{She Said} News Must be Slow

Our local paper, The Keller Citizen, ran an article about my participation in a Texas Humanities workshop earlier this summer… I think I come off sounding pretty good- I need to send a thank you note to the journalist who wrote it because that couldn’t have been easy given what I gave her. How many of my 15 seconds of fame do you think this counts for? Anyway, without further ado, for your reading pleasure…


Keller educator takes part in history teaching institute

By Sandra Engelland

Jennifer Gilpin gained new insights to use in her Texas history class at Keller Middle School by participating in a Humanities Texas teaching institute last month in Fort Worth.

The institute was titled, "Shaping the American Republic to 1877" and included presentations from a Pulitzer Prize winner in history, a former state historian and a specialist from the National Archives.

"I chose to participate because I can't teach Texas history apart from U.S. history," Gilpin said.

Teachers received training in using primary source materials such as legal documents, maps and photographs in the classroom. Gilpin said one of her favorite sessions was with Charles Flanagan from the National Archives.

"He showed us a lot of resources the Archives have for education and gave us examples of how we can use them in class," Gilpin said.

Eric Lupfer, director of grants and education for Humanities Texas, said Flanagan presented at three of the six summer institutes held throughout the state this year.

"He is really an all-star former teacher himself who has developed terrific resources for teachers," she said.

Some 45 teachers attended the Fort Worth conference, held at Texas Christian University, and a total of 240 participated in programs across the state. Lupfer said the summer institutes received some funding from the state of Texas for the first time, allowing the non-profit group to more than triple the number of teachers involved.

Humanities Texas, an affiliate of the National Endowment for Humanities, promotes education in heritage and culture throughout the state, Lupfer said.

In addition to the lectures and workshops, Fort Worth participants toured the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame and the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History.

As a Texas history teacher, Gilpin said she thoroughly enjoyed the presentation on the Spanish colonial era given by former State Historian Jesús de la Teja.

Spaniards used the mission system in attempts to settle southern and eastern portions of the state. They brought in their technology in better construction and shipping, their politics and their religion.

"A lot of the missions didn't survive because they didn't have enough resources or were attacked by native people," Gilpin said.

Gilpin said she was looking forward to bringing many of the ideas from the institute into her seventh-grade classroom. Some of her students are interested in learning history while others wonder why they need to learn it.

"We have whole lessons on learning from our mistakes," she said. "It's like when you go into a kitchen and touch a hot stove. You learn not to do that again. On a much grander scale, we're learning not to touch the stove."

Gilpin has been teaching for three years. When she graduated from Texas A&M University, she spent a few years working in marketing but soon decided that she really wanted to be a middle school teacher. She went back to school and got a master's degree in education.

"When I tell people I teach seventh grade, they say, 'Oh, bless your heart,' but I believe teachers were meant to teach a certain age group. I was meant to teach seventh-graders."

Article is online here.