Day 21 (Cambridge Final Debrief/Day) - August 11, 2012

After dinner last night, we went to a few of the pubs that we enjoyed during our 3 weeks here in Cambridge.  We started reminiscing about some of the highs and lows of our trip, but all in all, it was a very memorable trip; definitely worth the 3 weeks even though it was a long time to be away from home.  Some of the highlights include:

                *Nick setting off an alarm in one of the museum displays yesterday before we left Duxford for

                  the final time.

                *No plates during our BBQ with the students.

                *Teaching the British guy David, how to say things in the American language such as…TruDat

                *No internet and spotty internet access for the entire trip

                *Troy opening up the helicopter in the museum that he used to fly when he was in the Army,

                   much to the dismay of the AAM sponsers!

                *The long lines to get into Victoria Park to watch the opening ceremonies of the Olympics.

                *Despite being in the home country of the Olympics, we watched very few events on TV.

                *Our experience in the hostel in London…what happens in the hostel stays in the hostel!

                *So many more memorable experiences…if you want to know what they are, go back and read

                  the blog!

This morning, we awoke and had our final debrief of the summer residency program.  The main objectives were to discuss the pros and cons of the pilot program, offer suggestions for the program in the future, and devise our continuing projects for the upcoming year.  We are going to do a variety of video projects, polls, weekly/monthly questions for the students to respond to and also create.  The best way that I thought about going about to complete this would be to create a 7^th Grade after school History club.  I figure that I can have the club meet twice a month, and have a maximum of 30 students partake in this experience.  The biggest thing we want to accomplish is to have the students from both sides of the pond communicate with each other through history and develop projects/videos that we the teachers can share with our colleagues. 

Tonight is our final gathering for the closing of the summer residency program @6:30pm.  We will have dinner, share many more stories, gather contact information, and then depart for home tomorrow.  I am one of three people who will be departing with the early crew @5:30am.  I’ve truly enjoyed this cultural experience, I meet and befriended people who I’ve formed a great working relationship with and hope to continue for some time, and saw tons of exciting sites.  But it is time to come home and get back to reality…the next time that you hear from me I will be back in the good old U.S.A.  I hope that everyone enjoyed following my adventures for the past 3 weeks…it has been awesome! 

Day 19-20 (Overnight in the AAM at Duxford with the UK Students) - August 9-10, 2012

Everyone began the day talking in the taxi on the way to Duxford how tired we were and we knew how long the day/evening would be; regardless though, we were excited for the students because that’s what this whole trip has been about.  For my final group lesson, we conducted an escape and evade lesson on the air base that surrounded actual tactics that the RAF and US forces used to train their pilots during WWII.  We provided the students with a map of the base, clues to the safe house, and a phrase in German that the students had to say upon reaching the safe house.  Throughout the activity, we had teachers placed at various places around the airbase and if they went up to a student and spoke English, they were caught. 

After the day was over, the students were split into groups for the craft activity, which they needed to complete for tonight’s spy hunt inside the American Air Museum, and time to shop in the gift shop.  While all of that was going on, myself and three other teachers were at the opposite end of the airbase setting up for the softball and volleyball games.  It has been a long time since I worked for Parks & Recreation in Loudoun but I quickly got back into the teaching mode of athletics.  Trying to explain and teach the UK students how to play softball, swing a bat, and catch/throw was a huge challenge but it was fun also.  The girls of course did not like the fact that they had to put the sweaty boys glove on to play and most of the girls just sat in the outfield, but overall it was a great experience for them but also for me as well.  For myself, it was a great cultural experience to come to the UK and teach the students a sport that they have never played before (now I know how Aaron has felt after his many trips to the Bahamas to teach sports to the under privileged). 

Once the game was over and we cleaned up the field it was time for the evening BBQ…oh how I miss BBQs back home.  First of all, we actually have plates to put our food on (someone forgot to order plates for 65 plus people for the BBQ to eat our dinner), and it reminded me of people who make all of those West Virginia jokes!!  Haha.  Also, the food over here isn’t what I have been accustomed to for my entire life and I can’t wait to come back home.  Food withstanding though, there isn’t another place on the planet that I would ever want to live besides the good old U-S-A!!  Next, we headed to the Astra Cinema to watch the films that the students made this past week and I can’t wait to get back to work because I am going to access the work and show it to my students once I start teaching the WWII unit.  The kids put in a ton of work for only 2 minutes of work but they were very excited and it was a memorable moment for them.  Following their films, we watched a Daffy Duck Cartoon from the 1940s before we watched the main feature – The Memphis Belle.  It was funny watching the movie because, even though I’ve seen it a dozen times or so (and it sits on my DVD shelf), I had a new excitement about the movie because I’ve been here in Duxford for 3 weeks and have gotten to know the base very well; watching a movie that was filmed in the place that I’ve been was pretty awesome for not just me but the other US teachers too!

After the movie, we walked back to the AAM and it was dark by this time; upon our arrival, seeing the museum lit up from the outside was a fabulous view that only the museum staff gets to experience!  We then set about preparing for the museum spy hunt; I played a Nazi guard who periodically checked the students ID badges they created earlier in the day as the scattered throughout the museum searching for clues to complete their mission that they were given.  To complete this spy hunt, it was done in the pitch dark throughout the museum, and the students only had their torches (flashlights) to complete it – talk about an awesome sight throughout the entire museum seeing 45 lights run around the museum in the dark was very memorable.  Another bonus to this being in the dark was that we were able to scare the crap out of many of the students because they didn’t see us  - the girls freaked out the most when I came from behind the wheel of the B-17 bomber and started screaming at them in German asking to check their IDs.  The spy hunt took longer than we expected for the students to complete; the coordinators only scheduled an hour and a half but it took more like 3 hours for the students to complete it.  IT was fun nonetheless! 

Once the spy hunt was over, it was after 1:00am; some students chose to do the astronomy walk outside while others chose to prepare for bed.  All in all, it was a successful day/night but everyone was exhausted.  The girls were placed on one side of the museum and the boys were placed on the other; the teachers were spread out over the museum as well.  Myself and one other male teacher, Nick, slept next to the B-17 which separated the girls from the boys and we acted as an intermediary in case some of the students decided to try to be sneaky, but thankfully that didn’t happen.  They were exhausted, plus I was awake most of the night due to the cot I slept on and being extra cautious.  I finally went to bed close to 3:00am and woke up around 7:00am, but it wasn’t a solid sleep.

We woke the students up bright and early @ 7:00am so that we could clean up the museum and leave before it opened to the public.  But first, we awarded the students their certificates for completing the first ever AAM Summer Camp and the students received a packet of information regarding their ID cards that we handed out to them on Monday as we began this adventure so that they know what happened to the men after WWII.  Their parents arrived at 9:00am to pick them up and after we had a short de-brief session with the museum director, who thanked us for a wonderful experience, we headed back to Homerton to rest and clean up.  I however, couldn’t go back to sleep so it looks like it’ll be a short night for me tonight.  I will be eating my final dinner at Homerton tonight…yippy!  Tomorrow, we debrief as an entire group from 9:00-12:00, and then we have our goodbye banquet at 6:30pm tomorrow night.  

Day 17-18 (Duxford AAM Summer Camp With UK Students) - August 7-8, 2012

Day 17 

Today was more of an observatory role due to the fact that Radiowaves, the tech/website company that we meet 2 weeks ago, came to teach the students how to create multimedia videos.  Each group was to create their own storyboard for a short movie that dealt with a WWII topic/theme.  My group, comprised of 6 UK girls plus myself and another teacher Erin, chose to create a BBC news broadcast that interrupted the scheduled news program to alert the British that the American’s were arriving in England.  Two students did the filming and sound, 2 students were at the news desk, 1 was the news reporter, and one student played the American general that was interviewed.  The girl who played the American general, Elise, was nervous because she couldn’t speak with an American accent, but Erin and I told her just to relax, have fun, and speak loudly – the perfect trait to describe us Americans.  She pulled it off perfectly and we did the interview next to the B-17 bomber used in the movie The Memphis Belle.  Once the girls finished the storyboard and filming, it was mine and Erin’s job to do the editing of the girls movie; the total running time of their video was one minute and 30 seconds.  Each groups videos will be debuted during the sleepover on Thursday night before we watch the movie at the Astra Cinema…ironically, the movie is The Memphis Belle!

Day 18 

Today, we got back to normal and we presented the students with another round of lessons that focused on the human cost of war.  My group in particular, focused on Air bombing strategies and the effects.  The major focus of the lesson dealt with us providing the students with background information on the German Blitz on Britain in 1940 and the arrival of the Americans.  Next, we focused on the different types of bombing planes used by the Americans and British during the war and the fact that the British only conducted bombing runs at night while the Americans conducted their bombing runs during the day.  After we had provided them with the background information, we presented the students with their objective for today’s lesson – they were going to create their own bombing mission. 

We provided the students with information on 4 actual bomb sites from WWII, including the target area, reason why the area was of strategic importance, population, distance from Duxford, etc.  After they read all of the information, they set out to discuss amongst themselves the pros and cons of each of the 4 options, and then decided on which site to bomb.  To complete this, they had to fill out their own mission plan which we provided a template for.  After it was over, we collected the information on which site they chose and discussed why each group chose it, along with the pros and cons; also, we discussed why they didn’t choose the other targets.  This was a great activity and we got a wonderful comment from the organizers as to how well the lesson was planned and very active for the students.  The students played their part wonderfully and had some great insights as to the thinking surrounding selecting their targets.  Finally, we showed a 1 minute video clip of an actual bombing mission from WWII and discussed about the negative and positive effects of the bomb raids on the cities, people, and casualties of the war. ***I will be using this lesson in my classroom when I begin my WWII unit!

Before the day concluded, we discussed how successful the entire day was as a group and began going over tomorrow’s night at the museum.  Here is a sample of what the night at the museum will look like on Thursday:

                *9:00am-3:00pm = normal teaching sessions

                *3:00-4:00pm = visit to gift shop for students to purchase things from Duxford

                *4:30-6:30pm = sports games (softball and volleyball) on a rotating basis

                *6:30-7:30pm = BBQ cookout on the airbase (US style food)

                *8:00-10:30 = movies at the Astra Cinema (WWII era cartoons and student created movies will

                   (be shown before the main feature – The Memphis Belle)

                *11:00-12:30am = Spy hunt in the American Air Museum

                *12:30-1:30am = Astronomy Walk outside around the airbase (weather permitting)

                *1:30-7:00am = Sleep (the teachers are very doubtful of this but we will soon find out)

Day 16 (Summer Camp With UK Students @ Duxford) - August 6, 2012

Everyone was a little nervous last night at dinner when we started talking about our expectations for our summer camp that began this morning.  As expected, we thought that the morning registration and scavenger hunt of the American Air Museum at Duxford would be chaotic and we were right.  It is very similar to the first day of school, and a blind person could see that the organizers of this summer residency program haven’t had any teaching experience and were a little overwhelmed.  However, at the end of the day, the first day was a success. 

My group taught the same lesson 3 different times because of the large number of students, we broke them into groups of 15 so it wasn’t too different from a normal class, expect for the fact that we broke the content down so that all 5 members of my group would teach something different.  What we had was a phenomenal group of teachers who planned and collaborated together – a wonderful model of team teaching!  Our lesson today focused on Preconceptions that Americans had about England and vice versa beginning in 1942 upon the arrival of US forces to Duxford.  Below are some of the highlights of our lesson we taught today:

                *We asked the UK students to write down things that they would tell US exchange students

                  today that were coming over to the UK.  Then we said that it wasn’t very different from 1942

                  when the US troops first arrived, minus the lack of technology that is around today.

                *We showed a short 5 minute clip from a US video from WWII that taught the US troops about

                  the differences and similarities between our 2 cultures as they first arrived in the UK in 1942.

                  (We will be showing some small clips of WWII propaganda on Thursday night at the movie

                   theatre on the base before we show our main feature to the students – The Memphis Belle).

                *I talked about the crew positions of a B-17 bomber and explained the role and responsibility

                   of each man.  Afterwards, we handed out each student a replica War Department ID card

                  of an actual person who flew a B-17 bomber in WWII.  They will keep this all week and on

                  Friday morning, they will research that individual and find out what happened to that

                  person during WWII. 

                *Finally, we differentiated the sizes between the US and UK on a map.  Once the students had

                  that basic understanding, we informed them that over 3 million US troops arrived in the UK

                  beginning in 1942 and had them come to the map on the board and place a string from that

                  persons home state and they connected it to the location of Duxford on the map.  We did this

                  to reiterate the size difference, number of troops, and different locations that the US troops

                  came from in the US to help them understand how much of a change/struggle it was when the

                  US troops arrived in the UK and had to assimilate to the new culture as they prepared to defeat

                  our common enemy – Hitler and  NAZI Germany.

Day 15 (Cambridge) - August 5, 2012

I slept in until 10am after my long Saturday of sitting on a tour bus and touring Bath and Stonehenge.  After I cleaned up, I headed to downtown Cambridge to walk the streets, do a little shopping, and tour/take photos of all of the colleges/churches.  Around 12:30, as I was walking down some of the hidden/unknown alleys of town, it started to pour down the rain so I headed to the closest pub that I could find for lunch.  I ended up staying 2 hours because the rain was horrendous; while I was there, I started a new book (The Dream Team) and completed 50% of it by the time that I left.  Will – I highly recommend reading this book; it details the behind the scene battle to organize the team and their internal struggles to come together to win the gold medal in 1992.  Also, it is a very fast and easy read too!  After I left the pub, I followed the canal and watched all of the punting boats take people on a tour of Cambridge; however, instead of getting a tour via the river, I continued to go down the narrow, old streets of Cambridge and take in the sights the good old fashioned way.  I got a wonderful, money shot view of King’s College chapel from the rear of the college. 

By the time that I returned to Homerton, my lodging for the past few weeks, it was close to 5:00.  Once I returned, I started to gather my belongings and come up with a plan to pack up all of my stuff.  What I was really concerned about was getting some of the breakable souvenirs that I bought; what I decided to do what to pack all of them up in my luggage carry on bag so that I can take them back on the plane with me.  Also, due to the fact that I have the space bags, I will easily be able to bring back my clothes with room to spare, and hopefully, I won’t go over the weight limit on Sunday morning at Heathrow Airport when I check in.  At 7:00pm, I met up with everyone at a restaurant and we had dinner to talk about everyone’s weekend and watch the fastest man alive, Bolt, win another gold medal.

Day 14 (Bath & Stonehenge) - August 4, 2012

I woke up bright and early to get ready for my day trip to Bath and Stonehenge today at 6:45am.  I had to be at the bus stop by 8:00am so I stopped by the local convenience store to grab a sandwich for breakfast and caught my bus on time.  It took 2 hours to get to Bath; once we got within 15 minutes of Bath, the tour guide notified us and highlighted some of the areas in the valley that we were driving by.  From the bus I saw the town of Bristol and the suspension bridge that connects Bristol to Wales!  After the bus driver dropped us off in Bath, the tour guide gave us a 1.5 hour tour of the city and then set us off own our own for 3 hours before we met back up in downtown Bath to head to Stonehenge.  Here are some of the highlights of our tour guide led Bath tour:

                *Bath was built by the Roman Empire.

                *Every building in the city is built with the same rock from the quarry outside of town.

                *The Roman Spas are located underneath city of bath. 

                *Bath became a popular tourist attraction after the discovery of the hot water spas in Bath and

                  people traveled from all over Europe to the spas so they could be healed of their illnesses.

                *Jane Austen lived in Bath and the area outside Bath (Are you excited yet Sarah??  Haha.)

                *The River Avon flows through the city and in the Celtic language, Avon means river so actually,

                  the river that flows through Bath is called the River River. 

During my free time, I went to taste the hot water from the Roman Spas…it’s not that great!  Also, I went to an Irish pub for lunch and then browsed the shopping area and picked up a few souvenirs; afterwards, I arrived early at the meeting point and stepped into another pub and ended up watching soccer of all things during the Olympics...YUCK!  When I arrived at the meeting point with everyone else, I started talking to a lady on the bus from Australia.  She and I also sat next to each other for the rest of the trip and made the rest of the day fly by.  She is visiting her brother for 5 weeks since in Australia, once you work at the same location for 7 years, you get a fully paid 6 week vacation.  She’s been saving for 2 years for the trip which also included stops in Ireland and France, but doesn’t have to spend any money on accommodations since she is staying with her brother.  He moved from Australia 30 years ago on a one year temporary teaching assignment but ended up getting married to a local girl in Cambridge and he hasn’t left since. 

When we arrived at Stonehenge, it was out in the middle of nowhere.  It was about 45 minutes from Bath.  Our tour guide gave us a 45 minute intro about the history and myths about the origins and purposes of Stonehenge.  Here are some highlights:

                *Over 5,000 years old.

                *Created during the Meolithic and Neolithic eras during the prehistoric culture

                *Stones were pushed by hand from the areas around its present location and the rocks were

                   carved using animal bones.

                *It is aligned with the midsummer sunrise and midwinter sunset but its exact purpose is still a

                  mystery.

                *New archeological discoveries have concluded that it was also a burial ground.

The bus ride back took 2.5 hours and I couldn’t wait to get back to Cambridge because I was starving since it has been almost 9 hours since I ate lunch at the Irish Pub.  I was so hungry that I went to Pizza Hut to get a personal pan pizza for dinner because it was quick.  This isn’t the only time I’ve eaten at an American restaurant since I’ve been in England – I also have eaten and Subway and Burger King, but it’s not the same taste as back in the USA!

Day 12-13 (Duxford) - August 2-3, 2012

Woke up on Thursday feeling like a million bucks!  Went to breakfast and ate the same cheese, ham, and croissant that I’ve have every morning since I arrived minus the traditional English breakfast in London last Saturday morning.  Upon our arrival back at the Duxford museum, we began debating the effectiveness of the Allied bombing strategies at the beginning of the war and why it changed midway through the war in Europe.  Afterwards, we had the privilege of listening to a presentation from a surviving member of the British Royal Air Force – Harry Irons, tailgunner from a Lancaster bomber who flew 60 combat missions during WWII and was involved on the bombing of Dresden, Germany in February 1945.  He told us his war stories, excitement & fear during the war, and anger/frustration after the war due to the fact that the British government still doesn’t recognize the actions of him and the other members of the RAF who participated in the Dresden bombing due to the high number of civilian casualties that occurred – over 25,000.  Also, he told us how he and other surviving member s worked on their own to establish and create a memorial for the RAF – he currently sits on the board, which now sits in Hyde Park in London, England.

Once his presentation was over, he stayed around during the tea and biscuits session to continue talking to us and we all thanked him for his service to the Allied cause during WWII.  Next, we broke up into different groups from the other day and worked on the second set of lessons that we will be teaching next week to the UK students during our summer camp.

On Friday, we had 2 different lectures when we first arrived; the first was from the Prisoner of War Collections Manager from Duxford, and the second was from a criminology lecturer who presented to us the studies and effects of Incarceration.  The POW collections manager brought some primary source artifacts to his presentation, both Allied and German, to show us and explain to us.  The criminology lecturer talked to us about both the incarcerations of both POWs and criminals and the effects that being locked up has on the mental psyche.  Ironically, the presenter himself was actually sentenced to jail for committing a murder in 1992 and after spending 13 years in prison he was released; after his release, he decided to dedicate his life to teaching others about the effects on being locked up both from the past and present, and he is working on completing his doctorate degree from Cambridge.  Then, once we were finished with our lectures, we were broken up into our final group parings to finish our last lesson for the summer camp next week.

Everyone thought that the day drug on and on; mainly because we were excited for our free weekend and everyone had different plans, but we couldn’t get out of Duxford soon enough.  The Brits were taking the train from Cambridge and going home for the long weekend (I wish I would have had that option, but if I did, I probably wouldn’t have come back for the last week – Hahaha), some people were headed to Edinburgh, Paris, London, and Bath, while others chose to stay in Cambridge for the weekend.  As for me, I took it easy Friday evening and went to see the Dark Knight Rises at the movie (cinema in the British vocabulary).  The movie was awesome but there were 35 minutes worth of advertisements and previews; remind me not to complain about that when I get home because it isn’t nearly that long back in the US.  Also, movies hear are freaking expensive – it cost me 9 pounds and 50 pence (convert that to US dollars and I spent $19 to watch a…ridiculous)!  I’m not going to complain about US movie prices either when I get home.