Two weeks!

It's T minus two weeks to travel time; I fly out on Tuesday, July 6th, and stay until the 20th. I can't believe how fast the time is going! There is still so much that I want to do to be fully prepared for the trip.

I've laid out a tentative itinerary for my time. Flights into Providence, RI, proved to be a bit cheaper than those into Boston and just as close to the sites I want to visit, with less traffic to fight. That places me closer to Western Massachusetts, so I'll start with Old Sturbridge Village and Amherst, home of Miss Emily, then circle northeast to New Hampshire and back south for all the areas around Boston.

One of the things I am most excited about is that although I planned the grant to coincide with a few author units and one play, it's turning out to provide me with a wealth of information that I can use throughout the year. For example, video from Old Sturbridge Village will be an excellent induction for my pre-colonial literature unit. I've also been able to add the Adams National Historic Site in Quincy, which will benefit us in studying the letters of Abigail Adams. She was an important early proponent of women's issues and a highly educated and skilled writer, especially for the time. I like to use her work to help my girls see how long it took for many good people to bring about the chances for equality that women have today, that it wasn't just a few years of suffragettes working for the vote before that right was acknowledged.

A few people have noted that much of what I'm interested in for this travel is related to history as much or more than literature. That's true, and there are two reasons: (1) all literature is relative to the time period in which it is produced, and (2) since America's culture is so young, much of what we study is the non-fiction writings of early colonists, such as diaries, letters, personal histories, and public documents. (It's been less than 200 years since America's first professional writer, Washington Irving, made a steady income as an author.) In the Oklahoma PASS objectives as well as AP programs, non-fiction writing and study is emphasized for English III. It wasn't planned when I wrote the grant, but I've been able to add so much to my study because of the fact that the Boston area is rich in historical sites.

I've made the leap to video, purchasing my new camera last week and practicing how to use it, as well as completing a class in how to use Windows MovieMaker. Now, if only I could figure out how to get the video from the camera to the computer drives to edit it! Thankfully, our school has an incredibly helpful tech department who already set me up with a laptop so I can blog on the road, and I know that Dave and Ben will also assist with the video processes. I just hope I have enough SD cards for the experiences I'm expecting!

I'm going to get back to work on the video-Rubik's cube of cables and uploads. Keep an eye out for future posts, daily starting the 6th!