Boston Field Study

Jer was able to explore many historical sights in the East with a group of American history teachers for a week during a program called “Driven 2 Teach” from Larry Miller to study the theme of “America’s Founding People and Principles”. They had stops from Boston to Philadelphia, including The Boston Tea Party Museum, the Mayflower, West Point, Louisa May Alcott’s “Orchard House” home in Concord MA where “Little Women” was written, national historic parks, and Valley Forge.

He was jokingly branded as the trouble maker / rebel of the group because he kept getting yelled at by the tour guides. One thought that he was leaning on a very old desk, one didn’t want him taking notes or drawing or asking questions or even looking at them, one was upset he was taking a picture after everyone left, one didn’t like that he was not keeping up with the group, etc.

They read several books in preparation for the trip, kept a reflective journal with notes, came up with at least two lesson ideas to apply in the classroom, and presented these at a post-seminar. I love that despite his goofball demeanor on tours, his peers got to see his serious working side and were impressed with his creative ideas and insightful comments in their discussions. Most of the teachers taught lower grades so he had a lot more depth of knowledge with his history from doing his Master’s program and regularly teaching older students in high school and concurrent classes for college credit.