- U.S. history teacher Todd Simon has built a growing WWII artifact collection, with contributions from students and staff, to bring history to life in the classroom.
- Students said they gained a deeper, more personal understanding of WWII history by seeing real artifacts and hearing personal stories, making the past feel more real.
- Watch the video above to see some of the collection and how you can contribute to it.
(The following is a transcription of the full broadcast story)
"No one of them believe this is my dad to begin with."
For Waverly High School teacher Cathleen Weaver, the connection to this day is personal.
"It puts a face to the story that they hear when they’re learning about World War II in their history classes, and so this is like, holy cow, this is a real person and you knew this person." said Weaver.
Her dad trained to fight in WWII, and she says it's empowering to share her personal connection with students.
"To know that he believed enough to go into the military and he wanted to go and fight against fascism and the things that were happening in the world at that time period gives me a lot of pride." said Weaver.
This collection was spearheaded by U.S. history teacher Todd Simon. After visiting the National WWII Museum, he was given items to show his students.
"I was like, really, you can just give me the artifacts? I thought these things would be priceless, and they were like, no, we have so much of it because as that generation has died off, their kids maybe don't want it or know what to do with it, so they donate it to a museum." said Simon.
Simon then started buying and collecting items himself, creating a small collection that has grown significantly over time.
"As the years have gone by, students come in and give me things or loan things. Students are bringing in things today to show off to their own family members. Our superintendent, Kelly Blake, brought in her grandfather's uniform from WWII." said Simon.
Students said seeing all the items was eye-opening, creating a stronger sense of history.
"In a textbook, it might have said they wrote letters to their loved ones during this period of time, and then that might have been it, but we got to see a deeper connection between the two people or the families." said Jazmin Macias, Student, Waverly High School.
To donate historical items contact:
jparks@waverlyk12.net
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