On October 27th and 28th, the sophomore class went on the annual overnight trip to Concord, Salem, and Boston. This two day experience provided students with a first hand look at many of the sites they have learned about in depth in their respective History, English, or Humanities classes so far this year.
“There are a lot of things I like about the Boston Trip. It gives me a chance to be with the kids outside of the traditional day where we are all scrambling madly to get from one class to another.” Mr. Reyes said. He continued, “We don’t have a chance to talk, or interact as people, and the trip lets us do that. It really is an opportunity to get outside and see what it is we are learning about – sort of grow a little bit closer as a Form. I love the free time, that we can have dinner, walk around and explore some of the towns, and that we have some non-structured space and time together. Plus, I also like American History and the Revolution, so that gives me a chance to see a lot of the stuff I read about . Most importantly, over the years my kids always tell me they are happy and if they are enjoying it, then it was worth the time that we spent there.” Despite having been a dean for 18 years, Mr. Reyes only gets to go every four years, making this his fifth boston trip.
For students like me in the Humanities class, this trip was not like any normal field trip, but rather an interactive one, as we acted as our own tour guides. In preparation for the trip, we were placed in small groups and given two sites to investigate and research in the library. Then we were challenged to come up with an interesting way to present this newfound information to our classmates on the trip. Some groups wrote songs, some planned scavenger hunts, and some even performed skits in order to engage their audience and help them learn the material in the most fascinating and retainable way possible. “I really enjoyed being able to learn through walking around and going to the actual places and listening to my peers’ presentations instead of just looking at pictures online. Boston is such a cool city and it was so fun to travel through it with school friends even if it was not in a school setting,” said Humanities student Dani Bohart.
While all Form IV students visited the same sites, most of the students in the traditional English and History classes were not required to study the locations beforehand and were given more free time to walk around each stop on the trip. “One important place we visited for our English course was Walden Pond where Henry David Thoreau wrote his famous Walden. Since we had been studying colonial America and the American revolution in History, we went on iconic parts of the freedom trail where famous historical events occurred. Overall, it was a great trip combining our mental knowledge of what happened to the physical place of where it happened.” said Alexander Thorpe.
Year after year this trip is extremely successful, and it definitely lived up to the “hype.” For the freshman, the Boston Trip is something to look forward to, and for the rest of the school it is a part of their high school career that they will remember forever.
