Fun Day at Work!

Yesterday I went on a field trip to Birmingham to take our 6th grade group to the Birmingham Civil Rights Museum and the 16th Street Baptist Church where a bomb went off on September 15, 1963. As I was sitting in the church watching a video about the events leading up to and immediately after 9/15/63 I found it very surprising that I went to a school in Birmingham from 1st grade through 12th grade and never once had I ever been on a field trip to these places. Birmingham was where a lot of the Civil Rights Activists gathered and planned. It is a huge part of history and I think it so important to be exposed to these places...especially for kids who live in this city. One of the other teachers on the field trips mother met us at the museum and spoke to our kids while we waited to go in. She was arrested in May 1963 for marching and was in jail for 6 days. It was so interesting to hear her memories from those days. She was a few blocks away when the church was bombed. My mother in law told me that my sister in law went to the Civil Rights Museum when she was in middle school. I am thinking that it wasn't built when I was in elementary school. Although field trips can be exhausting, especially this time of year, it is really fun to get out of school. Usually the best connections with kids are made during field trips!
John had a fun day at work Friday as well. He got to take a ride in an aerial truck. This is something they manufacture at Altec-it is a utility truck that power companies use that have the big hydraulic arm lift with the bucket at the top. He went up in one that went 60 feet in the air. The steering is controlled by pressure...he said that you just have to steer it very lightly to make it move. He learned this the hard way by jerking it and the bucket swang very sharply to one side!