I just realized that I
forgot to mention on Day 4 that we went to the Eagle Pub in Cambridge for
dinner. That place is awesome; it is
over 800 years old and it is one of the oldest buildings in Cambridge. It is known for 2 major accomplishments in its
life as was told by our organizer Jenny.
The first was that it is the location where Watson and Frick came to
celebrate the discover of DNA; the second occurred during WWII as it was the
local watering hole for both RAF (British Royal Air Force) pilots and American Air
Corps pilots who would come from the surrounding air bases to put back a few
bitters (slang for beer in the English lingo).
Also, the Eagle Pub is noted for having distinct markings on the
ceilings; US and RAF pilots would often put each other on top of their
shoulders and using a candle, they would use the flames/smoke to write their
names on the ceiling which is still visible today.
We have the wonderful
opportunity to listen and learn from many great people who have specialized
areas at the AAM in Duxford, but today, we went on a tour with the USAAF (United
States American Air Force) Uniforms curator.
He gave us an hour plus long tour of the storage facilities of uniforms
from 1914 to the present for all major world conflicts; plus, they have over
15,000 artifacts. He described to us the
heating/cooling temperatures and how long the process takes to prepare an old
artifact for preservation (7 + days in total).
AS we were about to leave and head to begin our classroom work, he
pulled out Kaiser Wilhelm’s (German leader during WWI) uniform trench coat to
explain to us the uniqueness surrounding the coat and how the museum came to
acquire it. I took a picture of it and
as I was walking out of the storage facility, I was able to touch it – pretty freaking
awesome! I know that this is probably boring
many of you who are not into history; very dorky I know but it’s still awesome!
When we got to the
classroom, we were given a booklet of information about why we are really here –
to create interactive lessons/activities.
We were split into 3 groups and we began planning out day 1 of our UK
student summer camp that kicks off next Monday.
We spent the rest of the morning before lunch brainstorming what types
of strategies that we wanted to do in the specific time period that we have to
teach the UK students. Basically, we are
going to divide the students into 3 groups next week and rotate every hour from
one group to the next so that they can learn about a different aspect of WWII
from us. My group decided to develop a
lesson about the preconceptions of both the British and US soldiers after the
USA entered the war in December of 1941, and began coming over to the UK to be
stationed in early 1942. At the end of
the day we still were not finished with our lesson and continued working on it
after we returned to Homerton after we finished dinner. We will have 1.5 hours tomorrow morning to
complete our lesson before we begin practicing our lessons to our peers in the
audience to help us prepare for the arrival of the students on Monday. Together
as a whole, we have come up with a pretty interesting lesson; you’ll have to
wait until Monday’s post to find out what it all entails.
After dinner, we went to
a 1.5 hour lecture from one of the most renowned British scholars, Professor
David Reynolds, who provided us with more background on the British and
American cooperation and challenges while the US airmen were stationed
throughout all of the UK during WWII from 1942-1945. The lecture was pretty much an open session
forum where he began talking about a subject and then we responded with our own
questions/comments. It was very informative
overall and I am taking away a whole new perspective about how to teach my
students about the war effort during WWII from the British side rather than
focusing 100% on how the war affected the Americans. If anyone is interested, in reading one of
his most famous works, please see below:
Rich Relations:
The American Occupation of Britain
1942-1945 by David Reynolds
(Phoenix
Press, 2001)
No comments:
Post a Comment