SIGNAL KNOB TRAILBLAZERS

Local History Comes Alive for Signal Knob Middle School Students

On April 24, 2019,  Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Mark Johnston; Gabriel Ryman,  Assistant Superintendent for Teaching, Learning, and Innovation; Chad Hensley, Director of Teaching, Learning, and Innovation; Karen Whetzel,  Shenandoah County School Board Chair; the Board of Directors for Strasburg’s Historical Society; and  John Adamson  from the Strasburg Museum Board joined  Signal Knob Middle School Trailblazers and the Trailblazers’ leadership in the school’s forum and library for a review of the SKMS Trailblazers enrichment class, presentation of certificates to each Trailblazer, and an  exhibition of their research projects.  

Ms. Jackie Weitman and Mr. Richard Lorton presented certificates and a CD of photos from the
Trailblazers’ journey to each one of the students in the class and to the independent Trailblazers as well.

The SKMS Trailblazers’ big adventure began in January 2019 when school librarian Ms. Jackie Weitman  and US History I teacher Mr. Richard Lorton began an enrichment class that would focus on local history.   Probably the students who chose to take this class had no idea they were about to embark on a journey that would include field trips, online and print research, interviews with local residents, and more.  Even the teachers could not have imagined the learning and the excitement for learning that would result.

Earlier in the year,  Mr. Glen Hoptman met with Dr. Johnston to talk about his ideas for teaching.   Formerly with the Smithsonian Institute (Washington, D.C. ),  and now a resident of Edinburg, Virginia,  Mr. Hoptman is  Co-Founder (with Ms. Marsha Weiner) and Chief Content Officer of “How to Think Like,”  LLC, a career orientation program for formal and informal education.  Through the years, he has been deeply involved in national education design and development projects.  Mr. Hoptman supports a “project- based, interdisciplinary approach” to education. 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         Following his conversation with Mr. Hoptman, Dr. Johnston called the principal of Signal Knob Middle School,  Holly Rusher, thinking that SKMS teachers might be interested in meeting with Mr. Hoptman since their school is very supportive of project based learning and had participated in a Strasburg Day event two years ago.   The result of that meeting  was the Trailblazers:   students who would “think like an historian.” They would  research the history of Strasburg/Shenandoah Valley with the  goal, as suggested by Mr. Hoptman,  of developing  applications for official State of Virginia Historical Highway Markers to submit to the Virginia Department of Historic Resources.  

The SKMS Trailblazers’ early discussions centered on the “trails” that provided early settlers’ paths to Strasburg:  trails through the mountains,  the Great Wagon Road (Valley Pike), the North Fork of the Shenandoah River, and in later years, the railroad.   These early pioneers followed trails or made new ones through sometimes unexplored territory  just as the SKMS students would journey through the history of Strasburg, through territory unknown to them as they discovered Strasburg’s past.   The group decided to call themselves Trailblazers.  

The Trailblazers met twice a week during the class time designated for enrichment courses.   Class time was spent doing research and listening to speakers including  Jimmy Hisghman who talked   about genealogy,  the mountains, and trains;  and  Loretta Campbell, who is 99 years old  and has played music with Patsy Cline.  Mrs. Campbell  talked about the Fisher’s Hill picnics, ghosts,  and her many memories of the town.  

The Trailblazers’ Living History Day “was truly a wonderful day!” said Ms. Weitman.  “We started at the museum. Mrs. Stickley, Mr. Adamson, the train conductor, Chanda Greco and Dr. Johnston were all there to greet us.   Two  trailblazers  commented that they got at least two pages of notes in their journals about Strasburg Pottery from Mr. John Adamson.   They had a chance to see the trains run in the train car and climb into the best perch in the caboose. They  watched  a video about Strasburg and Mrs. Gloria Stickley, who serves as curator of the museum and had opened a month early to accommodate the students,  entertained questions and answers.”

One of many displays of pots in the Strasburg Museum

The Living History Day also included the River Walk, a picnic along the North Fork of the Shenandoah River, a visit to an ice cream shop, and a bus tour through Strasburg..  

Students talked to a local fisherman during their River Walk.

Abby Mitchell shows her sketch of one of the new murals in town.

Each of the Trailblazers had to develop a historical project related to Strasburg  or  Shenandoah Valley history.   It was important to Ms. Weitman and to Mr. Lorton that students’ projects be tied to their interest.   Ms. Weitman and Mr. Lorton provided students with a blank field journal and required students to keep a record of their activities, research,  and reactions  related to their  project.  

There were close to fifty Trailblazers whose projects included a variety of subjects and a variety of formats of presentation.   Pictured below are photos of some of the students’ research projects.

Wyatt Hockman wanted to find out about the barn he saw when he and his mom, Tracy Ford, dropped items at the recycling center near Fisher’s Hill.   Wyatt was an Independent Trailblazer, among those students who were not able to enroll in the enrichment class, but instead worked independently coming to the library for research and having conversations with Ms. Weitman and Mr. Lorton as he was able to during the school day.   Ms. Weitman encouraged all of the Trailblazers,  especially the Independent Trailblazers, to include their parents in the project.  

Ms. Tracy Ford,  Wyatt Hockman’s mother,  was eager to collaborate with her son on this project.   They learned that the barn was on property owned by Carmeuse Lime and Stone.   Employees suggested Wyatt talk to Mr. Baker, who is 94 years old and had worked for Carmeuse as a teenager mining the lime.  Mr. Baker remembered the barn from his youth and was happy to answer Wyatt’s questions about the barn and mining.  
Wyatt Hockman and Tracy Ford, his mother, stand in front of their “Not Just a Falling Down Barn”
research project.    

Macy Shell with her project on Fort Bowman

Clara Shye and Abby Mitchell with their project “How Strasburg Has Changed”

Mia Morris with her project about the Abraham Beylles house.

Gabby Fox with her project “History of Shenandoah Recipes”

Olivia Dorsey with her project Ghost!

Kerrigan Bauserman  and her Fisher’s Hill Battle research project

From all of the research projects,  students and teachers agreed that the SKMS Trailblazers’  application for the Virginia Highway marker will be the Queen Street - Sunset Hill Schools (1875-1965).  Hayden Hershey, Mrs. Marquetta Mitchell, and other community members worked with Ms. Weitman on the Sunset Hill project.

In 1875, on a cold winter January  day,  Captain John Grabill, Superintendent of Shenandoah County Public Schools,  made a visit to the Queen Street School.  The Queen Street  school was the first and only school for black children in Strasburg at the time.   Fifty-four years after Captain Grabill’s visit, on October 28 in 1929, the Queen Street School burned down.    While the new school was being built,  the teachers and children held classes  in the meeting hall of the Strasburg  Elks, an African American group who valued education.  Sunset Hill School, a one room school house for grades one through seven, was built on a very high hill on what is now C Street.  (For additional information - please click on link.  (http://www.strasburgvaheritage.org/SHANewsletterFall2012.pdf     Article was written by Marquetta Mitchell of the Strasburg Heritage Association.

Photos are from reunions of the Sunset Hill’s school.

In Virginia, there are more than 2,600 Historical Highway Markers with only  about  300  honoring African Americans.  In  June 2018, an  Historical Marker honoring  both the Mt. Zion Methodist Church in Woodstock and  Woodstock’s first African American public school, which was built on the Mt. Zion  church lot in 1882, was approved. This marker is currently the only Highway Marker in Shenandoah County that honors African Americans.  

If the application is approved, the Sunset School marker will be Shenandoah County’s second  Historical Highway Marker in honor of African Americans

Dr. Johnston addressed the students while they were in the forum.  “I want you to know,”   he said to the students, “how much I learned from you.   Dr. Johnston, who was with the students during the museum tour,  has been in touch with this project from its beginning .  

“Sometimes,” he said,  “I felt like  the students knew as much as the presenters.”

 He noted that the research and communication skills that the students have learned and practiced are valuable life skills.

“The Trailblazers  project,”   continued Dr. Johnston, “is an excellent example of the future of education” which will involve problem solving in our own communities.    He thanked everyone involved -- the Trailblazers project “was truly a community effort”   he said.

Dr. Mark Johnston, Superintendent of Schools, address the SKMS
Trailblazers during their assembly.