By Heather McDonald

As teachers, staff and students prepare to start another school year in a couple of weeks, one Stevens Point Area Senior High School (SPASH) teacher will bring new lessons he hopes will inspire students to embrace history.

Dan Hoppe, a social studies teacher at SPASH, recently completed an intense, six-day immersion in American history at the Colonial Williamsburg Teacher Institute, Williamsburg, Va.

The Teacher Institute was created to encourage history education and make it engaging for students. Now in its 28th year, the Teacher Institute helps prepare teachers to guide students in meeting national and state history standards through hands-on immersion experiences in colonial history.

“I plan to bring the feeling of Colonial Williamsburg into my classroom,” Hoppe said. “The experience at Colonial Williamsburg ignited my passion for our early history, and as a history teacher, I hope I can ignite a similar passion and excitement in my students when sharing my experience with them.”

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Stevens Point Area Senior High School teacher Dan Hoppe (second row, third from left) attended the Colonial Williamsburg Teacher Institute recently and will implement some of the lessons into his AP U.S. History course at SPASH this year.
(Photo courtesy of Colonial Williamsburg Foundation)