I spent last week in Washington, DC, with the seventh grade of my school. We had a great time. Originally, our trip was organized around having a bus for our students, and had been for many years. I and my colleagues decided to reorganize the trip, though, around using Amtrak from here in Connecticut to Union Station in DC. Once there, we made use of the Metro system for long-distance hauls, and walking for shorter distances.
It wound up being a mostly-great decision. Some of the kids had difficulty with the amount of walking we did, and we will likely do it differently next year. Yet by the end of the week, our students had mastered Metro travel. They did most of the trip calculations, figuring where we were going and how we were getting there. I was proud of them.
