What a great final day in Washington DC! First of all, I want parents and family to know how wonderful your students have been all week so far. We have received so many compliments and praise from other tourists, businesses, and employees at all of the sites we have visited. A gentlemen from Cuba was visiting a cousin that we met at Arlington Cemetery, and he wanted to take a photo of some of our students because he was so impressed by their respectful and reverent behavior and attitude, which including their dress. He wanted to take this photo home to Cuba to show friends and family back there that this is how youth of a country should behave and dress when at important places to a nation. The Dutch news reporters we met last night were extremely impressed with our students as well.
We began the day at the Newseum, a museum to news and journalism. Students enjoyed exhibits on Covering Vietnam and the Civil Rights Movement at 50 years. These were both special exhibits. They also found the 9/11 exhibit moving as well as the Pulitzer Prize winning photographs. They saw sections of the Berlin Wall and a guard tower from Checkpoint Charlie, and the memorial to journalists that have died covering the news. Next we headed to the Smithsonians. Students divided up into groups headed to several different museums. The first groups went to the Botanic Gardens and enjoyed the beautiful flowers. The group at the American Indian museum enjoyed the beaded converse tennis shoes and the exhibit on how Native Americans perceive an issue versus the American government’s perspective. The group at the Air and Space group enjoyed seeing the Spirit of St. Louis and the SpaceShip One up close and personal, as well as the Mercury and Gemini capsules flown by John Glenn and Ed White without their protective cases while they are being restored for the 40th anniversary of the museum next year. The group at the National Gallery of Art found the only Leonardo da Vinci painting in the Western Hemisphere, as well as works of art by Raphael, Donatello, the ballerina statues of Degas, as well as Monet’s Footbridge painting. The second round of museum visits had a new group at the Air and Space Museum, and groups at the Natural History and American History museums. The Natural history group found the Hope Diamond, the world’s largest blue diamond, as well as enjoying the mummies! The American History group loved the Star-Spangled Banner and the pop culture displays. Then it was off to Arlington Cemetery. We paid our respects to Presidents Taft and Kennedy, Robert Todd Lincoln – the only one of his sons to live long enough to be an adult, the crews of the Space Shuttles Challenger and Columbia, as well as all of the men and women who served our country that are known and unknown in the cemetery. We watched the Changing of the Guard Ceremony, visited Arlington House at the top of the hills. After an excellent dinner at Kora’s we visited the 9/11 Memorial at the Pentagon. Since the 8th graders were just tiny children when it happened, the chaperones shared our stories of where we were and our memories of those tragic days before the students entered the memorial site. It has been a great trip so far. Tomorrow is the final day. We are packing up here at the hotel so we can load the luggage in the morning. We will make one final stop here in DC in the morning at the Marine Corp Memorial (Iwo Jima) before heading to Jamestowne and Williamsburg. Then it will be the overnight bus ride and seeing all of the families bright and early Thursday morning back in Rensselaer! Steps – 20,699 Total – 77,875 steps (35.56 miles)
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6/1/2015 2 Comments News Media and Leadership We started the day off on an interesting note. There was a fire drill at the hotel as we were getting ready to get on the bus. We had to exit the building, but there was not a fire. Everything was fine, but for the safety of everyone we exited when asked by the hotel staff. Our first tour site was the US Capitol Building. The students watched the orientation movie at the underground Visitor’s Center, and then toured the building. They saw the Rotunda and the dome, the 8 paintings in the Rotunda, as well as the Old House Chambers, which is now Statuary Hall. Then we walked through the tunnel to the Library Congress, where the students saw the Great Reading Room, which most people recognize from National Treasure. After a stop at the Library of Congress we walked over to the Supreme Court. There was a decision handed down this morning on a case and we met the CNN news reporter, Pamela Brown, who is their Justice Correspondent who covers the Supreme Court. She explained the basics of the case and the decision. It was not a constitutional issues, but rather a different area of legal issues. We walked down Capitol Hill and headed to the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden.
We had pizza delivered to us there and we sat in the beautiful garden to eat lunch. Students kicked off their shoes and soaked their feet in the huge fountain in the garden while others enjoyed the modern art sculptures or time in the shade. Then we visited the National Archives to see the Charters of Freedom – the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution. They found Abraham Lincoln’s face in a mural that hangs in the rotunda, then explored the Public Vaults. They saw a copy of the Emancipation Proclamation along with other documents that have been saved by the Archives. We gave the students some more down time after the Archives in the sculpture garden. The downtime was very welcome after the heat, humidity, and walking over the past few days. We ate dinner at Union Station and then tried to go to the Nationals baseball game. Just as we got off of the bus and under a very large tent outside the stadium, the rain and wind hit. The tent was large enough that we were all very safe. Once the storm broke the buses picked us up since the game was cancelled. We headed back to the hotel and the students will have a little time to relax there tonight. Tomorrow will be a busy walking day for a last day in DC. We start at the Newseum, a museum about the news and journalism. We will also visit the various Smithsonian museums and Arlington Cemetery. We will end our final day in DC at the 9/11 Memorial at the Pentagon. It has been a fast week, but we have made tons of wonderful memories! Steps – 12,431 Total – 57,176 steps 5/31/2015 0 Comments Day of Sadness and Laughter This day has ended on such a high note. We started the day at Mount Vernon. We toured the grounds of George Washington’s home and paid our respects to him at his tomb. We spent some time going through the museum and seeing artifacts owned by the Washingtons. We also toured through their home. It is the verdigris green painted dining room that most of the students said was too much for them. It is quite the bright green color. We had box lunches on the way from Mount Vernon to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Students had been looking forward to this after studying the Holocaust in middle school. They viewed the permanent exhibit, which includes key artifacts from the Holocaust, including one of the cattle cars that were used to transport people to the camps. When students exited the exhibit they said it was one of the saddest museums they had ever visited. We discussed the architecture of the museum as well that adds to the overwhelming feelings and makes visitors feel like they are under constant watch with guard towers all around. We told the students that if they should come out of the museum feeling on edge and concerned. That is the message it wants to get across to the public. When you see injustice in front of you, do you speak up to help end it or do you just stay silent and watch it happen?
After the Holocaust Museum we walked around the Tidal Basin, visiting the Jefferson Memorial, the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial, and the new Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial. The 19 foot tall statue of Jefferson amazed them, since he is the same height as the Lincoln statue. They enjoyed the statues in the FDR memorial that represent the Great Depression, and they listened to Dr. King’s “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop,” speech while standing around the frieze/ statue of him. We had a delicious dinner at O’Connell’s in Alexandria, which is an Irish restaurant. We ended the night with tons of laughter, which was needed after the seriousness of the Holocaust Museum and the memorials. We saw the play Shear Madness at the Kennedy Center. It is an interactive murder mystery in which the audience members participate by interviewing the suspects, pointing out evidence, and voting for who they believe committed the murder. They students had such a marvelous time. They were still analyzing the evidence and arguing about the suspects as we left the play. Tomorrow we will visit the US Capitol, the National Arch - 1431414ives to see the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution, We might get a chance to see the Library of Congress and the Supreme Court depending on time. We will hopefully end the day at the National baseball game. We are keeping an eye on the weather and hoping that the forecasted thunderstorms and rain stays away tomorrow. Steps - 14,767 Total – 44,745 steps Today was so wonderful. Despite the very warm weather - low 90s with high humidity, the students has such an amazing experience. We started the day with our visit to the White House. The students were dressed professional and received so many compliments from White House staff, other visitors that came up to the chaperones to find out why teenagers looked so nice on the Mall, to staff at the National Cathedral.
Our White House visit was at 8:30 this morning and the students took complete advantage of this once in a lifetime opportunity. They asked questions to the Secret Service agents standing in the various rooms we walked through, they stopped to ask about events that happened in the house - where did the President stand when he gave a speech, who is that painting, etc. As we came to the main entrance on the north side of the house to exit a large group collected to talk to one of the agents on the President's detail. We found out that he was in the building while we were there. We headed over to the big 3 monuments - Vietnam, Lincoln and Korea. Two of the boys participated in a flag folding ceremony at the Vietnam wall with veterans. This was a very emotional ceremony for the chaperones, other visitors who watched, and the veterans that participated in the ceremony. What an amazing once in a lifetime moment! Students said that Lincoln was so much larger than they expected. The 19 statues of the Korean memorial was shocking to some students. They described the faces as looking scared and sad. We had a great lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe, and then toured the Washington National Cathedral. While much of the earthquake damage has been repaired down the main area inside the church, there is a lot of work still going on inside and outside. Students found the Darth Vadar grotesque on the back of the tower, visited the crypt where Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan are buried, paid their respected to President Wilson who is buried in the cathedral, and saw a piece of the moon in the Space Window. We managed to get our visit to the zoo in today, and the students loved the pandas. Many said they wanted to take them home, until they saw the massive teeth the pandas use to eat their bamboo. Other favorites at the zoo included the American bison and the cheetahs. We had dinner at Chevy's Mexican restaurant, and then headed to the World War II memorial. The 4,000 gold stars representing 100 men each that died in the war was a visual image that made an impression on the students. They also looked at the details of the bronze relief sculptures/ friezes that show key events on the homefront and battles of World War II. Finally it was time for the trip up to the top of the Washington Monument for the amazing views of the city. The weather was clear and beautiful tonight so they were able to see for miles around. Their favorite views were the secret service on the top of the White House, seeing the Pentagon, and the Vietnam, Korean and Lincoln memorials we had visited this morning. One of the most moving experience for the students and chaperones today was meeting veterans from the wars the US has fought. There were World War II, Korea and Vietnam veterans all around us at the memorials and the students walked up to them, shook their hands and thanked them for their service. Many times the students said this rather surprised the vets and they would get big smiles on their faces and some shared incredible stories with the students if they had time. There was a large Honor Flight of World War II vets visiting the monuments while we were there. What an honor for the students to meet these vets. i asked for quotes from the students and chaperones tonight about their favorite memories or experiences so far. Here are some of the answers I got: Lilly - My favorite memory so far on this Washington DC trip was the Vietnam Memorial because I got the experience to thank all of the veterans for serving our country by giving them a strong handshake and saying, "Thank you and welcome home." Drew M - It was amazing to see how many veterans were at the memorials! I will always remember how gracious they were when I shook their hands and thanked them for their service. Ethan G - I loved the cathedral. It was so interesting because the history of it was phemonenal, the architecture of it was some of the most complex I've ever seen, they have many different ideas and items in and out of the cathedral, and the windows are so amazing. I've never seen anything like them. Josh T - I personally loved it all. There is no specific thing that was more important than the other - except maybe the White House. I think that is because the history here is so special and I think some of its charm comes from the people who live here to teach the history. I am definitely coming back one day. Jeffery G and Caleb W - The best thing that could be taken out of today was the sacrifice our soldiers took to keep our country free. Even veterans of those wars believe that "the torch was passed down to our generation" making use in charge of how this country's future upholds. Jarrett A - It doesn't matter where you are on this planet, what makes it special is the people you share the experience with and the ones who do all they can to make the time the time of your life. That's what makes this trip the best! Cory W - I will never forget what a World War II veteran said to me - "These men died so we can be free we must never forget what happened in any war. We must pass it down and never forget. Cody W - I really liked when Cory and Caleb folded the flag and we shook all of the veterans hands while they wore smiles, proud that we recognized them as our heroes. Scott L - As a veteran myself, just knowing responsibility of service above self is one which I am truly proud of as I reflected. It created emotions which I haven't felt in years. Steps - 14,576 Total - 29,978 steps 5/29/2015 0 Comments Gettysburg and Arrival in DC What a phenomenal day! It was a full day, but filled with lots of great memories already. We woke up in Gettysburg and started with the orientation film at the visitors center and seeing the Cyclorama. The Cyclorama is a 360 degree circular painting that depicts the 3rd day of the battle - Pickett's Charge. It was painted 131 years ago and was moved from its old location in Gettysburg to the new visitors center. It has been cleaned over the past 5 years and looks bright and nearly new. After a fast trip through the museum we headed out to the battlefield. The students wanted to see three specific sites on the battlefield - the cemetery, Little Round Top/ 20th Maine Monument, and Pickett's Charge. To help with the nearly 80 tour buses on the battlefield this morning, our battlefield guides decided to send the boys bus on one loop and the girls bus on the reverse loop of the sites.
At the cemetery, students saw the only memorial to a speech in the US - the Gettysburg Address, the current speaker's rostrum, as well as the graves of the unknown and known soldiers. Our guides also pointed out where historians believe Lincoln stood when he delivered the Gettysburg Address on November 19, 1863. Along Seminary Ridge we followed the Confederate corps as they gathered in the woods to prepare for the charge across the one mile open field towards the Union lines on Cemetery Ridge on the third day of the battle. We circled through the Peach Orchard where General Sickles nearly caused the Union to loose the battle, and then up to Little Round Top. One of the groups made it over to the site of the 20th Maine monument where one of the few bayonet charges in the Civil War happened. All groups walked out to the edge of Little Round Top to look down on the Devil's Den boulders where many Confederate soldiers were killed on the 2nd day of the battle. It is a beautiful place to look out over the entire battlefield from the heights of the Round Tops. The students had wonderful things to say about Gettysburg, and said their favorite location was the Round Tops. We grabbed boxed lunches and headed to Washington DC. We hit the shopping first so students could get the most for their money for the souvenirs that they hopefully will be bringing to their friends and families. Then it was a brief walk down to Ford's Theater and the Peterson House. There is a Presidential Gala event at Ford's on Sunday, so we were unable to get into the theater itself and the museum, but we went through the Peterson House where President Lincoln was carried after he was shot. It was in the tiny backroom of Peterson House that President Lincoln died at 7:22 a.m. on April 15, 1865. We walked through the front parlor where Mary Lincoln stayed through that long night, and the front bedroom where Secretary of War Edwin Stanton managed the manhunt for John Wilkes Booth and began putting together the search for other conspirators. As we came down through the Education Center for Leadership and Legacy, we saw the special exhibit that was put together for the 150th anniversary of his assassination. Artifacts that were "witnesses" to his death were brought together from across the country for display. Today was the final day of the exhibit, and students told me that they loved it. The tiny Derringer pistol that Booth used, Lincoln's top hat, the contents of his pockets, his long dress coat, Mary's black velvet cloak, as well as the flag that draped over the bannister in front of the Presidential box were on display. Students were shocked when they looked at the flag since it was taken down and used to cradle Lincoln's head before they moved him from the theater. The blood stains from his wounds were still very visible today. We made an impromptu stop at the National Law Enforcement Memorial to pay our respects to all of the law enforcement personnel that have died in the line of duty in the United States. This was not a planned stop, but we decided it was a good place to add to the day. We finished our day with an excellent dinner at Ming's in Chinatown. One of the things that we encourage our students to do on the trip is to try new foods. Since there are not a wide variety of ethnic food options in Rensselaer, coming to Washington DC is a great chance for students to try something new to see if they like it or not. My table ended dinner by sharing all of our fortunes. While most of them were pretty standard fortunes, one of them topped all of the rest. I can't remember the exact wording, but it dealt with avoiding trolls, which was so out of character for a Chinese fortune that we all had to laugh. We have checked into our hotel tonight, and the students are enjoying some down time here before 10:00 p.m. curfew. We have an early morning tomorrow when we visit the White House. We have breakfast scheduled for 6:15 am and we head into town at 7:00. We will tour the White House at 8:30, then go to the Korea, Lincoln and Vietnam Memorials. We will lay some carnations at the Wall tomorrow to honor those from Rensselaer whose names are on the Wall. We have lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe, then a trip up to the National Cathedral. If we have time we might stop to see the pandas at the zoo, but we can't promise that stop since we can't get into and out of the zoo in under one hour. We have dinner at Chevy's Mexican Restaurant, and end our day with a trip up the Washington Monument and a visit to the World War II Memorial. It will be a full day, but hopefully one that the students will create memories to treasure in their future. Step Count 8,394 Total - 15,402 5/28/2015 1 Comment Off We go....Well, after planning, monthly club meetings, lots of fundraising, and packing, our trip is finally here. We reported to school at the bright and happy time of 4:30 a.m. First it was loading the buses, grabbing breakfast sandwiches and yogurts, getting carry-ons in overhead compartments, and getting situated in seats. Then we were off.... We made a quick stop for some gas in Remington to top off a tank, and then trucked it on down the road. We stopped outside of Dayton, OH, for fuel and a rest stop, and then again for lunch in Zanesville, OH. We slept, watched movies, talked and enjoyed a roller coaster type of road as we got closer to Gettysburg tonight. We had a fabulous dinner at the Dobbin House, which is the oldest building here in Gettysburg, built in 1776. It was one of the first known stops created for the Underground Railroad north of the Mason Dixon line. Then it was off to our ghost tour. We walked through some of the old streets of Gettysburg and learned about Jenny Wade, the only civilian killed in the Battle of Gettysburg, and her fiance, a man from Gettysburg who also died in the battle. We learned about the field hospitals that filled everyone's homes, schools, churches and other buildings in town, and about the Blue Boy, a young child that had escaped from an orphanage and was protected by two female students for about 1 week at Gettysburg College. To hide him from the dorm mother's room check he stood outside of their window in a snowstorm, and was seen by a female student 120 years later when he tapped on her window while she was studying and wrote "Help Me" on her window. We are finally checked into our hotel rooms and headed to bed. We will have breakfast at 7 a.m. and then it is off to tour the battlefield.
I only have a couple pictures to share tonight, but I hope to collect more at breakfast in the morning and upload them as the day goes by tomorrow. As an history teacher I have always wanted to bring students here to experience this moving site in person. Thank you to all of the students for their hard work all year, and for learning about the Civil War in class with enthusiasm and interest. To the families and friends of the students on the trip, thank you for your support of the trip and allowing us to bring your student with us for this amazing experience! To the RCMS staff and the Rensselaer community, thank you for your continued support of this trip over all of the years. For many of the students on this trip this is truly a once in a lifetime opportunity, and I hope they return to Rensselaer with wonderful memories. Step Count - 7,008 Today was a day of firsts for so many of us! We started our day at the Embassy of Switzerland. While traffic was not in our favor this morning, the embassy was so kind to us and shared with us information about their country in a shorter amount of time. We learned that LogiTech was a Swiss startup company and that Switzerland eats more chocolate per capita than any other country in the world. I could live there for the chocolate! Then we traveled a few blocks to the National Cathedral. While this is officially an Episcopalian cathedral, it serves as the church for the entire country. Famous people who have spoken in the cathedral include the Dali Llama and Martin Luther King Jr gave his final sermon there. Most presidential funerals are held here, and moments of national healing, such as the 9/11 memorial service also were held here. The stained glass windows in the cathedral are breathtaking. While the upper tiers of windows tell Christian religious stories, it is the bottom tier of windows that surprise visitors the most. They tell the history of the US, including windows for Robert E Lee and Stonewall Jackson, Lewis and Clark, and the War Chapel tells the stories of key military events in American history. After the tour students changed from their professional clothes and into casual clothes for the Smithsonians and the drive home tonight. We did some quick shopping at one of the tourist stores and then it was on to the Smithsonians. Students were able to visit two museums of their own choice in groups with chaperones today. The first two groups toured the Air and Space Museum and the American History Museum. They saw so many famous artifacts that they learned about in all of the classes in their middle school careers, so I hope that they enjoyed those museums. Then it was a quick switch and off in smaller groups with chaperones to visit a second museum. Groups headed to the Air and Space Museum and American History Museum again, as well as the National Gallery of Art, the Natural History Museum, the American Indian Museum and the US Botanic Gardens. Then it was one of those life learning moments - we took the metro subway from downtown to dinner at the Pentagon City mall. The metro proved to be an interesting experience since it was during the main push for commuters to get home. The students were troopers and everyone made it to the correct station and to the restaurant. The students were grouped into their small 4-5 person groups with their chaperones to make sure that we all got there. We had dinner at Chevy's Mexican restaurant. We had one student that had a birthday today so they celebrated at the restaurant tonight and we sang Happy Birthday at breakfast as well. We had one final stop at the US Marine Corps Memorial - Iwo Jima Memorial - to lay some carnations. Ms. Nelson's father was a Marine. We had 11 students and Ms. Nelson lay the carnations at the base of the memorial, took some final group photos and then the students left for home. They will be stopping for a rest area and short break in about 2 hours. It has been one of my greatest pleasures as an educator to have taught this class for the two years. They are all very special to me. To all of the parents - thank you for the opportunity to get to know your children - I know they will have bright futures if the questions and enthusiasm they showed on this trip is any indicator. Thank you! If you have pictures to share once everyone is home, just email them to me and I'll get more posted!
Step count update - 14, 086 steps = 6.25 miles Total steps this trip = 102,617 steps Total miles walked this trip = 6/14/2014 0 Comments HIlls and Somber MomentsFirst off, I hope that all of the students and chaperones' fathers had a wonderful Father's Day! Today was such a somber day compared to our more fun and entertaining day yesterday. This was our marathon walking day. We started our day at Mt. Vernon. We walked down and paid our respect at President and Mrs. Washington's tomb, then walked up to the mansion and looked through the slave quarters and other outer buildings. We toured the mansion at 10:15 and got to see George Washington's presidential chair, the key to the Bastille in Paris that was given to him by the Marquis de Lafayette, and the bed that Washington died in. In the museum students found Washington's dentures, which always make people cringe thinking about how painful they must have been to have in your mouth. We had a quick lunch at the Pentagon City Mall and then headed to the Holocaust Museum. Our group toured the permanent exhibit and experienced a very emotional hour. They was a pile of shoes from victims at Auschwitz, one of the cattle cars used to transport victims to the camps, items destroyed in Kristallnatcht, and bunks from Auschwitz. They also saw the US Holocaust Memorial and the eternal flame in the Memorial Hall. After studying the Holocaust a couple of different times during their years in middle school students always look forward to the museum, but nothing prepares one for the emotional toll this museum can take on a person. It definately changes your perspective after a visit. From there we headed to Arlington Cemetery to pay our respects to the men and women who have serviced our country in the military. This is another sobering moment for our students. Seeing the long rows, row after row of headstones gets overwhelming at times. Then when we start talking about the life stories of many of the individuals buried at the cemetery and you start getting the person point of view it becomes more than just the headstones and names. We decided to have students and chaperones select which group they wanted to tour with. We had one group that did a highlights of the cemetery tour - the Kennedy family gravesites (President Kennedy, Robert Kennedy and Edward Kennedy), the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and Arlington House - which was owned by Robert E. Lee's wife, who happened to be the great granddaughter of President Washington. The other group was a tour of some of the more unique and less popular areas of the cemetery. I led this second group and the students and chaperones decided they wanted to see the graves of many of the astronauts buried in Arlington Cemetery, including Indiana's Gus Grissom and Roger Chaffee, who both died in the Apollo1 fire, and Stuart Roosa, Donn Eisele and Jim Irwin who were all Apollo astronauts. Most of these graves are in a far corner of the cemetery and are quite a long hilly climb to get to. Twenty students and 10 chaperones elected to take see these graves and we powerwalked our way across most of the cemetery. They were all troopers, kept up, and asked great questions as they saw something on a headstone or thought of a question about the military or protocols at the cemetery! Then we headed to the Tomb of the Unknowns to watch the Changing of the Guard. Our two groups both saw the same Changing of the Guard ceremony! Then my group headed to see the Kennedy gravesites as we headed back to the bus. This group saw some of older sections of the cemetery, including many of the Spanish-American War and World War I graves, the Fr. Myer chapel, the memorial sections of the cemetery where there are headstones for service members killed but no remains could be recovered. After two such emotional and intense places it was time for some Irish food at O'Connell's in old town Alexandria. Our final stops tonight were some of the monuments and memorials. We visited the World War II Memorial, the new Martin Luther King, Jr. memorial, the Franklin Roosevelt Memorial and the Thomas Jefferson Memorial. We enjoyed this night tour since the memorials look so different when they are all lit up at night, and it was late enough that we pretty much had the memorials to ourselves and we weren't fighting any crowds of tourists and school groups. Tomorrow is our final day of the trip. We start at the Embassy of Switzerland and we are all excited to say that we have been to the country of Switzerland following this visit. Once you step into an embassy you have technically traveled "to" that country. We will tour the National Cathedral, and then do some fast shopping at some of the cheaper souvenir shops in town. We will have a pizza lunch on the National Mall in front of the Smithsonian Castles and change into comfortable clothes. We will spend a few hours seeing the various Smithsonian museums and then take the Metro subway to dinner. After dinner there is one quick monument left to visit - the Iwo Jima statue, also known as the US Marine Corps Memorial and then it will be on the road and headed back to Indiana. I will spend many nights over the next week or two still posting photos, so as the students get home and have photos they would like to email me to share on the website, please encourage them to do so! Chaperones will be getting me most of their photos tomorrow and little by little I will continue to get them posted. If you have not seen a close up photo of your student yet I will try to make sure one gets posted sometime this week or next week. There have been a couple of students that have been avoiding the multiple cameras the adults are using at all costs this week! So, keep those photos coming in through the submission page on my website or just email them to me. Thanks for the lovely comments to my previous postings - it is nice to get some fee
Step count update: 20,146 steps = 8.99 miles The students told me many times today that this was an amazing and awesome day. It was Flag Day and I don't think we could have spent it in a more patriotic way today. We began our day with our White House tour. This was a personal highlight for me today and I want all of the parents to know how impressed I was with your children today. This class is very special to me since I have had the pleasure of teaching them twice. So for me to have the opportunity to go through the White House today with students who showed such enthusiasm and interest in getting everything they could out of their precious few moments in the home of our President really touched my heart today. I always worry that students will just rush through the house because it is a self-guided tour and not really spend any real time looking at the rooms, furniture, or the view out of the windows. This group of students went beyond my expectations. They went through the rooms asking questions of the secret service agents in the room to learn about individual items or stories from the rooms. They took their time and enjoyed this very special moment. I had a hard time telling them that we had to leave and go to Baltimore because so many of them were just trying to soak up every possible thing they could. We took many group photos that I will get posted as soon as I can on the driveway of the White House as we exited the front doors. Next it was on to Baltimore to visit Fort McHenry, the site of the creation of Francis Scott Key's poem, the Star-Spangled Banner. What a way to celebrate Flag Day by going to the start of it all!! We had discussed the bombing of Ft. McHenry and the Star-Spangled Banner's poem as well as the history of the flag in class this year. When we got to the fort the students were able to walk through some of the barracks there, see cannons, go into bomb shelters, and tunnels that connected areas of the fort together. We walked along the upper ramparts of the fort to see the Chesapeake Bay and could visualize the British ships shelling the fort from the water. So many students told me that they loved their visit to Ft. McHenry. Then it was on to Phillip's, a well-known Baltimore seafood restaurant. The BAE makes a donation to the trip each year and this year they wanted something to be done with the money for all students. Their money paid for the meal at Phillip's today, so a huge thank you goes out to BAE tonight! Students had the choice of a fried seafood trio, Baltimore crabcakes, grilled salmon or grilled chicken. They also had a huge slice of cheesecake for dessert! After a huge lunch we changed into casual clothes for the baseball game. We saw the Baltimore Orioles win against the Toronto Blue Jays! It was a great game - hot at the start in the sun, but we got to see a homerun that went right into the bullpen we were sitting next to! We also got the wave started and it went around the stadium at least 5 times! We came back to have pizza and a little down time before bed checks. Today's more fun day was a perfect change of pace between the serious days yesterday and tomorrow. I almost hate to post today's step count because all of the students and chaperones told me they enjoyed walking less today! We walked more today than any of the other days so far. Tomorrow will be a jam packed day full of hill walking! We begin our day at Mount Vernon and doing some walking in George's footsteps. We will tour the mansion and pay our respects at his grave. Then it will be on to a quick lunch in the food court at Pentagon City Mall, the only food court stop of the trip, and on to the Holocaust Museum. We will be touring the permanent exhibit - which is the main exhibit at 2 p.m. Then it will be on to Arlington Cemetery to see the Changing of the Guard, the Kennedy graves, and some other notable graves before we go to Alexandria for dinner at O'Connell's Irish Restaurant! After we get our bodies refueled it will be off to visit the rest of the monuments and memorials - the World War II, MLK, FDR and Jefferson memorials. We will be walking up and down hills most of the day so I hope that everyone is wearing their walking shoes tomorrow. There will be a rather somber tone to most of the activities tomorrow so that is another reason today's fun events were so important! Thanks for the comments that have been added to the blog! I appreciate reading them and getting your feedback and thoughts! We finally made it to the District of Columbia! After all of the months of planning, fundraising, and club meetings, we finally got here. It was a fast paced and busy introduction to our nation's capitol today. We started the day at the Newseum, a museum dedicated to journalism and reporters. Some of the highlights there include the communications tower found in the rubble at the World Trade Center, Pulitzer Prize winning photographs, a section of the Berlin Wall, and other items related to journalism and covering the news of the world. A couple of students told me afterwards that the 9/11 exhibit made a huge impact on them because it was the first time they had seen the video footage of the World Trade Center collapsing that horrible day. This should brought back memories for the adults and I hope the students learned a lot at the museum. We enjoyed a fabulous lunch in Chinatown at Ming's. Meals were family style with big platters of food that a table shared. They brought out a wide variety of Chinese dishes and we hope students tried something new today they had never eaten before. After lunch it was a trip to Ford's Theater to see where President Lincoln was assassinated. The students found the gun and the knife that Booth used that day in the museum - both items were ones we had talked about in class. Students found other items in the museum and came up to me to share facts or ask questions they had connected to conversations we had in class. This was a highlight of the day for me! We didn't have time to go to the Peterson House though. From there we headed to the Capitol for our tour arranged by Congressman Rokita's office. Since the Capitol dome renovations have begun we couldn't see the entire dome inside, but we could still see the painting at the top of the dome. We made a bonus trip into the Library of Congress so students could see the Main Reading Room made so famous in the National Treasure movie. Next it was off to touring some of the monuments - we started at the Korean War Memorial, then saw big Abe at the Lincoln Memorial, and had a somber moment at the Vietnam Memorial (The Wall). To end the memorials on a light-hearted moment we took some group photos at the Albert Einstein statue in front of the National Academy of Science. We had dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe and ended the day touring the 9/11 Memorial at the Pentagon. After seeing the 9/11 exhibit at the Newseum in the morning and the conversations we had as we approached the memorial, the students were full of excellent questions and insight. For a final stop on a long day of walking and rain, the students really impressed me with their interest in where we were and what happened there. Tomorrow we start the day with a tour of the White House. I learned tonight that the White House tours are limited to 1000 people per day since they were resumed after the government budget shutdown. This makes us very happy that we got in. From there we will go to Baltimore to tour Fort McHenry. I'm personally excited about this since I have never had the chance to visit this location so important to the history of our country. The other reason I am excited about this is because tomorrow is Flag Day and I can't think of a more appropriate day to visit the site that made the Star-Spangled Banner our national symbol! After that we are headed to lunch at Phillips Seafood, a famous Baltimore restaurant and a quick visit to the Inner Harbor, and finally the Baltimore Orioles/ Toronto Blue Jays baseball game. It is an afternoon game so if it goes into extra innings we can stay until the end this year. Step count update - 15,360 steps = 6.85 miles |