A Trip Summary

To begin with I just want to thank the Professors for giving me a chance to go on this trip again although there were parts for me that weren’t as good as Boston it was still a once in a lifetime experience for me. For myself the dys that standout as the best for this trip was day one, the walking tour with Mary, Valley Forge, Amish Country and Gettysburg. Those were the days that I felt I learned the most and felt like a celebrity with the access we got.

As for disappointments I did not feel that that some of our speakers, with the exception of Carol Berkin, and Johnathon’s former history professor, and the folks at the Constittution Center, our speakers seemed kind of blah compared to last years. At times the seemed annoyed we were there and did not really provide us with educational materials to use in the classroom form their site. Furthermore witht the attitudes they had when it came to their jobs they may want to consider going into some othe rline of work.

In conclusion I would have to say depite some sour apples the trip on a whole was wonderful, and I know my kids and everyone elses kids will benefit from it in the classroom.

Day 13: Gettysburg

In my life I have been lucky enough especially these past two years to walk on hallowed ground, and today from the minute we started our bus tour I couold feel the hair on the back of my neck stand up, and although its full of monuments and you see the modern world all around you can still feel the importance of this place. I am a huge fan of the movie Gettysburg, and yes I know it’s hollywoodized but still it gave me a pretty good idea of what happened, and now between what I remmber of it and the story that our guide laid out for us and actually being there, wow if that doesn’t get your heart racing then you better consider get it checked. I could picture in my mind where all the different units were and the progression of the battle and just how close the South came to winning those first two days. For me though that third day and the “Bloody Angle” I can almost see Picketts troops making that charge and seeing them go down row after row. The most powerful place for me was when we were standing on top of “Little Round Top” the view from there was mind blowing.

For the classroom I know that a couple of the folks on this trip already have done batle re-enactments for years now and I had flirted with the idea but now that I have been there and have a much better detailed vision of the battle in my mind I would like to take all of our Social Studies classes at Connect over to Mineral Palace Park , put them into groups assign them roles and have them re-enact different aspects of the battle.

I will come back here again with my family and let my boys see one of the most powerful historical sites in our countries history.  

Day 12:Wintertur

 

What an amazing place and what an amazing legacy to leave behind for us to enjoy. To be quite honest I had never even heard of this place before going on this trip but I am very thankful that I got the opportunity to visit it in person. The thing I most enjoyed is how when Mr Du Pont created a room for the Museum he didn’t just place furniture and objects in it he would actually get the doorways, the trim nd any paneling and move it all over to the room and recreate it. The gardens  re also breathtaking and the time and effort put into them is mind blowing I only wish I could see them in the Spring or even the fall.

When it comes to the classroom and how I would use elements of this day in mine, I would have to say the archealogy lesson was by far the best one of the activities we did today. The objects and the flip charts with the big world map integrated several skills which touch on several social studies standards. I might even get more specific with it and narrow it down to Colorado and use objects created here in our state at different times and have the kids figure out when and where it was made.

We finished the day off with a great dinner all together as a big group, I would suggest there be even more big dinners like this on future trips to give the group a chance to mingle with each other.

 

Day 11: Walking Tour

 

Whew!!!! I am glad it was not as hot today as it has been I was starting to wonder if I was going to make it or if I was going to start melting. Today we started out with two very good speakers, who did appreciate we were teacher’s and gave us some great material and different perspectives I have never thought of or heard about when it comes to Franklin and the black soldiers of the Civil War, it was great material and I also want to thank the Professor’s and Scott for the Coffee and goodies.

After hearing our two speakers and taking care of some personal business Lauren and I struck it out on the walking tour of some of the sites we did not catch last week. Since we both work for Connect we decided our pictures and materials we collected today would all be focused on enhancing the unit at our school. It was a great afternoon and we do feel like now we have seen almost everything the historic district has to offer. It was nice to walk a few blocks and not feel like we sweated off 5 pounds in the process. I have decided to let my pictures do the talking on this blog so enjoy the slide show below and above if your wondering thats Kyle’s dog being held by Betsy at the Betsy Ross house. The only thing I can say in conclusion is this in year’s past the time spent on Philadelphia might have been half of a class period, from this point on we will have enough material for 3-4 days on Philadelphia in our early US History unit.

 

| View Show | Create Your Own

Day 10: American Philosophical Society

 

Once again we got the chance to experience the things that the tourist’s wish they could see and experience. We were able to see documents that only very special people get to see and we were lucky enough to have a museum all to our own which was also a great honor. To have the chance to see the documents we saw today is once again a chance to touch history in a special way and appreciate the fact that you have places like these that preserve our history and don’t let it be lost forever and as a teacher I am forever grateful. The one thing I take away from today and how I would use it in my classroom is that I think a talk about museums and the treasures they hold needs to be had with our students. I think they need to understand that Museums keep items that are not digital and nor mass produced, that some of these items are one of a kind and once they are gone they are gone forever and that some it may be the last link we have with some of the most famous people in our history. We as teacher’s need to get our students to appreciate our museums and take a little bit longer when they look at something, read about it and see just how that item may have affected their life in some way or that the person who made, or created, or wrote something may affect their life day after day.

One personal note and I was appreciative of them letting us in to see their collection at the Philosophical Society but at the same time I feel the need to take my hat off to the Boston Historical Society that we visited last year. Thus far the museums we have visited have had some amazing artifacts but the way we have been treated by some of their staff pale in comparison to those fine people up in Boston. In Boston they treated us as professionals, and gave us the respect as a group we deserved, they seemed happy to have us, had materials for us, coffee and treats and they didn’t treat us like “we” were a group of 30 middle schoolers they treated us like adults and professionals and I appreciated that. I do have to take one thing back the Constittion Center here did also treat us well but between the snobiness of the Washington Crossing guides and the male Guide at the “Philosophical Society” I do not feel the folks here in Philadelphia  understand just what a big deal it is for us to come out here.  Now the people of the town have been very nice and several have given great advice on the best place to eat and directions, except for a few unhappy waiters not waning to do seperate checks. I will get off of my soap box now.

 

To My Wife

This is not an academic post. Today I wouold like to wish my wife a very happy 8th Anniversary. It has been a great 8 years hun and I miss you dearly today. Thank you so much for letting me go on this trip two years in a row and miss this special day together as you have stayed home and taken care of our two wonderful boys. We will celebrate when I get home, promise. Love you hun.

P.S. I promise I will not be having lunch by a Lighthouse or eating or Maine Lobster for dinner this year.  

Day 9: Amish Country

Having a wonderful mother-in-law who is Mennonite and over the years has exposed me to that religion as well as the Amish in both southern and Northern Indiana I came in to today knowing a bit more then some in our group but even I experienced some things an learned some things I never knew about these two amazing groups of people. Before I get into how I would use today’s experience in the classroom I just want to comment on what a rare treat today really was for all of us. As I said before I have been around the Amish before and though they have been polite to me and even my wife’s mom who they grew up around they kept a distance from us not wanting to get to friendly with us “English”. Tonight that family treated to something you just don’t get everyday. What a beautiful and amazing family, the food was the best we have had on the trip, and when they sang for us, well that was a a rare treat indeed.

How I would use today’s trip in the classroom. I suppose the best place to bring these people up in a U.S. History class would have to be when I would discuss the Pilgrims and their reasons for coming to the new World. I don’t think many people realize that the Mennonites were being persucuted for their beliefs  back in Europe and that they just like the Pilgrims came to the new world for a new start. You could also work them in as you discussed with your class the different colonies and talk about how William Penn and his belief that all religions and people should be welcome to his colony. You could also use he Amish and the way they live as an example of what life kind of was like in the America’s since so many of the things they did back then they still do today to an extent. The last thing you could do is talk about the social responsibilities the Amish has taken on over the year’s and how these folks have given a hand to those in dire need and show how they have helped victims of hurricanes and tornados and such.

 

 

Day 8: The Phildelphia Art Museum

I am extremely grateful for the late stat we got on this day, my tank was leaning a bit towards empty and I needed a break. First off I would love to talk about the building itself, wow what a great place to have it and what an amazing structure. Our tour guide told us the reason for the design as wel as many of the other buildings in the city had a “Greek” influence to it is because at one time it was concsidered to be the “Athens” of the West because of the democracy that took place here in the creation of our country. That in itself would be a great teaching point in any American History class.

 

| View Show | Create Your Own

How would I use the “American” collection in my classroom? Although I myself grew up in the mountains of hick town USA LA Veta, Colorado; My parens who had grown up in Thousand Oaks, California and London England made a point to take adavantage of any arts we had in La Veta and drag us up to plays, musicals, art museums  in Pueblo, Colorado Springs and Denver in a n effort to make sure we appreciated that part of society. OVer the years as a teacher I have tried my best to do the same with my students, at the Connect School they already do that to an extent but for those 9 years at Vineland those kids needed to be exposed to that element of our culture. The arts need to be a part of our kids life and using the online versions of some of our countries artists give the kids an appreciation for just how important it was for those people to establish themselves and give America its own unique style of art making our country even more different and more seperated from our colonial roots.  Below you will find a small sampliing of some of my favorite pieces of the museum as well as for the capture the kids attention picture of the Rocky Statue that I would use as a hook to get the m into the rest of the art.

Day 7: Washington’s Crossing

Sometimes the farther away you are from something the mixed up the details or facts seems to be. Prior to this class and reading the book “Founding Myth’s” I truly believed in many of those myth’s but I am very happy to say thus far for the most part our guides at Valley Froge at Washington’s Crossing and At Monmouth battlefield are trying their best to dispell the legends and tell us the facts.

By far my favorite part of the day was at Monmouth the picture that the guide painted for us first in the welcome center and then on the actual field was great. The battlefield for the most part is still very much intact and I could actually see what both sides were trying to do to both attack their enemy and defend their positions. It was a agreat walking tour ven though I’m pretty sure we walked more the 2/3 of a mile there at the end.

Finally a heads up to all of you out there I got an opportunity to go with Lauren and her folks who were back for one last night before flying back to Colorado and they took us for a ride down South Street. South Street is the virtual border between Philly and the Italian section of Philly. The farther down we got the funner the street got and by the time the street ends down by Penn’s Landing and the river you end up in a hoping section of town that I would liken to LODO in Denver, trendy restraunts, dance clubs, fireworks, old ships, it was very cool and I plan to visit it again later this week and highly suggest it to the rest of you.  

Day 6: A Day With Ben

Today we had the opportunity to spend the day at the Franklin Institute A museum dedicated to one of Franklin’s fvorite endeavors science and sientific discovery. The history books of today do not spend the time they should on this amazing man. Sure you get the sound-bites that include discovery electricty, signing the Declaration of Independance and being around for the the creation of the Constittuion. There is so much more that this amazing man did and unles you have a class like this or grew up in the Philadelphia region you just don’t hear about all the othergreat things this man invented, created and did for his country, his colony/state and the city of Philadelphia. By far the highlight of the day was having the chance to actually touch some of the artifacts that were items that were actually owned by Franklin himself. Wow what an honor and it was very kind of the Instittute to give us a chance to have such an hands on experience. One thing I have noticed with Museuems in General but especially these past two summers on the Est Coast is how hands on they have become even for the students, they are actually getting it, that students need to not just read about history in text books but actually toouch it and feel it. I don’t have a very large colection myself but I do have some things I have picked up over the years from grandparents and garage sales that have some historical signifigance in Southern Colorado, I haealso over these past two trips tried to by some of the r-productions that have been in the gift stores, although they are not real just looking real is enough. Hope you enjoy the pictures below thanks.

| View Show | Create Your Own