Interactive Tour of Sam Houston Memorial Museum

This video project was created for the Peer Assignment in the Coursera MOOC "Advanced Instructional Strategies in the Virtual Classroom".

Suggested Audience: 7th Grade Texas History Students

Objectives: (From Texas 7th Grade Social Studies TEKS)
(3) History. The student understands how individuals, events, and issues related to the Texas Revolution shaped the history of Texas. The student is expected to:

(B) explain the roles played by significant individuals during the Texas Revolution, including George Childress, Lorenzo de Zavala, James Fannin, Sam Houston, Antonio López de Santa Anna, Juan N. Seguín, and William B. Travis;

(C) explain the issues surrounding significant events of the Texas Revolution, including the Battle of Gonzales, William B. Travis’s letter “To the People of Texas and All Americans in the World,” the siege of the Alamo and all the heroic defenders who gave their lives there, the Constitutional Convention of 1836, Fannin’s surrender at Goliad, and the Battle of San Jacinto;

Technology: I made this video using Animoto Pro. I added the interactive elements using a Premium Education Thinglink account.

Here is a link to Interactive Tour of Sam Houston Memorial Museum on Thinglink.

Thank you for taking a look at this video. Please share your thoughts in the Comments Section below.

Camp Huntsville WWII Prisoner Of War Camp

Last weekend my husband and I visited the Country Campus Golf Course. It is  located about 10 miles northeast of Huntsville on SH 19 near the City of Riverside.

This nine-hole golf course was once the location of a POW camp during World War II. German and Japanese prisoners of war were transported to Texas and held here until the end of the war.

I found the following information about Camp Huntsville on the Walker County Historical Commission's web site.

Camp Huntsville was one of the first prisoner of war camps built in the U.S. during World War II and the first in Texas. It was was built in the spring and summer of 1942 and included facilities to accommodate 4,800 prisoners. It consisted of more than 400 buildings, including a cafeteria, gymnasium, laundry, and hospital. There were clubs for commissioned and noncommissioned officers, and separate barracks for the American and prisoner personnel.

The first prisoners to use the camp were members of Germany’s Afrika Korps who arrived in the spring of 1943. By the fall of the same year, the camp’s population hit its peak at 4,840. Two years later, it became a branch camp for Camp Hearne where its prisoners were sent to make way for the arrival of a small group of Japanese prisoners. The Army closed the camp in December 1945, and all prisoners were repatriated.

After the War, the Camp was donated to Sam Houston State Teachers' College (now Sam Houston State University), who renamed it the Country Campus and turned it into an almost a self-sustaining city with living quarters for students and professors, a hospital, post office, fire department, meat processing plant, gymnasium and cafeteria.

After the University closed the Country Campus, they sold the land to Sam Dominey, the son of the original owners. A few of the original buildings remain and the land is used for cattle ranching and a golf course.

I made the following video of the the golf course and the buildings from the prison that are still standing.

I like to learn about the history of my state and my country. It is was hard to process the fact that we were playing golf on the same location that housed thousands of Nazi prisoners some 70 years ago. The following state historical marker is posted at the entrance to the golf course.

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My Wild Hiking Journey

A good book will sometimes inspire you and change your life in a special way. It might motivate you to take the first steps toward making your goal a reality. It might change your thinking and help you see the world as a friendlier place. I was pleasantly surprised when my husband agreed to read "Wild" by Cheryl Strayed (Oprah's Book Club Version 2). I read the book on my Kindle and he read on his iPad. We didn't always read at the same time but we stayed together and finished the book on the same day.

We were inspired to take our own hike after we read about Cheryl Strayed's journey on the Pacific Crest Trail. We chose the 6.8 mile Chinquapin Trail at Huntsville State Park. This was the second time that we hiked this trail. The first time I suffered a nasty fall and decided that hiking was not my cup of tea. I also have to cope with the fact that I have two metal plates in my right leg.

Dean and I decided we were up for the challenge so we arrived at the park at 11:00 am on Saturday morning. I was equipped with three bottles of Gatorade and an old broom handle that I was going to use as a walking stick (no more falls!). The temperature was in the mid-90s and the heat was major factor that we had to deal with.

I really like the following quote from "Wild"....this explains exactly how an adventure like this can change your attitude;

Miles weren't things that blazed dully past. They were long, intimate struggles of weeds and clumps of dirt, blades of grass and flowers that bent in the wind, trees that lumbered and stretched. They were the sound of my breath and my feet hitting the trail one step at a time and the click of my ski pole. The PCT had taught me what a mile was. I was humble before each and every one.

I think I hit the "wall" at the 5.5 mile marker. I still had more than a mile to go and I wasn't sure I could make it. I was hot, my leg hurt and all the Gatorade was gone. My husband encouraged me to "finish strong." He told me that I could make it. I was praying for strength to take one more step. I really learned the meaning of a mile in that last hour of the hike.

I made it to the end and I am glad that I pushed myself to do somthing out of my comfort zone. If I can do this, there must be other challenges waiting to be conquered if I am willing to stay the course.

Are you ready to break out of your comfort zone and attempt some new challenges?

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