." To put yourself in this place aboard the schooner, the tall ship Peking docked on site at Pier 16, or the museum itself, go to www.southstseaportmuseum.org or call (212) 748-8786. — Liza Frenette |
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