On Thursday, we took the entire 8th grade to capitol hill. As a physical educator I have become quite confident in creating fun, engaging activities to make mundane learning extraordinary.
I went above and beyond and created standards for the trip:
SWBT: Meet congress members High five as many congress members as possible- student with highest score will win cookies.
SWBT: Be eyewitness of famous buildings run almost 5 miles (yep, I brought pedometers) from the capitol to the library of congress back to the capitol then to the house of judiciary then back to the capitol.
To achieve standard one I showed the 8th graders the lepal pin of the 113th congress. When you see this you offer a high five. Next, lunch was scheduled on the steps of the Capital right before the congress people would be let out for lunch (11:30ish). greatest. game. ever. Winner got cookies. these said cookies got this said student literally kicked out of the capitol, buttt more on that later.
Yep! Dear congress men those were my lovely students.
I digress. Security lines and 8th graders.
Here's the deal: all security lines are different. You cannot bring water or food into the capitol building, but you can bring food and drinks into the other buildings we visited. All buildings the poor kids had to take off their belts, jackets, watches and hats. one kid kept taking off his shoes... I think that was a personal decision.
Sooooo we would all get lost and the Mama Bear in me would get super nervous... I made it through other kids did not... the kids made it through as I ran around throwing away bagels and cream cheese.... and the freaking cookies... wich I guess under the security camera did not look like cookies, and because the student is not 18 he needed someone with him, and we were both through security. Luckily this is one of the greatest kids I have so I wasn't (too) worried.
Every time I go downtown I am amazed by how large and beautiful the buildings are, it is quite humbling. The mall has an incredible presence, I'd highly recommend checking it out at night especially. The monuments are incredible at night. I can't help but thinking about how old they are and the huge decisions that have been made around and under them. US history is awesome; full of perseverance honor and scandal. Check out: Hard Core History sometime!
I'd love to post pictures from the trip and I will after I block out all 15 of my beautiful student's faces. Until then I'm going to enjoy the last few hours of teacher appreciation week (and don't worry, I have a whole another blog post about that).
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