Hands On History
By: KSAN News - Vince Atkinson
Updated: June 11, 2007
Teachers have a tough job keeping students interested in subjects that can only be read about in books. Monday, one group of teachers learned some new techniques that could help make their jobs a little easier. A group of about 30 teachers took part in a summer in-service at Fort Concho monday. Region 15 Education Specialist Jim Coffey said, "One of the things we want teachers to do is, first of all is understand some local resources that are available to them that will enable them to enhance the teaching of history." Teachers had the chance to gain some first hand experience of what the frontier was really like. While teachers only spent a day at the fort, they now have a better understanding of the sights, sounds, and life on the frontier. Coffey said, "If you want to make history live, you bring them to a place like the fort, or you show them and let them put their hands on, in this case, a series of reproductions, clothing, artifacts that people actually used. That brings it out of the tech book and puts it into their heads."
