USM D.C. 2008

Podcast-National Museum of the Marine Corps

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Montagne) — Sat, 03 May 2008 21:56:00 +0000

I've been to the National Museum of the Marine Corps three times now, and when we went to the museum this past Wednesday I thought I would simply record my reflections and interview a few teachers, students and even a museum docent. The recording is about 20 minutes long and it is posted below.

I spoke with the following individuals in this podcast: Emily H, Alexis L, Connor C, Jack C, Matthew, Cori, Marsalis, Kelly B, and voluteer docent, Harold Kennedy.

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Happy to be home!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 03 May 2008 18:20:00 +0000

It was a long journey - 113 hours, give or take a few minutes -but all of our historical tourists are finally at home. The trip was incredible ("legit", as one or two 8th graders would say), and the students were fantastic travelers. Matt, Joe, and I will continue to post photos and video over the next few days as we wake up.

Right now, a few of us are in Madison participating in the state National History Day contest. The competition is fierce, but our tired historians are holding their own. We will update everyone about the results on Monday!

Thanks again to all of the great chaperones and parents who made the trip possible, and thanks to the support we had at home for the trip.

Of course, a final thanks to the students - they were all rock stars.

Interview with Tyrone Brown

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Montagne) — Sat, 03 May 2008 16:55:00 +0000

I had the good fortune to sit down and record a conversation with our tour bus driver, Tyrone Brown (Ty is pictured to the left along with Joe Georgeson, our 8th grade math teacher). A picture of Ty and myself may be accessed here. Ty shares his personal story about growing up in the DC area in a poor black family and then moving on to become a DC Transit/Metro bus driver. In the conversation Ty shares his personal account of what DC was like during the civil rights movement of the 60s and he also talks a bit about the Vietnam protests. Ty really is a wonderful man, a great storyteller, and of course incredibly knowledgeable about the history of the greater DC area. If you listen to this recording you'll see that Ty is a pretty special guy - everyone on the USM DC trip over the past 3 years really is quite lucky to have the experience of learning from Ty. It certainly was a privilege to be able to interview Ty and I thank him for sharing his personal story with us.

This interview is about 40 minutes in length and may be accessed by clicking the play button on the media player below or by clicking the download link.

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Thrilltastic Thursday

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 02 May 2008 03:25:00 +0000

A great day for the start of May! Arlington National Cemetery with a USM wreath laying, a visit with Senator Feingold, a quick capitol tour, lunch at Union Station, fun at the National Zoo, a White House picture stop, and the students' favorite - pizza a dancing on the Potomac River.

The Wreath Laying Ceremony

Fun Little Video

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Montagne) — Fri, 02 May 2008 02:16:00 +0000

Check out this fun little video that we created with our pictures from the past several days...enjoy!

More from Wednesday

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 01 May 2008 02:16:00 +0000

Some more video fun!

The second video is one of the great stories of my DC career. Mitchell and Paul spoke with Mr. Collasard at the USMC Museum. Thay spoke with him for 10 minutes, talking about Iwo Jima, their NHD project. Mr. Collasard went to his locker, grabbed his phots from a recent trip to Iwo Jima and shared them with the guys, Finally, he presented them with a small sample of sand from Iwo Jima. I had to tear up. It was so very cool.

Civil War Wednesday

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 01 May 2008 01:53:00 +0000

The Civil War was the theme for most of the day as we traveled to Petersburg, Virginia to visit the American Museum of the Civil War Soldier. We experienced the life of a soldier firsthand with some drilling, walked the grounds of the battlefield of the Breakthrough in April of 1865, and strolled through the interactive museum, following the life of an actual soldier. We stopped at the US Marine Corps Museum in Quantico, which turned out to be a favorite if many travelers. We finished the day with a tour of the World War II Memorial, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, and the Korean War Veterans Memorial. All in all - an awesome day making capital memories in DC.

More from Tuesday!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 03:07:00 +0000

A few more videos

Tuesday in the nation's capital - old and new

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 02:55:00 +0000

It's not often that an 8th grader gets to visit the nation's capital ... but two different ones in one day? Yup, because we started in Philly, the former capital of the US. We saw Independence Hall and the most important room in American history, we visited the National Constitution Center, and then ended the day with a trip to our present capital - DC! We hit the National Archives and a Washington Nationals baseball game. What a day! We are working on posting some videos and more images. A big Civil War day tomorrow, capped off by a trip to the major memorials on the National Mall. The tourists have been excellent - tired, but behaving great.

Delayed!

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Montagne) — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 17:39:00 +0000

Ahh...the joys of traveling. Be sure to check out the live photos that the students and teachers are posting by clicking the link along the right hand side of this page or by viewing the slide show in the right side bar (photos from today are under the "Monday-We're Off section"). Some video will be posted as well over the course of the week. We embedded directly in this blog post as well. Please feel free to leave comments on this blog or directly under the photos at flickr. You will need a flickr account in order to leave comments on the photos.

Be sure to check out the Twitter updates from Jack and Alex. They'll be posting updates from their cellphones throughout the week. The updates will appear in the sidebar section at the bottom of the page titled, "Where are Jack and Alex?"

It looks like each flight will arrive an hour or two later than we planned. We are going to try to do a live broadcast from the hotel in Philly later tonight. Check your email and this blog to view the live broadcast.

The DC Plan

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 01:21:00 +0000

Let's see if this works, folks! Matt Montagne and I (and some of our historical tourists) will be using this site to communicate as we travel to Philly and D.C. We will have a few methods of communication avaialble.

Blog postings - One of us will try to post something every evening, just to reflect on some of the highlights of the trip. Hopefully we can have some students add their reflections as well!
UStream - If we can get it to work, we will try to have a live video feed or "CapitolCast" every night. The feed will be streamed onto this site and also at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/usm-dc-2008 - the password is "historyrules"
Pictures - We have two ideas for sharing images from our trip. Matt will be uploading high quality images each night, and we should have either a link or a slideshow on this blog. Our other plan is to have students post some of their own images from cell phones. The student cell phone pictures will be posted real-time and will show up both in the side bar slide show on this blog and under the daily photos link section to the right.
AuidoCasts - Using a great platform called gcast, we will have audio updates throughout the trip. You can use the player on the blog here, or you can download the podcast on iTunes!
Where are Jack and Alex? - Jack and Alex will be texting live Twitter updates about his latest doings via text messaging on his cellphone. You can keep up with Jack, Alex and the 8th grade students via the "Where are Jack and Alex?" section at the bottom of the side bar on the right-hand side of the page. Alex's direct Twitter updates may located here and Jack's direct updates here.