Another day another really early start. I decided to stop trying to get into the correct timezone now as with only a few days to go I would probably be better off in just managing without retraining my sleep pattern I would just utilise the early mornings by doing things that I can do quietly without disturbing the rest of the house.
Having not got to bed too late yesterday from the banquet at Jefferson city I was up really early for one of Rhett's international video calls that he had set up with Greece. The timezones here don't really help Rhett or his students out as they came into school for 6 am to get a chance to talk to their Greek friends face to face. Rhett schedules these calls throughout the year with different countries as they pop up during the world history course that he teaches. So we arrive at school just before 6. It is completely pitch black and yet there are already students in cars with their parents waiting for this chance to meet and chat with these students. As Rhett says, think of the best lesson you have ever taught and then ask yourself would your kids come into class at 6 am for it? The classroom was completely packed and he had about 45 students in there. As with all of these things, there was a slight glitch with the video feed coming from Greece which meant that they could hear and see us but we couldn't see them. The students did the best they could and it was a good experience for all of the students.
So then I finally got to drive in the USA. The things that I was most concerned about was losing Rhett on the drive or failing to stop at one of the many stop signs coming out of Ste Gen. Almost on every junction they have stop signs and instructions on how many ways it applies to. Then it works as first dibs depending on when you got to the junction. Only at major junctions in town are there traffic lights but roundabouts are unheard of.
Once out of Ste Gen, the drive straight up the interstate was really stress-free and easy. The students in my car enjoyed a spirited sing song along the way and we soon arrived at St Louis, the nearest city to Ste Gen. The city is home to the brewer that produces Budweiser along with other beers and is titled the gateway to the west. Once parked we walked to the Arch.
he arch is a prime example of a mathematically engineered structure. It is a deceptive design as it is a tool that is white what are looking at it it seems an awful lot wider than it is tall. After going up the arch we had a chance to buy souvenirs and look at the new museum that has recently been opened for the Arch or go to the Cafe. The students mainly went to the cafe to get some food and drink. It really surprises me that students favour the food over the other two with the retail coming second. I guess this comes back to the idea that students need some instant gratification or at least will aim for it when given an option. The museum itself would have been far more work and not been as rewarding. Students were really good asking questions about the arch and later in the day when there wasn't the option of something else.
Not being much of a historian I didn't really know what the arch was for or there to represent. The Arch is the tallest man-made monument in the USA was there to commemorate the city being a gateway to the west as people flocked to the west in search of gold. The memorial is probably the only memorial in the world that is a dedication to people leaving the city!
After the arch and another photo opportunity, we went on the boat trip up the Mississippi river. The boat was an imitation paddle steamer but was a good copy despite its paddle broken and not turning properly at the back. The tour of the Missippi was a nice relaxing experience that really highlighted the stark contrast between the two sides of the river. The dividing line between the states is the river and I guess that this divide has prevented the city from expanding both sides of the river. Lunch at the Ballpark village which backs right onto the Cardinals playing field. We could see the stadium and on match days I imagine the village is packed to the rafters. After lunch, we made a quick stop at the old courthouse. We weren't sure how much our students would be interested in this but actually when they were told about the case that was tried here with the outcome that slaves were property and not people really shook them.
All of our students were really gripped and started to ask some really intelligent questions and really being interested in history. It is really interesting to see how a student's own viewpoint or sense of social injustice in the current world makes this part of history more engaging. I don't believe for a second that the students were intending to come and learn about slavery as part of our trip or even the day but when they have an emotive response to what they can see and hear and in a sense feel the history. To stand where the case was heard sparked this interest and an emotive interest. I believe that we need to try and spark these emotive responses regularly in order to maintain students interest in any subject!
The roads in the USA are broad roads that go for miles without lots of turns and vehicles are able to cover large distances as the whole road is moving at a high speed. There isn't much we can do about this in the UK as we are such a densely populated country that the regular junctions, roundabouts and traffic lights.
I took another self-indulgent moment on the trip and went with Shelley to her churches choir practise. I was interested to have a play on the organ which was made by the same company that made the one at my own church in the UK! The hymns and songs sung in church were largely the same as in the UK. I am not sure if I was really expecting a difference or not but I guess I was surprised to see they were similar. 7 members of the choir arrived and went through the next couple of weeks music so the commitment here is less of a disruption to the rest of people's lives. I joined in as best as I could singing and really enjoyed it and am now thinking about trying to get back to my own church more regularly when I get home. Sunday morning sports with the boys makes this difficult but I will see what we can squeeze in.
Next morning and driving again but this time on far more of an epic adventure driving to Memphis. A slightly delayed start but soon we are pounding the interstate down to Memphis. The 200ish mile journey takes us about 3 hours with a pit stop which is amazing going. At times the road was so straight and long you could see for miles as though the road would never end!
Our first stop was the legendary Sun Records and the studio tour. I was slightly concerned that our students may not be as interested as the era of the music is a bit before their time but actually the ambience of the place and the amazing job the tour guide did to get everyone enthusiastic gripped everyone. The recording studio is brilliant and the stories of the artists that have been through since 'Elvis had left the building' is really astonishing.
From Sun records we went to Beale street. Lunch in one of the many bbq restaurants was in order and we entered this diner with live music. This guy was sitting there with a guitar and a large array of
pedals and was playing a mixture of blues and rock and was utterly amazing. We had a photo with Chris Gales, the guitar player, and enjoyed some bbq food. Then, of course, we had to take a walk in Memphis and looked in some of the retail outlets before taking a brief drive to the motel where Martin Luther King was assassinated. We didn't have time to take in the tour but our students again took the time to read the information boards and also the video screens that were outside. Again they had a number of questions that were sensible and they were interested in hearing the story behind the events and what happened to James Earl Ray afterwards.
From the Lorraine Motel, a short drive took us to Graceland, the home of the late Elvis Presley. The tour of the legendary musician's home started in a small film studio to see a montage of Elvis' music
and then a bus ride through the gates of Graceland up to the main house itself. The home has been preserved with the original decor. The audio tour gives a good insight into the tour. We were really lucky that the weather was nice and also that it wasn't busy. We had plenty of time and space to walk around the house and grounds. I was really surprised by the decoration in some of the party rooms but I guess at the time Elvis could pretty much do exactly as he pleased. I will save you from the photos in this blog and I would want to spoil it if you haven't been yet!
With the tour completed, we travelled back to Ste Gen. One last stop on route to Lambert's diner. The home of the thrown roll! This diner was completely full of character and the waiting staff kept coming round with sides that you could add to your meal including rolls, that would be thrown either really high or really fast at you. Some of the time these weren't caught but sent flying across the room. Almost every inch of the wooden walls is covered in a mixture of signs, license plates and other memorabilia collected from who knows where! This is a really characterful restaurant and a definite place to revisit in the future.
What an amazing couple of days with some amazing sights that I have only dreamed of visiting. The students really enjoyed themselves which is always a risk of planning some day trips where it is sightseeing as not everything will appeal to everyone but I think the mixture of monuments, history and music was a perfect combination together with some restaurants with quirks that made the days a real treat for the kids.
5 Good
By this time I knew that this wasn't going to be the best looking cake in the world but then I tried to construct the cake. The worse of the two layers was covered with jam and then the runny buttercream, ready for the other layer to go on the top, which by now had welded itself to the plate and when I flipped it over it was just as bad as the other one. The final straw cake when trying to stick the candles in the top it just started to self-destruct but we managed to keep it together long enough for Rhett to blow out the candles!
Another morning at school as Ste Gen is having their annual Parent-teacher conference and closes early for this. This happens once a year with the whole school going to see their teachers at the end of the first quarter. At first reading, this seems a bit crazy, but then this needs really putting into context. In the UK there is no way I'd be able to see all of the students that I see at one sitting. Teaching nearly 300 students if they all came that would take somewhere near 15 hours! However, here the teacher teaches about 120 students, so this is an easier process although there isn't the opportunity for everyone to get through this does make the process a simpler one.
The students had to hand in homework at the start of the lesson and I caught a student finishing it off with the help of another student and I had to ask her if that was a regular occurrence. I wasn't trying to catch her out and didn't embarrass her in front of her teacher but I often see our students sitting in our canteen finishing homework either with someone else's work or help being given every morning back in the UK. She said it wasn't a regular thing but gave me a rye smile which made me conclude otherwise. I really do question the validity of homework and in Ste Gen, it counts approx 40% towards their final grade whereas in the UK it doesn't count for any part of their formal grade! I know along with most things in education depending on what bit of research you read you get polar opposites of the validity of homework, and I guess in an ideal world it would be an ideal opportunity to give students an additional time to consolidate or learn something new but there are so many barriers to this being a completed by all students. If students are not in a routine to complete at home then it becomes an issue that can take a lot of time and energy to resolve by which time the objective of the learning has been lost and the topic has moved on.
I also discovered on this trip that some of the UK students use picture maths to get through their homework. What a complete waste of everyone's time and energy and certainly any feedback delivered to them is wasted as it doesn't address any of the issues that the students have. We assume learning has taken place and actually there is nothing to show this.
The promotion of success can cause some anxiety with the players etc, but when I asked if there were students not coming into school because of these anxieties he said no. Unlike the situation in the UK!
After the arch and another photo opportunity, we went on the boat trip up the Mississippi river. The boat was an imitation paddle steamer but was a good copy despite its paddle broken and not turning properly at the back. The tour of the Missippi was a nice relaxing experience that really highlighted the stark contrast between the two sides of the river. The dividing line between the states is the river and I guess that this divide has prevented the city from expanding both sides of the river. Lunch at the Ballpark village which backs right onto the Cardinals playing field. We could see the stadium and on match days I imagine the village is packed to the rafters. After lunch, we made a quick stop at the old courthouse. We weren't sure how much our students would be interested in this but actually when they were told about the case that was tried here with the outcome that slaves were property and not people really shook them. 
From Sun records we went to Beale street. Lunch in one of the many bbq restaurants was in order and we entered this diner with live music. This guy was sitting there with a guitar and a large array of
pedals and was playing a mixture of blues and rock and was utterly amazing. We had a photo with Chris Gales, the guitar player, and enjoyed some bbq food. Then, of course, we had to take a walk in Memphis and looked in some of the retail outlets before taking a brief drive to the motel where Martin Luther King was assassinated. We didn't have time to take in the tour but our students again took the time to read the information boards and also the video screens that were outside. Again they had a number of questions that were sensible and they were interested in hearing the story behind the events and what happened to James Earl Ray afterwards.
When I reached the 'PAC' I couldn't believe my eyes. It was an amazing building, with huge classrooms for their band, and choirs on opposite sides of the main auditorium. There were over 100 students in the band practise room with space for instruments to be stored and rehearsals to take place. I imagine you could get a whole symphony in there at once. The opposite side had a large class of singers learning a new song as part of the choir. The main auditorium was incredible. Permanent seating for over 1000 people a full-size stage and plenty of space in the wings for set and scenery. A large green room is also part of this amazing setup including a fully functional technical area too. This put some of the West End theatres in London to shame with how amazing this building is.
On from the 'PAC' is the school's football field with bleachers on both sides, a running track around it and the main surface is astroturf allowing use in all weathers. I loved this field and was again in awe of what the school has. I can only imagine what a game is like on this field with the band, cheerleaders, and most of the school community coming out to watch and support their team.
The historical tour of Ste Gen started at the Cemetary in town. Our tour guide Mickey was there dressed in traditional 19th Century wear. She started off talking about the cemetery and I was concerned with how our students would respond to a tour of the cemetery. However, our tour guide was brilliant, the amount of history that she shared was exceptional and the town has worked really hard to confirm it's history by getting some ground penetrating radar in to confirm locations of graves in the grounds. The story that stuck with me the most was about Senator Linn and his wife that had been buried in the cemetery and there had been a reason to move him and his wife to the new cemetery he had to been moved and then the town put a fence around the outside of the old cemetery they were moved back. What made me the most amused about this story is that having been buried in a lead coffin so he had been mummified and then the town decided to parade the local school children round so that they could see him, this before he was reburied for the third time, this time by the Catholic church back into his original grave. Not bad for a man that was a Baptist! My students were unimpressed with my laughter at this story but with all the things that happened to him after death, it was definitely not a rest in peace!
After our lunch in the Anvil restaurant, we had time for one more of the historical properties to look at. Again we weren't disappointed with this and the explanation about the vertical log construction of houses and how the whole of the roof structure had been made without a single metal nail!
My day started early, our plan was to visit a sports bar in St Louis, an hours drive away so that we could watch the English Premier League football matches. The first game of the day started at 6 am local time so the bar would be open and the fans were in drinking beer. They had obviously been in since the game had started and they were enjoying the football both inside the bar and out in the beer garden. We arrived at 8 am to watch the last few minutes of Man Utd v Chelsea game that ended in a draw. 
The next part of our day was a visit to Das Bevo a restaurant in the heart of St Louis that had an oversized windmill as part of the exterior. The owners have made it look like a Bavarian-themed dining hall with dark wood panelling on the walls and dee head mounted to the wall with a pipe. There are gnomes on the bottom of each wooden arch as the original builder had a particular fondness for them. The food was good and there were setting a reality tv show being filmed in the restaurant but I’m glad they hadn’t started filming before we left!
The afternoon was then spent visiting a couple of local wineries and enjoying sampling some American wine. As with all vineyards, the blending of grapes with other flavours gives these small vineyards
a variety of wines and flavours. Some of these were not to my palet but others were simply delicious.
