Can't Wait by Mrs. Barnes

Good morning boys and girls! Do you have a hard time sleeping the night before a vacation? I do, so I figured it was just better to get up and spend some time with my family and animals before I leave for eight days! That is the longest I've been away from them ever! I'll be meeting Ms. Lightheart, Mrs. Fish, and Mrs. Martin in 1.5 hours and then we'll be on our way to the airport! The flight to Boston only takes about 3 hours, but they are an hour ahead of Wisconsin so we'll lose an hour in the day! After we land, we'll pick up our rental car and head to Plymouth. Our hotel is right on the ocean and across the street from Plimoth Plantation. Have a great day and we’ll blog again once we get to Plymouth! ~ Mrs. Barnes

3 Days! by Mrs. Barnes

I can’t believe that we are leaving for Boston in just 3 days! We are so lucky to have this opportunity to bring history alive for our students! History is so much more than what we read in our books! Thank you Fund for Teachers and Wisconsin DPI for this opportunity!

I just checked the weather for Boston for next week! It looks like we may be bringing some of the rain and thunderstorms with us! Not to worry though, we are teachers! We can learn in sun, rain, snow, or sleet! I already have my umbrella packed!

Getting Ready to Leave by Mrs. Martin

Today we met to finalize the trip. We bought the equipment we needed to make our “virtual field trips”. We now own a few extra camera cards, USB drives, and a hard drive to make filming and video editing easier. Mr. Schmidt will be loaning us some video equipment to take and we all have our own personal cameras. Mrs. Fish is the designated team photographer!

Did you know we have to keep track of every expense we incur? Because this trip is funded through a sponsor (Fund for Teachers), we have to report how, where, and when we spend each dime. Our receipts have to be totaled each day and when the trip is over our sponsor will have to approve our expenses. So as a team, we are learning what are “wants” and what are “needs”. Because part of our final project involves making virtual field trips, we classified video and photo storage equipment as a need. However, we didn’t have to spend too much since we already own some equipment that will work.

Finally, we have to say something about team work. You know how your teacher always has you work in a group? Sometimes you love it, sometimes you hate it. Well, we have found that we each bring some different strengths to our group. Ms. Lightheart and Ms. Barnes are the researchers and "dreamers". They find the places we can go and visit. Ms. Fish is the photographer and the documenting strength. Mrs. Martin finds a way to keep all the information, receipts, and times organized. Together as a team, we wrote the grant, we call for deals, make the reservations, and discuss our options. Teamwork makes it all go much smoother. We have to say this is a time you love teamwork!

The Paul Revere House

Today we found out we are meeting with the educational director at the Paul Revere House while we are in Boston. She is not only going to teach us all about Paul Revere and his contributions to our American History, but she is going to teach us how we can have our students act out Paul's famous ride!

Check out information about his ride here: http://www.paulreverehouse.org/ride/

We are going to Boston

Back in November it was announced that because Eastview School was a Wisconsin Promise School, teachers were eligible to apply for a travel grant through Fund for Teachers. As a 5th grade team, we applied to study American History in Boston. Because so much of our reading and social studies curriculum centers on the American Revolution, we decided this was a perfect place to start. We are very excited that we won the grant because only 43 teachers in the State were luckily enough to win this honor. We leave for the trip June 21st!

Through this grant we want to bring history alive for our students. Our plans include creating virtual field trips of places like the Plimouth Plantations, Paul Revere’s house, and the Freedom Trail. We plan to bring back games, activities, and replicas so our students can touch history. Finally, we will be using what we learned to create an integrated project for our students to do in the 2010-2011 school year.

Follow us on the trip using this blog. We will be asking for students to tell us what places you want to see and what questions you want answered. Stay tuned for more information. While you wait for the fun to begin, check out the links of places we will be going!