You’d think after fifteen years of doing this, writing an expedition plan would be a cinch. No, it never does quite work that way. Granted, it certainly is easier than it was 15 years ago when I started writing learning expeditions, but the nature of sixth-grade at our school means crafting a dynamic curriculum that meets the needs of students, connects to our “hot topic” of the year, and naturally addresses the myriad standards NYS expects students to meet. Added to these “normal” expectations is the fact that I want to embed my Fund For Teachers experiences into the learning expedition. Sometimes everything aligns like Manhattanhenge on a summer day, other times it’s a complete tangled mess (but one that needs to be untangled before students are in their seats!).
Learning expeditions are like thematic units on steroids (you can learn more about learning expeditions at GCCS here) and this year we are tackling a pretty intense project (nothing short of a complete energy, water and waste audit of the school!). Weaving in the narrative from my Fund For Teachers fellowship was supposed to be a non-negotiable, but I should have known better. Everything can - and often should - be negotiated. Instead of our focus being on the literal and metaphorical walls people build, we will instead look at how the ancient world grappled with heat, water and waste management in their cities and what lessons we can learn from them, 2,000 years later. What better lens to use than the Roman Bath, where all three systems converged.
"To see the world in a grain of sand” - or an expedition through a bath!
Another aspect that emerged from my fellowship was the role of writing in the Roman world. I knew the Romans were a literate people, but the extent to which they used writing on a daily basis took me by surprise. From the wooden Vindolanda tablets unearthed near Hadrian’s Wall to the curse tablets discovered at Aquae Sulis (Bath, England), Roman writing captured the essence of everyday life. I am hopeful that I can weave this element of the Roman world into my student’s own literacy. My Fund For Teachers experience also inspired my own professional goal setting around becoming a more competent teacher of writing and learning how to provide enough scaffolding and feedback to give sixth-graders the confidence, stamina, and independence to take on this expedition’s final product - a blog that chronicles their progress in making GCCS become a more sustainable school.
I learned much from the “everyday” writing of the Romans.
What will the world learn from the everyday writing of my students?
I will be tag-teaming blogs for the next few months, guiding sixth-graders through the creation of their own blog (our hope is for it to go live in about two months) while continuing to reflect and share through mine. I was a little sad to have to triage so much of what I learned over the summer to make this current expedition fit, but I know that I have thousands of “grains of sand” to transform into meaningful learning expeditions in years ahead. If not for my visit to Hadrian’s Wall, I would know nothing of the Vindolanda tablets, Roman cursive, or the breadth of literacy across the Roman Empire. Hadrian’s Wall now lies in ruins, the mighty empire now a history lesson, but their written words live on, inspiring a sixth-grade class in the 21st century to document their own progress and legacy to the world. We’re looking forward to sharing it with you soon!
With a few weeks of summer left (and a small chunk of change remaining from my fellowship), I decided to visit the Royal Ontario Museum’s Pompeii exhibit to learn a little more about the everyday life of the Roman people. It certainly is an impressive exhibit, featuring artifacts from the museums in Pompeii, from the jewelry to full wall frescoes. You get a good sense of life in Pompeii prior to the eruption, not that Pompeii was a typical Roman city. Pompeii was a villa town, a place where many Romans had summer homes and the community had a wealthy patron population. Yet, many of the same features of Roman cities I saw in Britain were echoed here - amphitheater, grid street design, forum, baths.
Trying to be one of the “locals” but desperately need some toga help!
Because of the tragedy unleashed by Mt. Vesuvius, there are so many well preserved artifacts. I was drawn to the mosaics and frescoes, including one mosaic we examined in my class last year as we studied food in the Roman Era.
Dozens and dozens of artifacts helped tell the story of a city frozen in time. The story of its re-dicovery and exhumation is also told in this exhibit. I remember as a kid reading all about Pompeii in National Geographic’s World magazine, the images of those plaster casts of human forms, the statues found in courtyards, the poor dog, left chained and unable to escape from the inferno. Well, he was here, too.
The human toll of Mt. Vesuvius’ eruption was enormous - some 12,000 people lived in Pompeii, with thousands of others living in neighboring towns and cities. Many Romans fled upon the first sign of eruption, most by sea. While the weight of ash on roofs caused many to cave in, crushing and burying those seeking shelter, most victims died from the collapse of the ash and gas column that reached miles into the sky. The corresponding pyroclastic flow that ran down the sides of Mt. Vesuvius and swallowed Pompeii instantly killed thousands seeking refuge or trying to flee.
The final part of the exhibit features casts of some of these victims and it is indeed a macabre scene. As the superheated cloud of ash and gas rolled over the city, victims were essentially cooked at a temperature of 932 degrees F. This carbonized the victim, causing the roasted muscle tissue to contract, pulling arms and legs toward the body. As ash continued to fall, these forms were preserved for centuries. As scientists began to question why there were cavities around bone finds, they began to fill these with plaster - and these open spaces took the forms of human victims.
It was certainly worth the journey to Toronto to catch a glimpse of a Roman city held in time by the forces of nature. Much of what I had learned in Britain about everyday life was echoed here but thinking in terms of a timeline, Roman control over Britain was cemented around 77 C.E., just two years before the destruction of Pompeii. I wonder if any surviving wooden tablets or inscriptions in Britain remark upon these events - surely someone living there knew of friends or family from the region. Could be an interesting task for students to explore!
This is the time zone my body still thinks it’s in...
Well, it’s been 24 hours since we walked in the door, I’m still on Greenwich Mean Time, and I’ve fallen woefully behind on my work! This will probably be the last blog for a bit while I get caught up on work around the house and work for my FFT fellowship. It’s been quite amazing and I am grateful to Fund For Teachers and Expeditionary Learning for their support of my work. It’s all still rattling around up in my head, some of the pieces fit together, others are still square pegs trying to find their way into round holes. In no particular order, here are a few thoughts....
What story would they tell if they could speak?
What’s Worth Saving?
There is so much fantastic preservation work happening in the UK around historic sites (from prehistory to modern times). The number of Roman artifacts historians have discovered in Great Britain number in the thousands - every brooch pin, every horseshoe nail, every leather sandal, every broken pot shard, is carefully cataloged, interpreted and displayed for others to see and learn from. I think I have seen my share of artifacts behind glass cases on this trip - some enthrall, others make you stifle a yawn. Do we really need so many Samarian pots? Augustan bronze coins? I think of what is happening in Syria and Iraq as ISIS maraud through humanity’s cradle. The destruction of priceless artifacts, the senseless erasure of a history they do not like. It seems insane that people can do this - but when I think back to Hadrian’s treatment of the Jews, I see that not much has changed.
Vindolanda was an impressive and inspiring real-time look at how the work of preservation is done. Having an opportunity to speak with archaeologists and educators there gave me a better sense of how the Romans lived - and died. Contrast this with Segedunum, which to me felt sterile and shellacked. Yet artifacts at both locations told the story of the Roman experience in Britain - but one was much more successful in communicating that story and the story of WHY it matters. How can I avoid the “shellac” in preparing my learning expedition about the Romans? How will I make this “why” part come alive for my students?
London Tower in the foreground and the modern skyline behind it. Which of there buildings will still be here in 2,000 years? Who gets to decide?
How Shall We Be Remembered?
The Romans never probably considered that in 2,000 years, an American teacher would be preparing a 12 week unit of study on the Roman experience in Britannia. What they have left behind, not only in their artifacts, but in their own written words, tells us much about their customs, beliefs and laws. Their refuse piles speak volumes of their trade practices. Their funerary monuments tell us where they come from and of their service to the Empire. In my own city, the earliest settlers of our community risk having their graves forgotten because no one cares enough to devote the time or resources to maintaining the site. Yet the Romans have headstones that have lasted hundreds and hundreds of years.
Noble Roman woman holding death mask of late husband; his ashes would have been interred in a jar behind the woman’s left shoulder.
What do the students need to learn? What do they need to remember? How will they demonstrate this? Looking at my own Learning Targets will help be design an expedition based on experience and knowledge - but I do want to honor the student voice (which is always a bit of a tightrope walk).
Have I Met My Goals?
Well, no. My goal is to create and teach a learning expedition about the Roman experience in Britain, using Hadrian’s Wall as a case study of barriers we erect to keep the “other” out. Gathering information, researching history, visiting the sites - yes, that aspect is just about over with. The hard part is yet to come! Let’s review my Learning Targets one more time:
I can interpret ancient ruins and archaeological sites and explain their role in both Roman and British history.
On the first LT, using the handy-dandy fist-to-five scale, I’d give myself a 4. If I had a bit more time I probably would have joined the dig at Vindolanda or at one of the other sites across Britain where citizen science is happening. If shown a floor plan of a Roman fort, I could probably indicate where the barracks were and where the principia (HQ) was located. I could tell you the location and purpose of the vallum along Hadrian’s Wall, but I can’t say I’m 100% sure of all artifact interpretation. Explaining the role of these structures in history I have a solid handle on, but need to refine my knowledge a bit more before I feel ready to teach 30 sixth graders about it!
I can evaluate how the Romans, Picts and Britons viewed Hadrian’s Wall and interacted with it.
Hmmm, probably a three on this one only because it has been difficult getting the viewpoint of the locals who had the wall “done to them.” The Romans have documented their work and lives along the wall quite extensively - pay records, assignment posts, letters between friends and families - capture what the Roman experience was like. The Roman Army Museum re-tells this in a captivating and interactive experience. I am hoping my MOOC with Newcastle University helps fill in the blanks. I did learn a lot more about the Iceni and Brigantes - two tribes of Britons who fought the Romans and won (at least in the early days) but the story of the Scots and Picts along the wall is less well documented, but was going to be an important part of the student learning. Need to find out more.
I can describe the legacy of Rome in the modern era.
A five on this one, for sure. Here’s my proof:
Ok, in all seriousness, just walking around modern day London, the mark of Classical architecture and infrastructure is everywhere. English is the new lingua franca, just as Latin was 2,000 years ago, and we build amazing public works, and sadly, we also seek to control and destroy those who don’t agree with us, through force and the creation of new walls, many of them invisible yet just as powerful. This will be the toughest part of my expedition to create and teach - and quite possibly the part I am looking forward to the most.
I will be posting here as the Expedition is developed and when our school year gets underway, we’ll be sharing our work here, too. Thanks for following and feel free to leave comments or questions!
Waterfalls at the edge of the North American plate
Icelandair made it very affordable to get to the UK and then sweetened the deal by allowing a stopover on one leg of our journey. How could we refuse? I’ve always been a sucker for geology, so I’m more than happy to explore a place with glaciers, volcanoes, tectonic plates, geothermal activity and birds (ok, so not very geological).
Since we really only had one day, we booked the Golden Circle tour to hit the “must see” places. Turns out there are more “must see” places than the ones we saw - but we didn’t have a week to explore them all. Here are a few pictures of what we saw:
Geothermal energy plant - Iceland gets all of its grid electricity from hydro and geothermal sources. Heating is 85% geothermal, using hot water right from the earth to heat homes and businesses. Sure, the hot water smells and tastes like deviled eggs, but think of the carbon footprint you’re mitigating!
Fridheimar Farm is an organic, hydroponic vegetable farm that uses integrated pest management and geothermal power to grow tomatoes, cucumbers and lettuces year round (even in the winter when no sun shines!).
A little about the farm.
Rows and rows of tomatoes!
The Golden Circle visits the Geysir Hot Spring Area of Haukadalur Valley, Gullfoss waterfall, and Thingvellir National Park (site of tectonic schism). It is a long day on a bus, but some amazing wonders to behold.
Hot springs - some get as hot as 200 degrees F!
That she blows! Strokkur geyser erupts about every 5 minutes.
Strokkur Geyser
Another hot spring - this one not so boiling.
Gullfoss - or Golden Waterfall.
Gullfoss
Ready for a climb?
No more Emperor Hadrian busts to pose with...just lupines!
The North American Wall - the facing edge in a rift valley!
Iceland was fun to explore - we did manage to see the Langjökull glacier while at Gullfoss and hiked to the top of a 515 foot ridge to get an amazing view of volcanoes in the distance. Even in summer it was cool (notice the hat I’m wearing in the above picture?) - and there is no sunset, just dusk for a few hours. It definitely can mess up your circadian rhythm! But if you are an earth science fan, Iceland has got to be on your short list of sites to visit!
On our way to Bath, we stopped at Stonehenge. Depending on which historians and scientists you agree with, it was built either four to five thousand years ago and could be an observatory or altar. It is an impressive sight to behold. Although Roman coins were found on the site, there is no other evidence of Roman occupation at the site (unless you count this guy). Surely the Romans who viewed it were disgusted by its rawness, its incompleteness. These folks were about order! How could they know that the site was three millennia older than their entire Empire’s existence?
When we arrived, the sun was shining, but that changed rather dramatically. In the period we were there, we went from sun, to clouds, to windy, swirly skies, to darkness - followed by a cold rain. England in the summer time, our guide cheerfully told us.
Owen and I battling the wind.
Here come the clouds...
...and darkness fell.
The rain lasted all but five minutes, but it slowed everything down at the site. Walkways became muddy paths, once-polite tourists were elbowing one-another for a space on the dry shuttle bus, and folks without raincoats or ponchos were dripping wet (the wind made short work of anyone with an umbrella). But I digress...
The Romans were just another group who shared Britain - there were dozens of indigenous tribes and pre-dating them, groups that arrived during the Paleolithic Era. No one knows for sure why Stonehenge was built - it seems obvious that celestial and solar observation figure into it somehow, but other archaeologists wonder if it was more monumentary, a tribute to the people who built it, or as a temple and place of ancestor worship (several dozen burial pits pepper the site). Our guide thinks it is simply because it had never been done before, a kind of Neolithic Moonshot! Historians are still trying to figure it all out...
Sulis Minerva - part Celt, part Roman, all powerful.
The Romans have this funny way of taking local deities,“re-branding” them, and selling them back to the locals as a value-added item. This is my big take-away from Bath, or Aquae Sulis. The thermal springs of the area (and only hot springs in all of Britain) were already protected by Sulis, the Celtic goddess. When the Romans arrived, they noted the similarities between Sulis and their goodness, Minerva (in turn adapted from the Greek’s Athena). In particular, both goddesses were recognized for their wisdom and decision making powers.
The Romans went on to develop a spa and temple complex at Aquae Sulis and invited the locals to worship Sulis Minerva and join their ranks. This seems at odds with the usual tale of Roman conquest by force! Part of my FFT fellowship was to explore the idea of cultural assimilation - how the Romans “Romanized” Britain. Yet, here is a place where it seems the Romans were “Celticized.” Most referred to the goddess as Sulis and the custom of curse tablets - writing down a vengeful smite against someone who stole something or crossed you and then throwing them into the baths - were addressed to Sulis, not Minerva. It is an interesting back and forth, give and take relationship.
Lead curse tablet - this one names names of people who might be complicit in the theft of a slave and asks for the goddess Sulis’ divine intention and retribution.
The Roman Baths were fascinating and well maintained, but like so many other museums we have visited, packed to the gills. Timed admission helps a bit, but it was still difficult to see and read everything. I think the one thing that surprised me the most was that these places were built to last. Here we are, 2,000 years on and the ruins remain. Can we expect our shopping malls to last as long as the Roman Forum? Will our arenas last as long as the Colosseum? You can still see the bricks, the pipes and foundations for the bath complex - fascinating how so much of it looks familiar to our own plumbing! Of course, we aren’t using lead anymore...
Reflection of Bath Abbey in the Roman Baths
Another shot with Emperor Hadrian
Roman re-enactors at the baths.
Aside from my Hadrian’s Wall hike, Bath was a close second for best site visit. I really got a clear understanding of the mash up of two cultures and how they made it work. That and Bath is just a beautiful city, full of Georgian architecture. Of course, I’m not really here to study that, but the Roman aspect was richly rewarding. That concludes my visit to Britain. I sure was able to see a lot and conduct some solid research toward my fellowship’s goals. I do think I was too ambitious in my proposal, however, and didn’t get to all of the sites I had hoped to. Time is precious and train travel (and bus travel!) takes time. My next post I’ll try and be a bit more reflective and share with you some of my Icelandic outings! Reykjavik is next!
Photo tip: Always check camera settings before shooting. Half of our London pix were taken with this romantic blur effect, which could not be undone.
The trip out of Newcastle was relatively smooth, given our ongoing train trauma, and getting settled in the flat was even easier. Now it was time to see the city and explore its Roman heritage and there is no better place to start than The British Museum.
The British Museum - just as fun as it is in the movie, Night At the Museum 3, right? Right?!?
Going to a museum on a Sunday is never a good plan - especially a world-class museum, in a major city, at the height of holiday season. Packed would be a generous term describing it inside and I would be willing to wager than only 2 out of 10 people in the museum were British. A popular destination for visitors! Like many museums, this one pays homage to the Classical Era with its Doric columns, portico, and engraved pediment. It contains an overwhelming variety of artifacts (8 million according to the museum) from every continent and every period in human history. It’s no wonder The British Museum was able to produce its A History of the World in 100 Objects series using its rich collection (note to self: investigate how we can borrow this idea for “A History of Rochester in 100 Objects”).
The Roman Galleries, like all the galleries that day, were a crush of people, most following adults waving chartreuse flags or wearing fluorescent orange vests. I wish they flowed like lines of ducklings, but in reality, it was much more like a murmuration of starlings, ebbing and flowing from one crowded gallery to the next. You best bet was to get out of the way or be swept along with the flock.
Hanging with Hadrian at The British Museum.
Hadrian is a complex emperor to teach. Unlike the military commander, Trajan, who came before him as emperor, Hadrian was more pragmatic and pulled back the Roman line of control, ceding Mesopotamia and reinforcing Roman rule in Britannia with a fortified wall - Hadrian’s Wall. Many Romans saw this as squandering Rome’s military might (Hadrian had these folks dispatched), but in reality, it was prohibitively expensive to maintain garrisons in restless lands. Hadrian was fond of architecture and is responsible for one of Rome’s most famous buildings, the Pantheon (temple to all gods). Yet he is also responsible for the deaths of 580,000 Jews as he sought to crush the Jewish rebellion - he even went so far as to rename Jerusalem and the province of Judea to strip the people of their sense of place.
Situated next to Hadrian’s bust in The British Museum is the bust of his Greek companion, Antinous. Yes, Hadrian was a married man, but Antinous was his beloved, and when the boy drowned in the Nile River during an outing, Hadrian had him deified (as only an emperor can do!).
The Vindolanda Tablets - in person!
Having visited Vindolanda, it was impressive to see the Vindolanda Tablets on display here in London. The idea that people sent correspondence, kept business records, and pay scales shows how complex Roman society was and that literacy was important (people often paid scribes to communicate on their behalf). There was also this fascinating mosaic, one of the earliest and best preserved artifacts to show the reach of Christianity in Britain. Dated at about the 4th century CE, it shows Christ surrounded by pomegranates, representing immortality. It’s important to remember that the Roman experience in Britain lasted nearly 450 years - twice that of our own country’s existence. Change occurred in every facet of life and Christianity was just one more Roman import to Britain.
Christ mosaic, excavated in Dorset, England, in 1963.
The Museum of London also offered a glimpse of Roman life in Britain, specifically, their experience in Londinium, the future capital of Roman Britain. Some 60,000 people called Londinium their home and they came from all across the Empire.
NOT the original Roman wall, but built atop it in the Middle Ages using the same quarried stones.
Like London today, Londinium had its share of swanky homes, markets and places of worship, but as the Romans withdrew, the local Britons who weren’t allied with the Romans, saw their chance to usurp control. This, coupled with the fact that rebel generals had granted Britannia its independence from the Empire, meant that Londinium was due to fall. Many of the buildings were dismantled - some historians think in retribution for supporting the rogue generals, and then in 350 CE, waves of “barbarians” overran Londinium. Roman rule would not be re-established until 367 CE when General Theodusis entered London. Time was not on Rome’s side - the division of the Empire into Eastern and Western spheres of influence and competing allegiances meant that Britain was often left to its own devices, including self-defence. In fact, in 410 CE, Emperor Honorius pretty much wrote Britannia off, telling the local governor not to expect any further aid - in form of money or military.
The not so glorious end of Roman rule in Britain.
So ends the story of the Roman Empire’s control of Britannia. Next, it’s off to Bath (or Aquae Sulis) to learn just how well the Romans co-opted local deities to win friends and influence allies.
We move now from the rolling green hills of the Northumbrian countryside to the modern concrete and steel cityscape of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne. This is will be our final full day in the “Toon” - how Geordies lovingly refer to their home. Can I just say that not all English is easy to understand? I had a better time communicating in Edinburgh than I did in parts of Newcastle - click here to see what I’m talking about. With the gannin’ and the divvin’ and the who knows what’s really being said - it took some time to pick up the local lingo (and I can’t say I really ever did but master a few words). No bother, the Queen’s English is still understood - even when it has an American accent. At least they call soda “pop” like they do back in Rochester!
Rugby?! Yes, but not until September when Newcastle hosts the Rugby World Cup. Rats!
Anyway, I digress. Our first stop was the Great North Museum, chock full of artifacts collected from along the whole of Hadrian’s Wall. Apparently we arrived on a particularly busy school visit day. At my school, outings are called “field studies” and kids go with a purpose and usually bring along clipboards for notes and work and more often then not, their manners. Not so much here. Was pretty shocked - except for one group from George Washington Primary School. The kids were enthusiastic, asked great questions and had chaperons that kept them engaged. Hard to not see the world through a teacher’s eyes - even on summer break! Letting it go...
The Great North Museum has a rich collection of Roman artifacts - many of them similar to what I’ve seen at other sites along the wall, but they have a superb collection of grave markers and monuments. The other area that piqued my interest was their look at religion, especially the fusion of traditional Roman religions and Eastern beliefs, like Mithraism.
Mithras is a Persian deity adopted by Roman soldiers - and evolved into a cult of sorts. The neat thing about these religious mash-ups is that here is evidence that the zodiac - an Eastern religious feature - is being incorporated by a Western civilization (see cosmic egg monument below). The worship of Mithras lasted for three hundred years until Christianity was fully adopted by the Empire (although one has to wonder if a secret society continued the traditions of the cult!).
Our next stop was Segedunum, a Roman Fort along the banks of the River Tyne.
Segedunum Roman Museum (and its wacky tower).
There is very little left of the site itself, but the outline of where the barracks and other structures stood. The best place to see this is from the observation tower’s ninth floor. The museum is great for primary school groups - lots of role play, dress up and interactives. Didn’t learn a whole lot more than I have seen in other museums along the wall, but it gave me some terrific ideas about role-play with students and how to immerse them in the Roman world.
Mural of sea life on the bathhouse.
Toilets in the bathhouse.
Segedunum from ground level.
Segedunum from above.
After Newcastle, we headed south to London. I won’t recount the horrors of the train travel (we’re 1-3 on no-hassle train trips) or the heatwave in London (melt-worthy!). Or the throngs of clueless tourists (and they weren’t Americans...). Will update blog when sleep has been had and heat has diminished! :)
