1. The Great Carthage Fire of 1884
2.
3.West Carthage Elementary Home page
4. Date of Project: March 30, 1999
5. School: West Carthage Elementary School
District: Carthage Central Schools
City: West Carthage, New York, 13619 , U.S.
6. Teachers or Classes:
Mrs. Thornton's Fourth Grade
7. How many students worked on this project? Twenty three students were involved.
8. Their ages were: 8 - 11 years
9. Project Contact Email: lthorn@earthlink.net
1. We entered our Web site in CyberFair Category:
Historical Landmarks
2. Description of "Our Community"
West Carthage, New York, is a semi-rural community of about 2500 people. It is ordinarily a mill town (paper) but one of the mills closed this past year. We also are on the edge of Fort Drum Army base, the home of the 10th Mountain Division. We are the smallest (about 330 students) of three elementary schools. There are many dairy farms in the area surrounding the community, and this adds an additional element to our culture.
Students are drawn from eight small towns and hamlets.
3.Summary of Our Project
In 1884 the village of Carthage was nearly destroyed by a fire that started in one of the many small mills lining the shores of the Black River. As a vehicle for teaching research skills as well as learning about the late 1800's in our part of New York State, we investigated the fire itself: how neighboring towns helped fight it and the impact on the people of the village, (including loss of homes, businesses, churches and school).
We revisited the main locations mentioned in old records and followed up on what changes were made in the community as a direct result of the fire. Working with an old map, we tried to show the major points of interest in a way that was easily followed for anyone wishing to learn about the fire.
4.Our Internet Access
At this time, we are accessing the net though the BOCES* node @Madison Oneida computer center. We have dedicated lines (56K) from each elementary building via routers; from the main campus we have a 56K line directly to BOCES through another router. BOCES leases a T1 line to MADONE; therefore, we are on a WAN. *BOCES = Board of Cooperative Educational Services
5. Problems We Had To Overcome
In our classroom, we have 5 Macintosh computers, but only one has Internet access. This made it harder for us to work directly on the Web to develop our project. Also, our school does not have a scanner or a digital camera, so we used a regular Kodak camera, developed the pictures, selected the ones we wanted to use, then Mrs. Thornton took them home, scanned them in and uploaded them to our editor. Some of us went to her house to help.
6.Our Project Sound Bite
Our class has had a chance to work together on a project that was real. The students know that the local library, the Chamber of Commerce and the other schools in the area will be using our research.
The New York State Education Department has stated that 4th grade should use local history as a vehicle to teach research skills. In this respect, this project was a perfect match. To see how it addresses the New Educational Standards, please use this link:Interdisciplinary Unit
You will find the Standards at the end of the unit.
The students learned how to use first, second and third hand sources of information. They used copies of historical documents, including newspaper articles, letters, diaries, old photographs and memoirs of people who had experienced the fire. They learned how to examine a source, considering evidence that the account might have been influenced by outside events and emotions.
They worked in groups to create hyperstacks of their information and then to storyboard the construction of the actual web pages. In this process, they had to organize information, select the material that best expressed the ideas they wanted to get across, and,not infrequently, they had to compromise on information and photos they wanted to include.
Throughout the project, they were frequently brought face to face with real people, although long dead, and the everyday problems they were forced to deal with as a result of the fire: winter supplies of food were destroyed, homes, schools, business and churches were gone and most people had lost everything, pets were dead or missing, people had to share what they had with others. The children began to empathize with these people of the 1800's and understand a great deal more about the lifestyle of the period.
Fourth grade in New York State covers local history in addition to the above mentioned State Standards and District Outcomes.
We definitely found that people were very willing to hear what we were doing and to help in any way that they could. Our Village Historian helped us locate some old photos and also gave us permission to use some of her research. Several people in the community made old booklets available so we could copy pictures.
We also found that people in the instructional and administrative fields stood back and let us work. They did not try to direct the project, they encouraged and they were interested. This freedom was very helpful; we did not feel anyone was "breathing down our necks" while we worked.
Within the elementary school community and to some in administration, I am becoming recognized as an "authority" on the Internet. This, however, is a case of "In the kingdom of the blind, the one eyed man is king" - if very little is being done by others, whatever you do looks like a lot. But I have been teaching some workshops on how to incorporate the Internet in the classroom and act as a resource for teachers wanting information on the Internet and simple web page construction.
Of course it has! I find that I do integrate much more - I have to in order to make the connections I feel are important. You can nearly always find creative ways to include an Internet project that appeals to you - and I think that is the secret to involved teaching today - if you are doing something you (the teacher) are getting a kick out of, you will put much more time and energy into it and therefore into all of your planning and teaching than if you were just plodding through the book.
We used photographs whenever possible because we felt that the photos added dimension to the accounts they would not have had otherwise. They also made some ideas clearer. Sometimes we needed to use maps, charts and other reference materials to make some ideas clear so we could write about them better.
We used Mrs. Thornton's copy of Photoshop to make our jpgs, and her scanner also, because our school doesn't have one yet. Some photos were donated, others we took ourselves with a Kodak camera and 35mm film. Some of the web page was created using Adobe Page Mill. We planned our pages using Hyperstudio stacks first then storyboarding our ideas on cardboard.
We took a walking field trip of the perimeter of the fire, timing it for the date of the original event so that we could better understand the impact of the weather, dried fall leaves and wind in the spread of the fire. While on the walk, we took photographs of the major sites today so we could compare them with old photos.
Among the sources we used were old newspaper accounts, journal entries, a book entitled They Called Me Chuckie by Charles Brownell (who was our age when he lived through the fire), old photographs and copies of letters. We received information from the Heritage Room of the Carthage Free Library and Village Historian Laura Privo also gave us much help. Several people in the community made old photos and souvenir booklets available for us to use.
We began our search for information by composing a letter to the local newspaper explaining what we wanted to accomplish with our project. As a result, the assistant editor came and talked with the class about the project. A short article appeared in the paper (a weekly) and as a result we received a few offers of materials which we were delighted to receive.
We then contacted the Village Historian, Mrs. Prevo. Several of us visited the Heritage Room at the library and Mrs. Thornton took some digital pictures of old photos and we were able to make copies of some other materials that could be shared with the rest of the class.
As a result of the newspaper article we also hear from a man who had moved far away but who remembered stories that his grandfather had heard and told him about the fire - like the men who were busy "rescuing" barrels of beer. We knew the mayor had closed all the bars, but now we knew why.
We have been asked by the High School Social Studies Department if we would make our site available for a tourist kiosk next summer; we are pleased to be asked and were happy to say,"of course!"
We are just beginning to make it available, but the Central District Home page has included a link on its Home page. We will be putting a version of the site into a visitors kiosk that the Social Studies Honors class of the Carthage Central High School is developing for the village park, and the Carthage Free Library will promote it to people inquiring about the community.
Recently at a meeting of the District Planning Team, a school board member asked if there was a link to our page yet, and nodded approvingly when informed that it was now included.
We will be adding a counter to help monitor the usage of the site and want to encourage feedback (it is very important to the students to know that is is seen and used.)
Village Historian Laura Privo was an invaluable resource; thanks Laura!
We also have received some wonderful help from the people at the Living Schoolbook at Syracuse University. They offered some technical advice and loaned us a copy of Bare Bones Editing software. Barbara Shelly, Benny Simon, Dara Wexler and Don Gates have been good to work with and we would like to thank them for their time and talents.
Mrs. Rita McLane loaned us several books and booklets that contained pictures of Carthage at the turn of the century that were a big help.
Camelia Moses and Bridget McLane of the West Carthage Elementary Media Center helped with research when ever we asked.
Everyone who loaned or gave material also gave permission for us to use it in this project.
I think the surprise was not so much mine - because I'm seldom surprised at what children can accomplish, but the reactions of other adults who assume I did everything. While I did much of the very technical end, the children planned, questioned and wrote almost everything you see here. They picked out the colors, approved the dividers and selected pictures. They knew whaat they wanted to research and what they wanted to include in the final website. They were their own most severe critics. They had a ball!
This project was put together by a group of 23 students (2 have joined us since we began) of the West Carthage Elementary School, with the following characteristics:
10 boys
13 girls
9 years - 17
10 years - 4
11 years - 1
Carthage - 4
Watertown - 6
Other state - 11
Other country - 1
New York State - 9
USA - 7
Other country - 6
We are including the statistics on birth and education, because the curriculum covered in this project is Local History, and we wanted people to see that many of us are not "local" in anything but present proximity.
A number of the students are military, and have traveled a great deal, but had great enthusiasm for the project. Their parents, too, were very interested and asked many questions on the annual "Fire Walk".
Because much of the project revolves around using primary and secondary sources to research a project, the skills are universal even though the information is specific to the local. area. The techniques used in developing the web page also are not limited to any specific subject area.