School Days

Compiled by: Jen Campbell
Historic Cold Spring Village Brings an Early American Education to the Classroom
The Village may be closed for the season, but it is still bringing history to life! The museum offers a variety of education programs including distance learning, in-class visits, a one-room schoolhouse experience and more.
Historic Cold Spring Village has been presenting education-based programming for nearly fourteen years and is the recipient of a 2011 grant from the New Jersey Cultural Trust to help expand the program and increase its visibility to the public. For a complete list of offerings, please visit www.hcsv.org/education.
The program We See America Learning: Teaching Early American History through iVisits features eleven distance learning courses, three of which are new additions. Historic Cold Spring Village has been participating in distance learning since 1997 and was one of the first museums in the state to offer presentations through teleconferencing.
The distance learning programs, which are interactive and adaptable to any grade level, are delivered via a state-of-the-art broadband IP (internet protocol) system. A variety of topics are offered, including ‘The Story of Old Glory,’ which tells the history and origins of the United States flag; ‘Gone For A Soldier: A Day in the Life of a Civil War Infantryman’; and ‘Past Versus Present,’ a comparison of modern everyday objects with their Early American equivalents, i.e. a flashlight vs. a lantern or a digital camera vs. a daguerreotype.
HCSV Education Director Jim Stephens has been running the program for nearly ten years. “In a time of budget cuts, distance learning is a great way for schools to inexpensively take advantage of what the Village has to offer,” he stated. “We’ve worked with local schools, as well as with classes as far away as Texas and Wisconsin.”
Stephens holds a BA in American History from Montclair State University, an MA in the same American History from Monmouth University and is a New Jersey certified social studies teacher.
In addition to teaching the distance learning programs to over 10,000 schoolchildren nationwide, Mr. Stephens also presents in-class school visits to Cape May County School as well as coordinates spring/summer field trips and Junior Apprentice Program. For more information on the We See America Learning education program, please call (609) 898-2300, ext. 17 or visit www.hcsv.org/education.
Historic Cold Spring Village is a non-profit, open air living history museum that portrays the daily life of a rural South Jersey community of the Early American era.
Its mission includes the preservation of 26 historic Cape May County buildings, history education and heritage tourism. The Village is a museum for all seasons. During the summer months, interpreters in period clothing discuss and demonstrate the trades, crafts and lifestyles from the “age of homespun.”
From October to May, the emphasis is on teaching history through school trips to the Village, classroom visits by the education department and interactive teleconferences with schools throughout the United States.
For more information, call 898-2300 ext. 10 or visit the Village website at www.hcsv.org.
Bishop McHugh
On December 7, the Junior and Senior Choirs of Bishop McHugh Regional Catholic School travelled to Haven House, a Diocesan Senior Apartment Complex in North Cape May. There they entertained the residents, distributed candy canes and snowflake ornaments and socialized with the residents.
On December 13, the Senior Choir and the Executive Board from the school’s Team Mercy travelled to McAuley Convent Retirement Facility in Merion, Pa. They entertained the Sisters of Mercy and visited with the sisters following the concert. Team Mercy distributed holiday socks to all of the sisters currently residing in the facility. Before heading back to New Jersey, Bishop McHugh’s Sister Rosemary Powers took the students on a tour of the campus to see the Grotto.
The choir is under the direction of Beth Walls.
Lower Township
Recently the Sandman School held the K-Kids food drive for the Lower Township Kids Christmas Program. They collected food and then packed up baskets, which were delivered, by local Fireman, Police, and School Employees on December 19 to over 200 local needy families with over 450 children on the receiving end.
The K-Kids had a great time putting these baskets together. There were 40 children involved and three faculty advisers, Ted Cawley, Maggie Ludgate and Jeanne Oetting.
This is the thirty-fourth year that this program has provided holiday meals to the needy.
The K-Kids are sponsored by the Cape May Kiwanis Club with the goal of developing community service and leadership skills in our youth.
Margaret Mace
The First Grade at Margaret Mace School presented their annual Christmas play The Elves’ Impersonator directed by teachers Nancy Flynn and Judi Kiniry. Students, staff, family, and friends watched the performance and learned a valuable lesson to be kind to everyone, even if they might seem a little different!
Elfis has left the building!!!
Wildwood Catholic
Students from Wildwood Catholic took time out of their day to help spread some holiday cheer. Every year the students have a toy drive to benefit the Gia Chiarella Foundation. This year the students also had a food drive to benefit the Lazarus House. “Part of the requirement at WCHS is service to others.
Giving to others just becomes part of the make up of our students”, said Mr. Kevin Quinn, Development Director at the school. Members of the Student Council and other leadership groups at the school delivered the goods. “Mary Walsh, Student Council Advisor, does a great job organizing the Student Council projects”, added Quinn.
In other WCHS news, the WCHS cheerleaders and the children that attended the Pee Wee Cheer Clinic that was hosted on 12/11. Twenty- seven children (ages 4 – 8) attended. The girls will be hosting another clinic on January 22. Participants of that clinic will have the opportunity to perform at halftime of the basketball game that day.