Central Falls Scavenger Hunt

Is there a post office in town?

Yes, the post office is at 575 Dexter Street and I went by it on my way through Central Falls.

Visit the Central Falls Library.  What events and resources are available?

There are many things offered by Adams Memorial Library.  They have 21 computers for free public use that have Microsoft Office and Rosetta Stone.  There are DVDs and CDs to borrow for free in English, Spanish, and Portuguese.  Every Thursday at 11:00am there is a story time for preschool age children.  They also offer homework help for students.  There are test prep books, ESL, and large print books.  The auditorium can be reserved for group use.  A knitting group and a board game group also meet regularly at the library.

A world famous artist, kings and presidents sat for him.  At the beginning of "Saving Private Ryan" this artist's portrait of FDR can be seen in the background.

This man is Lorenzo de Nevers.  He was born in Quebec, Canada in 1877 and moved to Central Falls in 1896 with his family.  He also studied drawing for some at the Rhode Island School of Design.

There are three professional baseball players from Central Falls. Name them.

The three pro baseball players are Max Surkont, Charley Bassett, and Jim Siwy.  Surkont was a pitcher who played for eight years from 1949 to 1957.  He played for the White Sox, Braves, Pirates, Cardinals, and Giants.  Bassett was an infielder who played from 1884 to 1892.  He played for the Providence Grays, the Kansas City Cowboys, the Indianapolis Hoosiers, the Giants, and the Louisville Colonels.  Siwy was a pitcher as well and played for the White Sox in 1982 and 1984.

Becoming wealthy during the Gold Rush of 1849, she remembered her hometown and donated $50,000 to build the most recognizable feature in the city.  Everyone knows who she is and can see her donation... time after time.

This is Caroline Cogswell.  The money she donated built the Cogswell Tower which is located in Jenks Park.  I made it to the entrance of Jenks Park, but unfortunately not to the tower because of all the snow.

Are there public parks?

Yes, there are actually several public parks and playgrounds located in Central Falls.  Among them are Jenks Park, the River Island Campground, Pierce Park, Lewis and Hunt Park, and the Garfield Street Playground.

Is there a movie theater in town?

There used to be some, but it seems they have closed.  The Holiday Cinema and Bellevue Theatre both shut down a long time ago.

The first mayor looks down from his perch as students come into the school.

This is Charles Moies who was elected as the first mayor of Central Falls after the city's government was organized on March 18, 1895.

How many schools are in the city?  Colleges and Universities?

There are 9 total schools in Central Falls.  Captain Hunt Early Learning Center, M.I. Robertson Elementary School, Ella Risk Elementary School, Veterans Memorial Elementary School, Calcutt Middle School, and Central Falls High School, the Alan Shawn Feinstein School, the Segue Institute for Learning, and the St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Academy.  There are no colleges or universities in the city.

Where is the satellite office of one of the oldest Child Welfare agencies in the city?

The Central Falls office of Children's Friend is located at 621 Dexter Street.  Children's Friend is a non-profit organization founded in 1834 and they help over 30,000 families each year.

In this sacred space, the famous and the infamous are side by side.  But in one part you can see the bullet holes left by a battle that took place between strikers and the National Guard.

This place is the Moshassuck Cemetery.  Part of the Battle of the Gravestones took place here.  It was a fight between the textile workers at the Sayles Bleachery and the National Guard.  When the picketers who wanted to shut down the factory started throwing rocks at the guard retaliated.  The combatants dispersed into the nearby Moshassuck Cemetery where both sides used the gravestones as cover as guns were fired.  The bullet holes can still be seen in some of the graves.

I learned a lot about the town of Central Falls through this scavenger hunt.  For such a small area there is a lot of history and places to discover.  Some of the questions were much more difficult than the others, and I realized how much of the information is not easily accessible.  There might be many educational opportunities here, if the students themselves don't know the interesting culture of their own town.When talking about the mills in the industrial revolution and the conditions that workers faced, the class could travel over to the battle site at Moshassuck Cemetery.  This would be a lot more interesting than just reading the history book for a class.  A potential project could involve learning about Caroline Cogswell and her tower, or the history behind Jenks Park and the Jenks family.  Projects like these remind me of Daniels' and Zemelman's story about Best Practice High School.  The students are getting out of the classroom, learning about something that impacts that lives, and seeing their community in a whole new way.

Having done this scavenger hunt after one of our many blizzards this year, I realized how tough the people living there have it in the winter.  Entryways and sidewalks aren't shoveled, the snow is piled wherever, and streets are barely plowed if at all.  We all complain about the snow, but these are the people it is really impacting.  

Some of the things I'm now questioning have to directly do with the students of Central Falls High School.  Now that I know that there are parks in the city, is that where the kids go to relax?  Or do they just want to get out of the city when they have free time?  Seeing that many of the people walk everywhere, do some of the students have cars?  Are they able to go and do some of the things we consider "normal" for high schools students, like see a movie on a Friday night?  When you don't really know anything about a place, you don't have any questions.  But when you just begin to learn about somewhere all the questions start to appear.  I think all these questions tie into what an efficient teacher at Central Falls High School would look like.  To best meet the needs of your students, you need to know who your students are.  You need to know what they do for fun, what their home situations are like, what interests them, and what they do and do not have access to.  When I get my first teaching job which will probably be in a new town and even a new state, I think it will be important to use the first summer before the school year to become as much a part of that new community as I can.  I need to be able to relate to the students and the students need to be able to relate to me, before we can build a relationship in the classroom.  A good relationship that leads to a positive and safe classroom environment is one of the most important foundations for learning to take place.  Unless a student feels safe and comfortable in their classroom, they will be worried about other things and not be able to engage themselves in a lesson no matter how interesting it is.