I bridged May and June in the nation's capital with 27 eighth graders. We flew out on my husband's birthday. When my alarm went off at 4:30am he rolled over and said, "Have a safe flight." I replied, "Happy birthday!" As he rolled back over and drifted back to sleep, he said, "Yay!" I might have texted him that night. I'm not sure. We flew into Dulles and boarded a bus for a three-hour drive to be near Jamestown for the next morning.
My previous experience with DC was with my husband and kids visiting my sister-in-law and her family when her husband was in the Airforce and working in the Pentagon - over a decade ago. Visiting family in DC is much more relaxing than taking a World Strides tour with students. Although, I have to say that queuing for the metro after watching the fireworks on the national mall with five children in tow - one in a stroller, was probably the most claustrophobic I have ever felt in my entire life.
I loved the trip with my students, but my immediate take-aways don't sound all that positive. First of all, it was incredibly exhausting. Our itinerary was packed, but we still didn't see nearly as much as we could have. Students were dehydrated and over-tired, asking for medication for their headaches while refusing to take off their sweatshirts or drink the water, saying it wasn't hot and the water tasted bad. (For the record, it was hot. Also I didn't notice a flavor to the water, but regardless, staying hydrated is a bit more important than how water tastes when you are taking 15,000+ steps outdoors with high temps.) I also felt a bit overwhelmed at the idea of taking over running the trip next year, after the other teacher on the trip moves to California and the job of orchestrating this annual adventure falls to me.
In an interesting coincidence, the teacher who ran the trip this year has the same birthday as my husband, so he spent his birthday traveling with 27 students, with a dinner stop at a southern grocery store/restaurant. We couldn't let his big day go unnoticed.
A huge highlight of the trip for the kids was our main World Strides guide, Mr. David. The students LOVED him. At least two students cried when it was time to say goodbye to him. He was pretty impressive. Mr. David had a complete lesson plan for one of our first stops with him at the MLK Memorial, and the students were excited to report back to him about the quotation that meant the most to them and why.
While I am excited that I get to go again, and full of ideas about how to structure my lessons next school year to lead naturally up to this trip, my knee injury was a big problem on this trip. I took as many opportunities as I could to sit down in order to rest, but on the last day, I took the tram tour in Arlington National Cemetery, missing seeing the grave of the grandfather of one my students as well as the majority of the student experience there. When we stopped at the Korean War memorial and Pentagon 9/11 memorial before lunch, I decided to get right back on the bus as soon I used the restroom. My knee was done.
I've been home for a full week, but my knee is still quite unhappy. Aleve, ice, my cane, and a prescription topical gel have made mobility possible. Here's to hoping that my appointment next week to discuss the MRI will prove beneficial to my overall healing.
l am headed back to Mount Vernon in a month for professional development through the George Washington Teacher Institute. I hope I get to have a tour of the mansion that doesn't feel like I'm being herded through as fast as possible, and I can't wait to bring what I learn to my students next year, both in the classroom and on next year's trip to DC.
No comments:
Post a Comment