Today@Sam Article

Museum Goes The Distance With Educational Outreach

April 10, 2015
SHSU Media Contact: Tammy Parrett

Museum interpreter with kids
Museum historical interpreter Amy Mueller is part of the museum's educational team, working to share the importance of Gen. Sam Houston's influence with students across the state, such as above, where she demonstrates to school children some youth activities from the late 1800s. The museum regularly hosts these kinds of demonstrations and has more recently taken their message online by simulcasting their lessons to schools that are unable to make the trip to Huntsville with the help of ESC Region VI. —Photos by Brian Blalock

While Texans typically celebrate Gen. Sam Houston’s life once a year, the Sam Houston Memorial Museum is teaming up with Education Service Center Region VI to share his message with students year-round.

Although the museum is a popular and exciting destination for field trips, there are many districts that cannot facilitate a trip to the museum for a number of reasons. Region IV wanted to provide these districts with an opportunity to learn about Gen. Houston and his life without requiring a trip to the museum. They got together with Texas Education Telecommunications Network to create a series of distance-learning programs with local museums and educational centers.

“When we get visitors at the museum, it can be difficult to gauge their levels of interest or knowledge. We don’t know where they’re from, what they’re interested or if they even know who Sam Houston was,” said Michael Sproat, curator of collections for the museum. “We get international visitors who want to know what is so special about Texas, and we get to introduce them Gen. Houston, this great figure in Texas history who stood against tyranny and always tried to do the right thing.”

Each year, Sproat hosts four distance-learning programs that highlight lesser-known aspects of Gen. Houston’s life, using TETN technology to reach classrooms across the state. These programs focus on Gen. Houston’s life prior to his military and political career in Texas, his political career, his marriages and his relationship with Margaret Houston.

Annexing Texas

“Sam Houston and the Native Americans” places an emphasis on the information that isn’t typically included in Texas history books, because it doesn’t pertain to his time spent in Texas. Many students aren’t aware that he spent many years with the Cherokee Indians after running away at the age of 16 and became a Cherokee citizen years later.

“The Politics of Sam Houston” covers information about his political career that emphasizes the influence he had in the government. According to Sproat, the presentation touches on the fact that Gen. Houston could have taken the U.S. presidency twice in his life and analyzes how he maintained that type of power.

“The Romance of Sam Houston” provides some insight into his three marriages, with a focus on his relationship with Margaret Houston and how she is credited with “taming him.”

“Q&A with Sam Houston” is an interactive session where Sproat takes on the persona of Gen. Houston and answers student questions about his life from a first-person perspective. Sproat uses this presentation as an opportunity to use quotes and facts to share interesting stories about Gen. Houston’s life and dismiss common historical inaccuracies, like the misconception that he was shot in the right ankle during the Battle of San Jacinto, although he was actually shot in his left ankle.

“The Q&A sessions are fun, because I get to dress up as Gen. Houston, with a hat, leopard print vest, and a 19th century tail coat,” said Sproat. “I walk out and say, ‘Alright ladies and gentlemen, Sam Houston is here at your service, and I’d like to tell you about my life and career.’ I’ll bring one or two artifacts to show that students enjoy and get excited about.”

Talking to students
Museum historical interpreters (above) David Barker and (below) Briana Beaulieu talk with school children about the significance of the Steamboat House (above) and the Woodland Home (below), both of which reside on the Sam Houston Memorial Museum grounds. 
Another interpreter

According to Sproat, one of his favorite things to do is bring reproductions of artifacts from the museum and help children understand and relate to how they were used during Gen. Houston’s time. He will often bring a reproduction of the fan that Margaret Houston carried and explain how these fans often served as a form of communication.

“I’ll tell students, ‘These days, you have texting and Facebook, but these fans often served as a type of sign language,’” said Sproat. “A woman never had to open her mouth to tell you how she was feeling, she could just tap her fan on the table, and you knew you were in trouble.”

The museum hosts a variety of outreach programs that share Gen. Houston’s legacy with the community. Although educational field trips are often the most popular source of outreach, the museum is sometimes limited in the number of students that can be accommodated on-site, depending on the number of staff available to supervise different locations on the museum grounds. Sproat explained that the museum currently has only five staff members who assist with educational field trips.

“If we have one person doing a guided tour of the Woodland Home; one doing a guided tour at the Steamboat House, where Gen. Houston died; one at the kitchen, explaining why it was detached from the Woodland Home and the number of uses it served; one doing a black powder gun presentation and one inside at the Rotunda giving a tour of the different exhibits and artifacts inside, we can usually accommodate around five classes, one at each site, or around 100 students,” said Sproat. “We’re limited by the number of students who can come into the museum each day for a guided tour, but with this technology, we have more flexibility in what we can show them.”

The reach with distance-learning programs is typically much higher. More than 600 students from seven different sites across Texas attended Sproat’s last presentation.

“When you look at a fourth or seventh grade history book, they tend to focus on Gen. Houston’s involvement in the Republic of Texas and the Texas Revolution, but not some of the cool stuff he did in his eve,” Sproat said. “For 40 minutes, not only can this classroom see some wonderful content, they can interact and have a unique learning experience that covers information that the textbook lacks.”

Teachers are able to sign up for the programs ahead of time and submit student questions that are relevant to the chosen topic. Sproat is then able to structure his presentation around the questions that students are interested in learning about.

With this technology, Gen. Houston’s legacy will continue to live on inside the thousands of students who not only visit the museum, but also learn about his life and accomplishments through these programs.

 

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