3:40 AM is not a pleasant wake up call. Frankly, it’s flat out absurd for any sane
human being, but no one ever said teachers are sane in the first place. If my alarm is going to pop on that early, it
better be for a great reason, and today it was.
Back in April, I had no intention of traveling with the
Teaching American History Grant and my school district for a 2nd
summer. I wasn’t part of the grant this
past school year due to a tighter budget and since 6th grade is not
American history. Since the grant was
looping back to its original content, teachers in my district who actually
teach US History needed my spot. Yet,
our coordinator Patti called me in April, asking if I wanted to travel again,
getting to do the first part of the travel season. Last year was Reconstruction to 9/11 and the
year before had been Pre-Colonial to Civil War.
2012 repeats the first summer and 2013 will repeat the locations I
traveled in 2011. Each teacher is part
of the grant two years but most only travel one year. To have the opportunity to travel both
summers, albeit out of order, thrilled me pink!
Today at the airport, I learned my spot had actually been created just
for me because Patti wanted me to get the chance to travel both sections. Um, thank you, thank you, thank you, from the
bottom of my heart!
We landed in Baltimore, ate lunch, and went straight to Ft.
McHenry. There is little down time in
the grant! It was 102 plus a nasty heat
index today. Houston has been blessed
with low-90s for a couple of weeks, so the heat was intense, but the fort was
glorious. Ft. McHenry is huge. For this hands-on learner, I loved that every
building was open for exploration as well as the walkways on top of the fort
wall. History is so much more
entertaining when it’s touchable! Ft.
McHenry is now a National Park, and park rangers take turns portraying local
citizens and soldiers from the War of 1812.
The British burned D.C. and desired Baltimore as their next conquest in
their attempt to reclaim ‘The Colonies’.
The fort, the citizens, and the soldiers were able to hold them off
through a wet, stormy night in September of 1814. It was the through the following morning’s
fog that Francis Scott Key saw the still standing American flag and knew the
British had been defeated. From that
joyous occasion, he penned the words to the “Star Spangled Banner”. I highly encourage you to search for the full
text to the poem. The poetry is
phenomenal in meaning.
 |
| Add caption |
 |
| That lip always gets me in trouble. |
 |
| Star Spangled Banner |
I don’t know how the soldiers that lived at the fort all the
way through World War I made it in the heat.
The buildings have little circulation.
Their determination to defend their country withstood the test of
discomfort, just as many of our military face today. Thank you!
No comments:
Post a Comment