Day Two

Ok, Day two was our first official day of touring the city. We ran into a few snags, and if I can find a picture of the map, I will post it here so you can see how many of the streets were closed that made it extremely difficult for our charter bus to get around town. Our first event was to attend an event where guest speakers Mary Eisenhower, President Eisenhower's granddaughter, and Ken Walsh, who is the Chief White House correspondent for U.S. News and World Report spoke to the delegates about the background of People to People and President Obama. Look for video postings on this soon.


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After we left there, we took the kids to lunch at Buca Di Beppo... feeding 3 buses of children in one restaurant is always a challenge for us, since that was about 150 students, but the restaurant handled it beautifully and the food was fantastic. As in typical People to People fashion, there was already a set menu and preordered food. I was extremely proud of the students, since they did not complain a bit and ate everything in site. When we finished lunch, it was off to see Shear Madness at the Kennedy Center. We were able to walk around a bit and tour the Kennedy center before seeing the show. If you have not yet seen this... it is a must! ABSOLUTELY hysterical!! Following the show we were able to go see the White House. Even though it was night time, we were able to get all the way up to the gates and take a picture from the side. The students were able to see the encasing the President sat in to watch the parade also. They got a little spooked when a random group of men walked up to them and started rapping a song about Obama and used words like they would "kill for your momma," but we discussed how everyone has different ways of expressing themselves to show support. Dinner was in the Pentagon City food court, which we almost missed since our crazy DM didn't get us there till almost 8PM... somehow there were still two places open and were kind enough to stay open till all our delegates were fed. Back to the hotel we went and the kiddies were off to bed!! :)

Catch Up

Ok, in trying to catch up here, I only have a few minutes until we get ready for our inaugural ball so I'll do a bit now and some later. We have been getting up on average around 5 AM each day and today we had the lucky honor of getting up at 4AM to start heading to the inauguration. Needless to say, I am quite beat, but still really excited to be here!! This has been quite an experience.

Now, to back track a bit...

Day one with the kids, registration day, was probably the smoothest registration day I have ever experienced. Since this is my 9th trip, that's really saying something. I hope things ran just as smoothly at Kris's hotel! Like he mentioned before, being at separate hotels that are almost an hour apart does make things a bit more challenging to coordinate here. Meeting my new delegates was a lot of fun, and I was extremely happy to see all of them have done a P2P program before. Most of the students on this program are almuni, but there a few newbies here and there. They are a funny group of 7th graders, which is right up my ally since I so enjoy teaching 7th grade!! They were all quite exhausted by the end of the night... some traveled on their own from California, Illinois, Texas, and so on.

Day two... oh lordy... I need more time for that one... my delegate manager (a glorified term on program for our tour guide), is well... I guess the best way to describe her is smart with a large side of crazy. I will post some more details hopefully tonight after the ball! :)

Difficulty

Being at a different hotel than my co-author has posed a few problems. I cannot hand her a disc or media card and tell her to post videos or pictures that she requested. I told my students to record certain sections of speeches, take pictures of certain things and then give unto me their media cards for my postings. Tonight was a late night, hence the late (or early) posting. The student's first day of travel went fairly well. There were a few problems the delegates had with the dress code. On a conus People to People programme, students are required to follow the uniform guidelines. We generally wear Khaki pants and polo shirts. In a sea of travel groups this makes it very easy for me to pick them out in a crowd. Find the most uniform students and they must belong to me. The students are upset because they aren't allowed to wear jeans. You come thousands of miles, spend a load of money for a leadership honing experience, and you whine about not being able to wear jeans??? I suppose the fact that I grew up poor has made me a wee bit insensitive to this. Uniforms are a grand grand part of programming. I know its late and I shouldn't gripe about such things. The day was grand, the amount of people in the District is overwhelming. I've been downtown on a weekend during big events and the city was less full than today. It looked like a busy day in Manhattan.
I love the students and staff, they are just tired from their first day. Tomorrow they will be DEAD tired.

Training... Training... and more TRAINING!

Well, the last two days have been about... yup... you guessed it... training. I have been trying to post a few videos on here but have not been able to get them to work as of yet, but I'm still trying. Yesterday, we had some invigorating traing on student safety, security, and the overall itinerary of the program. It was interesting to learn some of the ins and outs of the security going on in the Washington, D.C. city right now and for inauguration day. We briefy discussed some of it with the students, but when you start to discuss snipers on top of buildings and the FBI... things get a little scary for these 6th and 7th graders. The only vehicles permitted to even enter the city will be buses. We are being given special permission to park on 12th street, but will still have to walk from there to the Lincoln Memorial, which will be our "resting" spot for the day. I think the students are super excited, which gives me even more enthusiasm for being here. I love teaching and seeing the world through their eyes. I am amazed to see how many other different student groups there are here this week as well. We are by far, though, the largest of the groups. I guess we have Dwight Eisenhower to thank for that, since he is the one that started this program to begin with! :)

As the days go on, I hope to add a little more to this blog as I'm sure Kris will as well when he has time. For now, here is a video on a student's perspective as to why the inauguration is an important event.

Let the Adventures Begin

Day one was all about connecting and reconnecting. Our first official day here I have met an array of wonderful educators from all over the country. I am rooming with a teacher from Richamond, VA and am working with three other educators on my bus from Missouri, Washington state, and a friend of mine from New Jersey. Collectively, there are over 40 teacher leaders here just at the hotel where I am volunteering. We have been told we have one of the largest delegations/number of students arriving tomorrow out of all 7 hotels that People to People is using this week. There will be around 400 students arriving here on Saturday for check-in. Our delegates will be 5th, 6th, and 7th graders. Today was mostly about getting to know each other as a staff. I feel very fortunate to be here at this hotel and we have a very experienced and dependable to staff.
Once the major events of the day were done, I was able to reconnect with many other teacher leaders I was worked with over the past 9 trips with this program. It is amazing to me just how many people across the country I have met. The friendships I have established with these people have been absolutely wonderful and enriching. I feel so lucky to be a part of this program and look forward to the new people I will be getting to know this week.

Stay tuned for more updates......

History of the Inauguration

Here are some fun little facts about the Presidential Inauguration:

*First Inauguration was of George Washington in New York City On April 30, 1789. This was supposed to take place on March 4, but since the winter was so bad not enough congressmen could get to New York City to count all the votes until April 6th. Even then, it took several days for George Washington to hear he had won.

*John Adams, George Washington's vice-president at the time, wanted to call him "His Most Benign Highness," but the congressional committee settled on "President of the United States."

*Many of the order of events that occured in Washington's inauguration, still continue today, such as after the swearing in there is an inaugural address (speech), and during his second term he was sworn in by a judge, which is how all the presidents are sworn in now.

*Thomas Jefferson was the first to be sworn in at what we know now to be our nation's capital, Washington, D.C.

*During Jefferson's second inauguration, after he was sworn in, he rode on horseback from the Capitol to the President's House (the name they used to use for the White House), with music and various people from the Navy Yard. This procession eventually gre into what we know as the Inaugural Parade.

*The first inaugural ball was held at Long's Hotel in Washington, D.C. in honor of our fourth President, James Madison. Soon after they started to grow...Martin Van Buren had two balls, President William Henry Harrison had three balls, and they kept getting bigger developing into what we have today, which is several parties held across the country in honor of the new President.

*Technology also played a role in the inauguration: 1st, on the members of Congress were a part of George Washington's inauguration, twenty years later at James Madison's inauguration, his entire speech was published in the newspaper. When James Polk took the oath, Samuel Morse tapped the news on his telegraph. James Buchanan was the first president to have his picture taken for his inauguration in 1857. Forty years later, the highlights of William Mckinley's inauguration was video taped. You could listen to Calvin Coolidge's address on the radio in 1925, and then finally in 1949, Harry Truman's inauguration was the first to ever be televised. The biggest boom in technology occurred in 1997 during Bill Clinton's inauguration was on the radio, televised, AND could be watched live on the internet.

*George Washington had the shortest inaugural address for his second term. It was only 135 words, whereas William Hnery Harrison gave the longest address, which was 8,445 words and took almost two hours.

These are just some highlights... I challenge you to find more!

Think you know enough to master an inauguration quiz? Try it out?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/onpolitics/inauguration2001/quiz.htm

Not long until Game time

I write this without my fellow contributor's knowledge. I don't think she'll be sore with me as I am to help her with her project. We plan on posting daily logs about our experiences on the programme, the mini adventures, and the difficulties surrounding conducting a program with an extra 4million people present. Washington DC wasn't really built to handle that many people. Hotels are all booked, friends of friend's houses are all full up, floor space is limited. I feel rather lucky that I'll be staying at the Hyatt Reston, enjoying a bit of that comfort. I will have a good staff, every experienced with programs, with problems, full of excitement. Kathy has been with the program a donkey's age and she offers great experience, I do hope to redeem myself in her eyes as I feel I have a lot to learn from her. I don't know Damon so well and this will give me an opportunity to work with new people. I am excited to see the students. The problems in my life seem to melt away when I see the delegates every morning. Some people go to church to get a spirit recharge, I go on program. I meed so many new and interesting people, people that amaze me. I don't think anyone really knows how grateful I am to be with the organization. I was never a child of privilege, but I feel like one now.
Cheers