Thursday Highlights

Thursday was a huge day! Between our trench warfare lesson and the Harvest Festival, it was good times from sun up until well after sundown.

8:00 - We started the morning in the classroom just long enough to take attendance and go over some ground rules. Everyone packed up their belongings and marched off to the trenches. Once we left the building, no one was allowed back in for anything besides the bathroom. Everyone was quite cheerful and excited to get started. Belongings were dropped in the grass and everyone huddled together to get their instructions. The Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance were each assigned an area, given their boundraies and told to begin.

8:30 - The digging began with plenty of singing, chatting, and chanting. I was quite impressed with the lack of standing around and how well everyone was working together. Most were using shovels to escavate while those without shovels moved the dirt out of the hole. Each side took a different approach. One side chose to create a wide trench and then worry about depth while the other side focused on getting deep early and then worry about width. Chants and jeers were traded with lots of good humor thrown in.

10:30 - For 2.5 hours each side worked on their trench with no ill words and plenty of sweat. Jackets and outer rain gear had long since been shed and tossed aside. I called a stop and gave them a minute to take a deep breath and assess their surroundings. They were then given 5 minutes to situate themselves in their trench. Once the 5 minute period was up, they would not be allowed out, except for the restroom. They had to make sure they had everything they needed and could contain everything within their trench. Each side scrambled to get everything moved and to find a comfortable position to spend the day. The side that went wide discovered they had room for everyone to sit or lie comfortably, but they HAD to sit really low or lie down because they weren't deep enough to sit up without being seen over the top of their rampart.



The other side discovered their trench was deep enough for people to sit up comfortably, but it was not wide enough to get everyone in comfortably. They wedged themselves in like sardines and tried to figure out how to make it functional for the rest of the day.

During the first hour everyone was pretty chipper, they read to each other out of our current novel, helped each other with math work, and chatted about all kinds of things.

11:00 - Out of nowhere a very short batallion attacked and bombed the trenches with soft artillery. The surprise really set everyone off and energy was once again running high, but this time it was nervous energy.

12:00 - By lunch time the chattering had decreased significantly. The trenches were fairly quiet. We called a momentary truce and sent those that were buying lunch in to get it. As soon as everyone returned, it was back into the trenches. After lunch Senor Herboth and Wenny Lao Shi came out to the trenches to teach World Languages. We held a momentary truce and had all of the Spanish students switch to one trench and all the Chinese students switch to the other.

1:15 - The afternoon was filled with aerial attacks. Each side attempted to bomb the other trench using only those missles that fell within reach of their trench. If a student was touched by the missle, they were "dead". Each attack was timed and the side with the least casulties was credited with the win. As the attacks continued, each side discovered they could build up their fortifications using handy items. Tempers were starting to get short. In between attacks people were still trying to get work done but were discovering they couldn't find their things, things had been stepped on, someone had touched it, etc. Personal space was in high demand and there was none to be had. The "this isn't fun anymore" phase had set in. The real lesson was definitely in full force.

 

 

2:00 - Our time in the trenches had come to an end. I called everyone out and we discussed the lessons learned. There were some great quotes from students.

"When we started it was really fun, but after a while you could feel the tension building."

"Even though we were on the same side, I was ready to explode at people, it really made my view of the enemy much darker."

"Even though we volunteered, we began to wonder what we'd gotten ourselves in to by lunch."

"The soliders must have been really dedicated to put up with that for months or years on end."

 

They had learned more than one lesson, and I'm sure they won't forget them any time soon!