Showing posts with label tour. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tour. Show all posts

Sunday, July 26, 2009

Podcast #194 - Tips and Suggestions for Walking Boston's Historic Freedom Trail


Hello. Today I did something that I've always wanted to do as an 8th grade teacher who starts off each school year by teaching the American Revolution - walk Boston's historic Freedom Trail. The Freedom Trail is a walking tour in Boston which covers roughly 23 historic locations over the distance of around 3.5 miles. I walked the length of the trail today and then doubled back to walk much of it again. I had a great time, learned a lot, took a ton of pictures and got my exercise by walking about 6 miles - what a day.

Instead of doing a site by site review of the trail, (there are plenty of places you can go online to learn about each location, like this one) I decide to offer a few tips and suggestions from my experience today.

I have included some pictures with this blog entry but have posted even more pictures as a set on Flickr here. Please feel free to use any of these photos in your class when you teach the Revolutionary War. Also, if you have any tips or suggestions for walking the Freedom Trail please share them here so that everyone can benefit from it.






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Monday, July 09, 2007

Podcast #107 - Constitution Workshop Day 1 - Touring the Old City, Constitution Center and City Tavern


Hello. We started our NEH Landmark Workshop today in Philadelphia - "A Revolution in Government" with the National Constitution Center. Today we met the other participants - 40 teachers from all over the United States. We did a quick tour of the Constitution Center, a mini tour of Old City in downtown Philadelphia, a lecture from John Murrin of Princeton University and a presentation on creating classroom ready lesson plans by Eli Lesser, Director of Teacher Education for the National Constitution Center. The entire staff from the Constitution Center that we will be working with this week in fantastic - Eli Lesser, Laura Keenan and Patrick Spero.





Tonight a group of us went to City Tavern - a historic eating establishment here in Philadelphia that sits on the exact location of the tavern where the Founding Fathers went to eat and drink after a hard day of debating and creating our Constitution. It was good food and even greater conversation about teaching history. It was a very full first day of the workshop and I think this group has a great energy that should make it a super week.



If you have any comments please leave a comment on the blog or email me at speakingofhistory@gmail.com Also, don't forget you have until July 31, 2007 to e-mail me your name and city to be eligible to win a copy of Manhunt or Guerrilla Season - check out episode #100 for more details.


Podcast #107 Show Notes :




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Podcast #106 - Valley Forge, Washington's Crossing and an Interview with George Washington


Hello. Today was a free day in Philadelphia before the Constitution Center workshop begins on Monday. When I teach the American Revolution to my 8th graders I have always wondered what Valley Forge and the location of Washington's Crossing would look like in person. Today I was able to see both sites. Pat Hughes, the author of Guerrilla Season and a resident of Philadelphia, was nice enough to share the day with me and offered to drive - a huge relief to me who would have been lost about a dozen times on the way there had I driven!




We wanted to see both locations so we didn't see everything at both locations, rather we saw the things we really wanted to see at each in a very busy day. The rest I'll see on my next trip to the Philadelphia area. Valley Forge was great and I have interviews with a couple of soldiers in the encampment. Then at Washington's headquarters I was blown away by the amazing living history portrayal of George Washington. This guy was awesome in appearance, voice, mannerisms, etc. - check out the photo. I did an interview with him and I swear I was visiting with ol' George himself! I also interviewed a slave that prepared the meals for George Washington and his staff at the headquarters. We finished up the day with a trip to Washington's Crossing State Park, including a tour of McConkey's Ferry Inn where Washington made the final plans for the crossing and attack on Trenton.



A very full but exciting day. I look forward to returning some day with my family and taking time to soak in the entire site. The podcast is a little longer this time - a little over 50 minutes - but I think there is some great on site audio.

If you have any comments please leave a comment on the blog or email me at speakingofhistory@gmail.com Also, don't forget you have until July 31, 2007 to e-mail me your name and city to be eligible to win a copy of Manhunt or Guerrilla Season - check out episode #100 for more details.




Podcast #106 Show Notes:




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Friday, July 06, 2007

Podcast #104 - Gettysburg Day 3 and 4 - Evergreen and Gettysburg Cemetery



Hello. Our work at the Lincoln institute on the campus continued on Wednesday and Thursday with some more excellent lectures and a field trip to the Evergreen Cemetery and Gettysburg Cemetery. The Evergreen Cemetery was already established at the time of the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863. We toured the cemetery and the Gatehouse - a famous historical landmark featured in many early photographs taken after the battle, including the few pictures remaining from Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. Listen to podcast for details of our tour of these Gettysburg cemeteries.





If you would like to comment on this post, or the podcast in general, please leave a comment on this post or e-mail me at speakingofhistory@gmail.com


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Wednesday, July 04, 2007

Podcast #101 - Gettysburg Day 1 - Battlefield Tour



Hello. Today's podcast is about an incredible opportunity I had while here in Gettysburg at the Gilder Lerhman American History Institute on Lincoln. We listened to some amazing lectures on Lincoln and then in the afternoon had some time to visit the Gettysburg Battlefield site. It was extra special because Monday was the 144th anniversary of the battle. The day was beautiful - mid 70s with a blue sky and slight breeze. We sat on Little Roundtop at the exact time of day that the Union took the position. It was a spirtual experience. I discuss the day in this podcast. I have also included some of the pictures I took on the battlefield.




Podcast #101 Show Notes:




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Thursday, June 21, 2007

Podcast #94 - Day Two in Chicago - The Museum of Science and Industry and Tommy Guns Garage


Hello. Today's podcast describes the adventures of my wife and I in Chicago on Day 2 of our vacation. We did two major things during our second day in the Windy City - a trip to the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry and a dinner theater experience at Tommy Gun's Garage.

The highlight of our trip to the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry was seeing the U-505 Submarine - a captured German submarine from World War II. I remember seeing the submarine in the mid 1980's as a child visiting the museum while on vacation with my family. At the time it was sitting outside and didn't have much of a exhibit to go with it. Today it has been restored and is one of the best museum exhibits that I have ever seen. We were able to tour the submarine to learn it's incredible history and then learned more about submarines in the high tech and interactive exhibits. We also sent through the CSI Experience temporary exhibit at the museum. The CSI exhibit is at the museum until September 3, 2007.


In the evening we had made reservations at Tommy Gun's Garage - a dinner theater style event that plays up the 1920's Chicago gangster type atmosphere. After giving the secret password to the man guarding the door we were treated to a great dinner - I had the lasagna and my wife had the salmon. The atmosphere is awesome - you are in a 1920's speakeasy complete with a 1920's automobile, pictures of famous gangsters in Chicago history, etc. After dinner we were treated to dancing, singing, and a comedy routine. When we were raided by the police in the middle of the show we had to act as though we were at a church revival! Overall it was a great evening and something I would suggest to anyone traveling to Chicago.


If you have any comments about the podcast you can leave a comment to this blog entry or you can e-mail us directly at speakingofhistory@gmail.com




Podcast #94 Show Notes:





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Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Podcast #93 - Day One in Chicago - Millennium Park and Cubs Game at Wrigley Field


Hello. Last week my wife and I spent a few days in Chicago on vacation. We had a great time and wanted to share our experiences in the Windy City. We took the train from Tinley Park to downtown and set out to explore the city. On our first day we took a tour of Millennium Park and took in the Bean, ate a sandwhich in the park and saw the Crown Fountains. In the afternoon we took the L to Wrigley and watched the Cubs beat the Mariners 3-2. You can listen to what happened on our trip - it may save you some time and money on your next trip to Chicago.


You can comment to this podcast by posting a comment to this blog entry or you can e-mail us at speakingofhistory@gmail.com





Podcast #93 Show Notes:





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Sunday, June 10, 2007

Podcast #88 - Dana Thomas House Tour - Frank lloyd Wright


Hello. Today my wife and I toured the Dana Thomas House in Springfield, Illinois. This was a great stop on our vacation since we both enjoy seeing FLW homes. The home is an amazing example of his Prairie Style architecture and is almost exactly as it was in 1910. I was amazed that we were able to see the entire home - which includes over 12,600 feet and 35 rooms. Our tour guide was Bob Cash and my wife and I felt that he did a great job. You are not allowed to take pictures of the inside of the home but I did take some pictures of the outside of the home. The site has a wonderful gift shop but if you are unable to visit in person check out the Sumac Shop online. If you are in Springfield to visit the Lincoln sites please also stop by the Dana Thomas House, it is a wonderful tour.





If you have any comments about this podcast please post a comment to this entry or send me a note at speakingofhistory@gmail.com

Show Notes for Podcast #88:


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Sunday, July 09, 2006

Podcast #34 - Touring the USS Midway in San Diego at NECC 2006

Hello. Just getting everything unpacked from a great week in San Diego attending NECC 2006. It was a great conference with some amazing converstations centering around web 2.0, blogging, podcasting, web applications, etc. I will have more to report on NECC later this week, including some thoughts from the sessions I attended and the people I met. Today I want to share another adventure from the History Hits the Road Tour 2006. The teachers from our district who attended NECC stayed on the harbor and each day on our way to the convention center from our hotel we would pass by the USS Midway - an aircraft carrier which saw service from World War II through Dessert Storm. Before we returned to Kansas City on Friday, Marty Kelsey (another Liberty teacher) and I toured the ship. It was such a thrill to walk on the flight deck and think of all the amazing history that took place on this ship. Not only did this ship see action in war, it also picked up the astronauts as they returned from the moon. The Midway was in service for 47 years and was home to over a quarter of a million sailors in her career.

I took some audio from veterans who served as tour guides aboard the ship. Each person who pays for addmission to the ship also is given a small device that allows them to follow along with a self guided audio tour. This device is a product of Antenna Audio. It allowed you to listen to an audio tour of various parts of the ship. For example, if you were standing on the flight deck and wanted to learn more about the plane you were standing in front of you could simply type the number on the display into the device and it would load that portion of the tour. I realize that these devices are used at museums around the world but I thought this device was very well organized and easy to use.

The podcast contains audio from some of the veterans onboard and a short clip from the preprogramed audio tour. There was a little wind so the audio from the flight deck does have a little "noise" in the background. The podcast answers some interesting questions, such as:

  • How does a plane take off from the flight deck of a carrier?
  • How does a fighter pilot go to the bathroom while in flight?
  • What do you cook for the thousands of sailors onboard?
  • How do you organize the planes taking off and landing on the flight deck?
  • What happens if you try to take off from the flight deck and you left your parking brake on?

If you have any comments or questions please feel free to contact me at speakingofhistory@gmail.com

Direct link to listen to Podcast #34 - Touring the USS Midway in San Diego at NECC 2006 - MP3 Format (19:44 minutes)

Podcast #34 Show Notes:


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