During the week of June 14 through 18, the Troup County Historical Society and Archives hosted fifteen Troup County school teachers for the annual Heritage Education workshop. This year, the workshop focused on transportation and archeology. During heritage education, teachers are encouraged to creatively seek ways to use local history in the classroom. Ideas from having trivia and bingo contests based on Troup County's history to teaching addition and subtraction based on information found in cemeteries to looking for details on buildings and in the landscape were explored during the week. Archives Director Kaye Minchew and Clark Johnson, Troup County Historian, led the class.
Teachers receive staff development credit for their work during the week.
With each program, discussions were held as to possible ways to use the activity in the classroom. Their only instruction was to ask their interview subject about changes in transportation during their lifetime. A general discussion on how to best prepare for oral history interviews followed where the group agreed that having general topics in mind worked much better than having actual questions. Clark Johnson pointed out particularly distinctive graves, history, and interesting features of the cemetery. Located on the former Troup County fairgrounds land and on the old race track, the houses in Beechwood offered a great opportunity to compare houses that have been changed and altered over the years.