The History of Wheeling class is now open not only to students but to adults around the community. Students already enjoy the class, so it raised the idea of opening it to adults. Mr. Stanton, who is the teacher that runs the class is very excited and surprised that the class is already doing so well, as it comes up on the second class of the course.
“It’s going really well, I’m kinda surprised by how many people signed up and have attended the first session. “ said Stanton.
The course was set to take place in the Tech 1 classroom, but due to the number of people that signed up, over 130 people, they had to resort to moving the class to the PAC. The class seemed to be extremely popular as well as successful.
One of the teachers who attended Mr. Stanton’s course was Ms. Mamakos. She is another history teacher at Park and was very interested in what the course had to bring. She had already heard great things from students who take Mr. Stanton’s class, and since she lives in Wheeling, she wanted to see what there was to offer.
“I decided to go because I’m from Wheeling, and I love Wheeling, and also hear so many good things about Mr. Stanton’s class here, and I thought well let me check it out, and I loved it,” said Mamakos.
Mr. Stanton also took the time to stay after the class to answer questions these adults had.
“After the class, I probably spent about 20 minutes to a half hour talking to various people who came up to me just wanting to know how they can get more involved in Wheeling history,” said Stanton.
In future years, Mr. Stanton hopes to expand the program and course and use different topics, themes, etc. to get the audience more involved. He also plans to help get his History of Wheeling students involved in the adult course as well.
“I think it’s definitely something we want to offer. I think it might be sort of interesting to change it up a little bit. Maybe in another year, we have a specific theme where we work on documenting people’s stories, sort of like an oral history.” said Stanton.
I attended the class myself, to see how adults like to get involved during the class. I was completely astonished by the amount of engagement the course got. Adults were coming up to Mr. Stanton as they walked in the door, greeting him, telling him how great of a presenter he was, how they wished they had a teacher so involved and knowledgeable, etc. A good amount of these adults also offered many different artifacts they wanted to donate for him to use to show his students and to the course itself.
Mr. Stanton said the adults asked a lot of good questions. The questions ranged from ” What’s the difference between a blockhouse and a fort?” to “Where do the logs from the Zane cabin reside?” Overall, the adults who attended the class seemed to be very engaged and understanding of what Mr. Stanton was presenting, and happy to have a class like this.
The next class is set to take place on November 2 in the PAC.
