Young Treasure Hunters Dig Up History Lessons in a Classroom’s Closet
(New York Times, May 26, 2015)

Classroom Archaeology: Letting Students Dig Up the Curriculum
(Social Studies and the Young Learner, November/December 2015)

What Fourth Grade Archaeologists Have Found in their School’s Closet
(Atlas Obscura, July 25, 2017)

Students Unearth Trove in East Village Classroom Closet
(New York Post, August 12, 2017)

Archaeology in an East Village Classroom
(New Yorker, October 2, 2017)

Students Dig Up Treasures Buried Under 100-Year-Old School in NYC
(CBS News, November 17, 2017)

East Village Third Graders Dig Up Artifacts in their Classroom Closet
(New York Post, October 26, 2019)

Closet Archaeology: An Accidental Time Capsule
(City Reliquary, Summer 2017, and Ace Hotel Manhattan, Spring 2018)

Best Practices in Meaningful Elementary Social Studies,
National Council for the Social Studies Annual Conference,
New Orleans, Louisiana, November 14, 2015

Letting Students Take the Lead:
Keynote at the annual conference of the Hofstra Network of Elementary Teachers,
Hempstead, New York, February 27, 2016

Museum of the City of New York Archaeology: Digging the Moment,
April 20, 2016 (title)

Closet Archaeology: Discovering the Past in a Fourth Grade Classroom,
featured presentation at City Reliquary Collectors’ Night,
April 8, 2017

Exhibition Opening for “Closet Archaeology: An Accidental Time Capsule” at
City Reliquary, Brooklyn New York, June 3, 2017

Closet Archaeology: Connecting to the Past Through Material Culture,
Museum of the City of New York, April 20, 2016

Proclamation in honor of our Closet Archaeology work,
presented by New York State Senator for the 27th District Brad Hoylman on March 7, 2018

During the 2005-06 school year, my students got the New York City Council to agree to erect a street sign honoring Elizabeth Jennings at Park Row and Spruce Street. The sign went up in 2007 and is still there. There are a lot of mentions of the sign in various articles about Jennings, but most don’t get into the story of how it was kids who got it done. Here are a few that mention our students:

The Story Behind Elizabeth Jennings Place
(Women’s ENews, December 3, 2010)

Elizabeth Jennings, the Woman Who Helped Desegregate NYC Streetcars
(6sqft, February 28, 2018)

The Freedom Rider
(Curbed, February 4, 2020)

Jennings’ story is featured at the Museum of the City of New York’s permanent exhibition “New York at Its Core,” which mentions our work as well.

Dirty Words: New Book Uncovers Brooklyn’s Garbage-Filled Island
(Brooklyn Paper, November 21, 2019)

Our Garbage, Ourselves
(Borrowed, the podcast of Brooklyn Public Library, December 10, 2019)

New York’s Favorite Trash-Strewn Beach Is a Wee Bit Radioactive
(Atlas Obscura, August 20, 2020)

Scavengers Unearth Buried History — and Maybe Radiation — at Dead Horse Bay
(Curbed, August 25, 2020)

Petition Launches to Save Artifacts of Dead Horse Bay Ahead of Radioactive Waste Cleanup
(6sqft, January 8, 2021)

Dead Horse Bay Expert Fights to Save Its Historic Refuse Ahead of Radioactivity Cleanup
(Brownstoner, February 4, 2021)

Brooklyn’s Barren Island
(The Voyages of Tim Vetter Podcast, March 7, 2021)

History of Brooklyn’s Barren Island Revealed
(Brooklyn Reporter, March 8, 2021)

Exhibit exploring NYC’s history of sanitation on display at Floyd Bennett Field
(Brooklyn Paper, June 21, 2022)

City Reliquary,
Brooklyn, New York, November 21, 2019

Spoonbill and Sugartown,
Brooklyn, New York, November 24, 2019

The Village Bookstore,
Pleasantville, New York, January 26, 2020

Refuge Among the Refuse: The Lost History of Barren Island,
Brooklyn Historical Society (now Center for Brooklyn History),
Brooklyn, New York, May 4, 2020

Bay Ridge Historical Society,
Brooklyn, New York, February 24, 2021

Place-based Learning Strategies to Explore Local History
Center for Brooklyn History Professional Development Series, March 10, 2021

Breezy Point Historical Society, Breezy Point, New York, July 21, 2021

Brooklyn’s Barren Island: A Forgotten History,
NYCH2O, Brooklyn, New York, October 19, 2021

For These New York City Fourth Graders, a Project on Immigration Hits Home
(Learning for Justice, August 15, 2017)