Our Trip--Again.

Summer's finally here and it's time to think about the next school year before it is on top of us. I will finish up my April trip in this post and start to think about the next trip.

To finish up, our hike took us over the 1777 trail, over the Dunderburg and through Doodletown. During our trip, we made sure to use water breaks to teach our students about what they were seeing and doing. We used every opportunity to impart whatever we could upon our students so they would be fully immersed in the experience. I wasn't sure how it would turn out, bt it sure worked out better than I hoped. The questions they were asking were a direct result of experiencing the hike rather than reading about it and then each question built on the previous answer. The time, and the hike flew by and the kids didn' seem to want the trip to end.

Before the trip could end, Ed & I had p[romised the kids (again high school age with permission slips!) that they could fire blank cartridges from our muskets. Once we got back to Ft. Montgomery and went through a very detailed safety brief, we turned 4 muskets over to the kids and ran them through a real firing line. At first, some were hesitant and didn't want to fire because of the recoil. Once we assured them that there was no recoil, and they saw their friends fire, there was no holding some of them back. As we gave the command to "prime & load", the students had to follow a detailed procedureto load and then fire the weapon. They all saw immediately how much time this took and developed an appreciation for the Revolutionary War soldiers who had to do this with en enemy firing real lead back at them. Try that in a traditional classroom!!

I know. Some people will read this (I hope) and say that what we simply had a play day when we should have been in class learning. To the detractors I say, to teach history in the 21st century is akin to trying to juggle flaming chainsaws. Simply put, most students, at the high school level anyway, are not interested in history. That is, they are not interested in names, dates, battles and forgotten treaties. But, if you can put something into their hands, they will certainly have more interst in the subject matter and will have a greater prospect for learning and retaining the information that is being taught.

To that end, next year's trip will be to Stony Point Battlefield and we hope to have more kids than this year and to do an overnight as well. I think that as word of our program (soon to be a recognized club!!) spreads, more students will join and we will have a unique (in our District at least) program that benefits the students more than the talk and chalk model. So long as we keep our minds open and are willing to be flexible, we will only limited by our imaginations.

The next few posts should be about the LHEF courses that are being taught throughout the summer. I am personally taking the Fleur De Lis course at Fort Ticonderoga and will post about that course first hand in late July.

Thanks for readin'

Pete