looking forward

keeping it cool with Cornyn

This week has been a whirlwind of preparation for the much anticipated Eighth Grade Washington DC Trip! I am really looking forward to some teaching outside of the classroom and some quality time in my favorite city. But I will be more excited on Saturday morning after we have gotten on the eighth graders through security and all of my preparations will be done (because by Saturday morning it will have to be done, and whatever is not done, I will just have to do without). There is nothing like a deadline to inspire you to get your act together.

getting colonial in Williamsburg

The kids are so excited about the trip. We started a countdown on the board weeks ago. But it always cracks me up the things they look forward to. From the way they talk, you would think that they were way more excited about riding on a plane (many of them for the first time), staying in a hotel, and getting to wear something other than their uniforms in the evening than anything else. As much as I can hype the Capital, the Lincoln Memorial, the Portrait Gallery (which is my favorite place), Mount Vernon (and getting to see the key to the Bastille), colonial Williamsburg, the battlefields of Gettysburg, Arlington Cemetery, the White House, and countless other amazing things we will see and do, they will have no concept of the coolness until they get there and see it for themselves. Traveling with these students is such an amazing opportunity to open up an entirely new world to them--a world where leaves change colors in the fall, where government is a real job that people do, where patriotism and sacrifice are honored and sacred, and where history is actually real.

Even though just thinking about it stresses me out tonight, I cannot wait to introduce a whole other crop of kids to the beauty of Virginia, the coolness of our nation's capital, and the reality of the history that until now has only existed in books.

exploring Mt. Vernon