In the fall of 2019, my third graders excavated many artifacts from under the closet of classroom #310(?—Jeff’s room). One item was a scrap of paper with the name HOWARD MATIS written on it. We were able to connect with Howard, a physicist in California who had attended kindergarten in our building over sixty years earlier. Howard was delighted at the opportunity to connect with current students in our building, and we arranged a video call. Because Howard had grown up in Stuyvesant Town, I prepared a brief lesson on the history of that community, which is only a couple of blocks from our school.

In the summer of 2021, I was riding on the B65 bus on Dean Street across Crown Heights, and I noticed a disused school building. There was a bit of construction fencing in the front, and every single window lacked glass, with plastic sheets flapping in the breeze in most of them. I was curious. So, when I had a chance, I went back and took pictures around the outside and peeking in the windows I could get to, and I also googled it.