Crystal’s Weblog

I have now had a few days to unwind and reflect on all that we did on this trip and all I can say is “holy cow!!”  We literally went nonstop for two weeks!  I had so much fun and I know I will use it in my classroom because even with family and friends I will suddenly stop and remember something from the trip and have to tell them about it right then.  I know I will do this often with my students as we are going through the year.  I also would like to say that meeting all the people that I did made this an amazing trip because not only did I make some new friends but I know that I can contact them for help or ideas as I am teaching. 

I would like to say thank you to the professors and to everyone who helped to make this trip a reality.  I know that there is no way many of us could have had the opportunity to do this without this grant.  We were given a chance to make our kids love history even more and ways to hopefully pull them in if they have their doubts about it.  We were able to do and see things that most people could never do and from that we take the passion of the experience into our rooms!

Since I didn’t get my pictures downloaded last night here are a few from the Winterthur Mansion.

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And here are some pictures from today at Gettysburg

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Today was our last guided day.  It was bittersweet as I had been looking forward to Gettysburg and when we got there it wasn’t exactly what I had expected.  Don’t get me wrong, I loved the history (even given at the speed of light!) and the views were spectacular!  However, the heat along with some grouchy people made the bus ride and the last day a bit of a bummer.  I did get some very useful materials from the store there and plan on using them when we study the Civil War.  I also enjoyed the short video we saw and the museum.  I would like to go back again to have more time to really look and enjoy all that the park had to offer. 

Sheri and I had a great experience with a wall at the cemetery!  We both have strong family ties to the Masonic lodge and were sad that we had not seen the monument for the man who gave the distress signal during the battle of Gettysburg.  As we were viewing the National Cemetery Sheri saw the monument “just over the brick wall”!  So we head off across the cemetery to get a picture of that statue and find that the fastest (and at the time, only) way over was to just climb over this brick wall!  It was about three feet tall with nothing for a step so we both had to gracefully hop on top and jump from the other side.  After getting to the top of the wall you see that it is further down on that side of the wall, but we had come that far we were not turning back!  We hoped off and got some great pictures with only a few minor problems! 

These are the great stories I remember my history teacher telling me and I hope to pass to my students to show them that history is far from boring!  There is always a wall to climb (or a river to cross) when walking through history!

Like any trip there is a point when you start to “wind down” and today was my day.  We visited the beautiful mansion of Winterthur and saw some beautiful antiques and got to do some hands on activities.  We saw the beautiful gardens that Mr. Du Pont planted over the many years he lived there as well as the huge collection of furniture, dishes, toys, etc he collected over time.  We then had dinner at a local brewary where we had wonderful service and great food and, of course, beer.  I know this post is short but as I said before I am winding down and preparing for an early night because we have to be on the bus at 7am!!