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.
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