Hopatcong Teachers Use Grant to Educate Students About American Icons

Even before Gov. Chris Christie's state school budget slashing earlier this year, teachers at Hopatcong's Durban Avenue School were looking to find cash to supplement their classroom activities.

Five of them found it in a Fredrick L. Hipp Foundation for Excellence in Education grant. Teachers Christina Gordon, Antoinette Haines, Carmela Catizone, Matthew Testa and Michele Smircich earned a $7,290 grant to fund a comprehensive study of famous Americans dubbed, "Voices of the Past," which it completed last spring.

The group applied for the grant in spring 2009. They were awarded it shortly after, and began the yearlong project last September.

"The grant paid for a lot of things we wouldn't have been able to pay for," Gordon said.

Fifth-grade students used the grant to learn about some of America's most influential figures, such as George Washington, Martin Luther King Jr. and even Pocahontas. The children worked in small groups and on their own to complete their portions of the project.

One part of the project involved creating rap songs about influential Americans, which Testa, a music teacher, said was "interesting."

"I'm more of a classical music guy," he said. "It was a neat way to connect the students with a medium they're already familiar with."

The children also worked in groups to create educational board games about their subjects.

Also, the kids took part in "A Night at the Living Museum," a play off the movie, "A Night at the Muesum." There the students dressed up as their chosen figures, memorized important facts and recited them to parents.

"For example," Testa said, "if you were [studying] Betsy Ross, you had to become Betsy Ross."

Finally, the students—Gordon estimated about 80 took part in the project—made a trip to Philadelphia to see the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall and other American landmarks and got a visit from historical fiction author Michael Dooling.

The teachers will head to a New Jersey Educational Association conference in November to show their project off to fellow educators.

The NJEA's Fredrick L. Hipp Foundation for Excellence in Education was created to give school employees opportunities to expand their classroom capablities. Hipp was a former NJEA executive director.