“Travel makes one modest. You see what a tiny place you occupy in the world.”
― Gustave Flaubert
One of my goals as a teacher is to have students realize that there is an entire world outside of our small, one-square-mile town. Travel isn't always easy or convenient, but it IS necessary towards creating individuals who are globally-minded.
Last year, the planning began to take a performance trip to Washington DC. It is within a reasonable driving distance, there's a lot to see, and many of the attractions are free! I wanted to keep the cost as low as possible in order to attract as many music students. In the end, I had 36 committed musicians, 3 teachers, a vice principal, and a school nurse on board. And we survived! Here is a sampling of our three day journey-
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| 5:30am report time…Go to sleep! |
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| Super excited for the Library of Congress! |
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| The hidden gem of our trip- The Library of Congress- SO Beautiful!! |
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| Our group outside the US Capitol Building |
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| The weirdest thing I found at the Air & Space Museum- Shark Repellent! |
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| WWII Memorial |
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| Lincoln Memorial Selfie |
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| Artsy at Korean War Memorial |
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| Chorus at Saturday's Performance |
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Band at Saturday's Performance
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| Ready to have fun at 6 Flags America |
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| Our awards- 1st Place Concert Band, Jazz Band, and Chorus! Improvement from last year! |
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| Sunday at Arlington National Cemetery |
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| Iwo Jima/Marines Memorial |
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| Ford's Theater |
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| Dizzy Gillespie's Trumpet- Museum of American History |
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| Bill Clinton's Tenor Sax- Museum of American History |
We walked 20 miles this weekend! Things went well- we didn't lose anybody or anything. We had one broken tenor sax and a few bumps, bruises, and headaches- but I'll take it! I'm happy to have been able to offer this experience for the students. Some of them even commented that they would look in to applying to colleges outside of our home state because of this trip! I'm proud of the way our students behaved. They represented our school with dignity and respect.
I'd like to send a big THANK YOU to the staff members (and parents!) that traveled with us and helped me stay sane. You're all wonderful!
I'm glad we went, but I could now use a vacation from our vacation- only 29 days of school left!!
Where have you traveled with your performing groups? Looking for ideas for a few years from now...
