The legendary Dave Burgess compels teachers to develop lessons that kids want to experience even if they didn't have to - "tickets" lessons, or ones that you could actually have students pay to come experience. One of mine has always been The AEF Over There, when students "experience" life in the trenches. Within 16 hours, I think I made the lesson a bestseller, because I got to actually walk in the footsteps of history and go into two separate WWI trenches - Bois d"Ailly and Saint Baussant - truly walking in the footsteps of history. I don't think the pictures will do it justice, and I try to give a sense of what was like some video, but you really have to be there. This experience gives me a greater understanding of an appreciation for what happened in these trenches and how deadly they were, and I think it gives me street cred about speaking about the trenches – actually, we can call it trench cred.
You learn in the books that the trenches are all zigzag – but it's definitely true when you actually see them in real life. It's incredible how fortified the German trenches were, considering the location. Where did they get all of the cement? (That's a good google question). In this area, the St. Mihiel salient, they were in control for four years. I'm not sure if the locations were as forested as they are now, but if they were, I'm sure those trees were blown to bits and have since had new growth. Relic hunters have been all around these tenches, but I was pretty fortunate to find some some original barbed wire, It's an extremely symbolic artifact considering the Great War and will have a prominent place in my classroom – if I can get it through airport security.
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