Field Trip Encore

I've been working on the field trip photos from two weeks ago in between doing everything else.

There's an excitement about the first class meeting of the season. I've known some of my classmates for a long time, and typically I haven't seen them in a year.

There's something reassuring about seeing familiar faces year after year. Even though many things change in our world, here are the same people back for the same course. It's in a different place, of course. Last year and the year before we studied the struggle for West Virginia. Before that we dealt with the aftermath of Gettysburg, and now we are back to the chronology that followed that campaign. (The West Virginia trips were an interruption in the usual chronology; they were an answer to requests to see the sites in Dr. Poland's book about 1861.)

Of course, we have new faces each year too. We had a group this year from a University of Richmond program in Northern Virginia. They were attracted by the opportunity to earn course credits in an extended weekend (plus homework).  Hope they didn't find the intense travel schedule too grueling. 

This year's trips covered part of Sheridan's 1864 campaign to drive Early out of the Shenandoah Valley. We started with the battle of Trevilian Station and ended with Third Winchester.

Sketching Faces

In drawing class, we are trying to draw people. Nancy had us copy drawings by respected artists. My first try looked okay although not really like the picture I was trying to copy. (Yes, the original looked effeminate too.)

This one is better. It was a simple image though.


There was another one that isn't worth showing you. Then in class, I worked from a mirror. Frank dislikes this because the expression is not happy. But copying from a mirror is not easy.

Recognition for our History Teacher

Congratulations to our field trip leader on being selected a Faculty of the Year at Northern Virginia Community College. Charles P. Poland, Jr. was presented with a certificate and engraved Jefferson Cup at a ceremony last month.

Dr. Poland teaches history at the Annandale  Campus and through the Extended Learning Institute. 

A number of his students (past and present) nominated him for the award. I was one of those who submitted a nomination form, having been informed of the award competition by another history student who has attended the field trips for many years.

Dr. Poland and his wife Betty put an incredible amount of effort into planning and leading the Civil War tours.

Field Trips Scheduled for May 2008

Registration is open for the 2008 summer session at Northern Virginia Community College and I see that Prof. Poland's Civil War Field Trips will be held on May 16, 17, and 18. The topic is The Burning of the Shenandoah Valley 1864.

You can see photos I posted from that topic when we covered it in 1996 at Fisher's Hill and Cedar Creek.

Wow, that was 12 years ago! Long before I moved to Shenandoah County... it was even before I met Frank!

And now I see the sights of the beautiful Shenandoah Valley every time we leave Bryce Mountain to shop or run errands. Often I vary our route just to see the sights. Today we saw lambs, llamas, horses, goats, and of course cows enjoying the brilliant green grass of spring.

See Previous Posts: Fisher's Hill: Confederate Gibralter
and Re-enactment at Middletown: Cedar Creek

An Early Spring Field Trip

Last week I spotted an announcement on the Shenandoah at War website for one of my favorite activities - a field trip class. It was a one-day class at Lord Fairfax Community College in Middletown dealing with Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation and its effects on African Americans in the lower Shenandoah. Professor Jonathan Noyalas was the teacher and he provided a lecture in the morning and a tour in the afternoon.

I've taken a photography class at LFCC and I was eager to try out this short course. It turned out to be interesting and enjoyable. A young woman who was a student at LFCC rode with me on the tour, which was good because she helped me follow the printed directions that we had been given to the various sites.

I'm posting some of the photographs that I took here and in another entry I made today.

Our first stop on the tour was Orrick's Chapel in Stephen's City, named for Reverend Robert Orrick. This church served a community of African Americans in the 19th century. It was destroyed in 1864 by Union troops who wanted the building materials for their camp. After the war, Orrick donated funds to rebuild the church. 

Orrick is an interesting man. Born a slave, he eventually operated a successful livery and stable business. He purchased a significant amount of property in Winchester.
We drove to Kernstown (at the south end of Winchester). There we visited the Pritchard-Grim farm. Below is a building on the farm which was partly destroyed by fire. It is thought to have once served as housing for slaves.

Books by Prof. Noyalas on Amazon.com

Lord Fairfax Community College

Lord Fairfax Community College, Middletown, VA

Bridgewater College

Last week I met daughter Lynn for lunch in Mt. Crawford. After lunch I decided to stop in Bridgewater to take a picture of the college there for the Historical Marker Database site. I had noticed that they already had a picture of the marker and an old building but had published a request for another campus photo. I took one of the McKinney Center, below.

I also took a picture of one of the old buildings on campus, now used for administration (next picture). The markers database already had a photo like that so this one is for my own collection (and your edification).

You can easily find Bridgewater by taking the main road west from the Mt. Crawford exit on I-81. You reach the college just before your reach route 42. I published some photos of the river at Bridgewater in November. It's a neat town.

Free Colleges Classes

Years ago I learned from a fellow classmate in my Advanced Civil War class that senior citizens could take the class without paying tuition. At the time this did not apply to me and seemed a long way off. But now I take advantage of senior discounts, so I looked them up on the NVCC site. Turns out that Virginia residents over 60 can audit courses for free, and if income is low enough, they can even take them for credit.

And since students of accredited colleges are sometimes eligible for educational discounts (for example when buying software), the savings can add up. I'm signing up for an online desktop publishing course to learn more about Photoshop.

A-B College in West Virginia

Overlooking Philippi is Alderson-Broaddus College, also know as A-B College. Our Civil War class was there because it is on a prominent hill which figured in the 1861 Battle of Philippi. The college has a pretty little campus and a nice view of the town.

Photography

This deer photo is actually a composite that I made using Photoshop.
But yes, the deer was very close when I took his picture.

Shenandoah Valley residents who are interested in learning nature photography should check out the courses at Lord Fairfax Community College. Rob Simpson is the instructor and he is not only an awesome photographer, he is also experienced in digital technology.

When I lived in Alexandria, I took many photo courses at Northern Virginia Community College. They have an excellent photography department.

Charter Oak State College

I found a fundraising appeal in my mail from the Charter Oak State College Foundation. It reminds me to mention that Charter Oak is a good place to combine college credits and CLEP exams into a bachelor's degree. Those of us who have taken course from a variety of institutions find this a handy option.

Simple poetry

I am taking a beginning poetry course online at Virtual University (vu.org). We had to write a Haiku and a Tanka. They don't have to rhyme and are short.

My haiku has the classic 5-7-5 syllable pattern and is about a June day:

Breath deeply, long a-a-a-h.
Mouth open. Gentle summer air -

Think cold waterfall.

I was not familiar with Tanka, but in it's classic form it has a syllables per line pattern of 5-7-5-7-7. So here's my homework assignment entitled Old Papers:

Buried in clutter
Scraps of unanswered dreams
Unfinished projects.
Secret gems among rough rocks.
Procrastination mocks me.