the greatest field trip

No matter how you feel about the teacher strike/work stoppage that happened in West Virginia (there are lots of strong opinions), you have to admit that what happened in our state from February 22 thru March 6, 2018 was fascinating to say the least. I'm writing this here to remember. I'm not trying to stir up any trouble. This was an interesting time for our state and I learned a LOT over 13 days.

I'm a bit of a news/social media follower during big events. Add to that the fact that our family includes a lot of teachers (my mom, my sister and sister-in-law, many cousins, and I'm a teacher by education choosing to use my teaching skills in a little bit of a different way). Piled on top of the fact that I am DEEPLY GRATEFUL for my children's teachers. I'm thankful that right now, I can choose not to be in a classroom, which makes me all the more thankful for those who DO choose to be in the classroom. My kids have had some great teachers over the years. They've encouraged, challenged, taught, enlightened and loved my kids. They spend more waking hours with my children than I do most days. They deal with a LOT when it comes to behavior, the homes that kids come from, parents and the demands being put on them. So, needless to say, I am thankful for them. And can we even talk about the bus drivers - the person who drives a huge vehicle around full of crazy kids BY THEMSELVES and delivers everyone to and from school safely? Not to mention all the service personnel...

For weeks there were rumors about a strike. Insurance and pay being major sticking points with the legislature along with some other issues that were coming to the plate. Teachers and service personell planned a work stoppage for Thursday & Friday, February 22 and 23. We knew it was coming. And then it kept going. The governor made a deal with the teacher unions on Tuesday, February 27th. There was a "cool off day" on Wednesday and the plan was to go back to school on Thursday. We got a message at 6:00 pm on Wednesday that school would indeed be open on Thursday. But the teachers said they weren't going back to work until it was a done deal - signed, sealed delivered. The school closing map started turning red. And then we got a message that schools was closed again on Thursday. It was a little tense there for awhile. The superintendents were in a rough spot, but thankfully continued to close schools to not make a true strike situation where employees and families would have to make a choice whether to cross a picket line or not.

When things continued over the second weekend and our legislature looked a bit like a three-ring circus, the map was red again for the 8th school day. So Joanna and I packed up the kids and took a road trip to Charleston. She had spent her days on the picket lines here. I had spent my days at home with all the kids that wanted/needed to be here being marginally productive. And I was feeling like the kids just weren't doing much of anything. We thought this would be a great learning experience for them. So off we went. And we had the best day!

We walked around the grounds of the capitol before the masses arrived.

We stood in this line for about 1.5 half to get inside.

It never really stopped moving.

We made some pit stops along the way.

Enjoyed the "Strike Band"

And saw some friends: Mr. Garvin

Aunt Valerie

The girls

We finally made it inside and stopped to see the governor (or at least admire his door)

As we arrived, so did hundreds of pizzas (not kidding) courtesy of a San Francisco Teacher Union! And it was Husson's pizza! Even better.

We partook of the offering.

It was really a funny experience.

We made our way upstairs to the real action. Wow!

It wasn't crazy or out of control. Just loud and impressive.

We ran into my cousin, Kathy. She seriously drove to Charleston every day for two weeks.

She took the boys up to the front of the crowd via some secret hallway so they could see the crowd from the front.

And leading the cheers and chants was their English teacher, Mr. Staggers. Needless to say they were all surprised to see each other!

The girls didn't love the crowd. So we decided that since we were there, we should show ourselves around. We found a "Mystery Golden Elevator" (we didn't take a picture!!!) pushed "4" and ended up at the Law Library.

The librarian wasn't sure to think of us at first. But when we started asking questions, she gave us a bit of a tour.

These are books from before WV was it's own state. (We won't talk about that.)

Wyatt wanted to show this to Mr. Staggers to let him know he's been keeping up with his reading while we were out of school.

Back in the "Golden Mystery Elevator" we pushed "3" and the doors opened to (drumroll, please) the Supreme Court. This nice man was in the hallway. When we asked where we were and if it was ok that we were there, he told us we were at the Supreme Court and offered to give us a little tour. We took him up on his offer.

He gave us some history about the architecture and answered the kids' questions. Everyone was quite engaged in the whole experience. I was impressed - at the Supreme Court and the kids.

We also found the state quarter.

And the black bear.

We swung through the rotunda for one more check of the action.

And made our way outside just in time for the end of a rally and some speakers.

Lily giving her 55 strong cheer, just a little tired.

We unpacked our backpacks we had stuffed with uncrustabales, gogurts, peanuts and other sundries. (Not to be confused with the backpack Sophie carried around all day with 5 different kinds of slime, an ipad and headphones and two small dolls.) We had a little picnic around the waterless water fountain. It was good there was no water because everyone dropped something in it. 

We saw Aunt Sara for approximately 30 seconds. She loves a good rally.

And we made our way over to the West Virginia Museum. If you haven't been, GO! It was great. The kids really enjoyed it. We could've spend many, many more hours there, but we were tired.

After a long walk down Virginia Street to the car, we had dinner at Qdoba and drove home.

What a day! The kids loved it! They loved seeing what was happening. They loved that we really had no plan or expectation for the day. They loved exploring and they loved what they learned. They loved seeing their teachers, and their teachers loved seeing them. They loved seeing Kathy, Valerie & Sara - we were sad to miss Belinda. They loved the museum. It was the best impromptu field trip ever.

Tuesday morning, Ben and I were laying in bed lamenting day #9. I had resigned myself to the fact that there was really no end in sight. I was working at the dining room table watching Sophie climb on top of the refridgerator to "hide". I wasn't watching social media like normal when I got a text that they were MAKING A DEAL. For the rest of the day, I followed the action in both houses, and then watched as it was signed. And then we got the blessed phone call that we were going back to school TOMORROW!

And the map looked like this again

Honestly, Wednesday was a bit of a let down. My house was silent and social media went back to it's old boring self. There were no live feeds of things and no information coming from a hundred different directions. (I can't help but think this whole thing would've been so much different without social media.) But this picture: these buses that driver down our street at 2:25 pm every afternoon, was music to my ears.

What a 13 days. 9 school days. We're praying this doesn't ruin our Week 1 camp trip ....