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Chronological Reasoning and Causation

How Have Classrooms Changed?

  1. Load Interior of the Clifton Park District No. 3 School, 1914 in Main Image Viewer
  2. Load School No.5  (Brockway's),  Grooms and Moe Roads, 1952 , Edith Adsit,  Teacher in Main Image Viewer
  3. Load School No. 2, Grooms Corners, 1914, Alma Wood, Teacher in Main Image Viewer
  4. Load Emma Nielson's Report Card, 1887-1888 in Main Image Viewer
  5. Load Emma Nielson's School Room Description, 1888 in Main Image Viewer

Suggested Teaching Instructions

Historical Context:
Think about the present day classroom, what might you think about? Masks? Chromebooks? Cell phones?  Think about how a classroom might have looked and what might have been in it 100 years ago. As society changes so do classrooms, schoolhouses become much less popualar over time as alrger school districts became the norm.

In 1953, twenty-two school houses were closed. Students started attending school at the new
Shenendehowa campus. The picture of school 5 is from it’s last school year. The teacher was
once a student at the school.

Utilize the accounts from Emma Nielson to learn a first hand account of the old style of education.

Extend the lesson:
Bring in artifacts from an older school room. The Bookside Museum will lend out Textbooks,
slates, lunch pail, bell


Ask older teachers to share a copy of their report card from the grade the students are
in. Compare report cards.

Standards: 

  • 2.6 Identifying continuities and changes over time can help understand historical developments. 

    • 2.6a Continuities and changes over time in communities can be described using historical thinking, vocabulary, and tools such as time lines.