A Salem teacher is one of five nationally recognized educators working on a project to make American history more enjoyable for students across the country.

Mark Ingerson, a world history teacher at Salem High School, is working with a group dubbed Team HOPE to turn best-selling author William Bennett's "America: The Last Best Hope" into textbooks for high school students. Their project, called "The Roadmap," will include an interactive Web site, audio podcasts and a series of speeches, plays and other interactive features to complement the books.

"This is a book students would really enjoy," Ingerson told the Salem School Board during a meeting Tuesday night.

Textbooks usually are just "data and facts," Salem High School Principal John Hall said. "Very few people would enjoy that."

However, Bennett's two-volume book offers a narrative tale of American history, Ingerson said. That way, he said, students get balanced facts about American history, but in a more interesting form.

Ingerson said he is helping develop lesson plans, writing history-themed plays and mnemonic devices as part of the project and doing "lots of grunt work."

Ingerson has a reputation for incorporating technology into his classroom. He also has his students play games, sing songs and learn anecdotes to help them retain their lessons.

Ingerson also coaches the school's forensic team, which has won two consecutive state championships.

He shows that "the teacher makes the difference every day," Hall said.

Team HOPE members all have received the Milken National Educator Award, Ingerson in 2005. One member is now a senior vice president of the Milken Family Foundation.

On Jan. 24, Ingerson and two students on the Salem High forensic team will go to Santa Monica, Calif., to present the plays to California history educators. The student versions of "America: The Last Best Hope" will be printed in the spring.

The Web site will be offered later this year, according to a news release from the Milken foundation.