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From
the perspective of Matt DeFrates and Jacob Bland
On
September 14th, 15th, and 16th we traveled to Washington,
DC to report our community's progress on the LC2000
Technology grant. While
in Washington, the group gave a presentation to the
United States Department of Education. In the presentation,
we explained all of the different programs that have
been created during the grant. District 108 Assistant
Superintendent Chuck Bowen, District 108 Technology
Coordinator Brian Abeling, District 303 Assistant Superintendent
Paula Davis, Dirksen Congressional Center Director Frank
Mackaman, and LC2000 evaluator Nona Prestine also attended
the trip to Washington.
Below
are some photos and thoughts from the trip...
| On
September 15th, we visited the White House. Although
the house was closed for tours that day, we did
take some time to walk all the way around the perimeter
of the grounds. What a beautiful place! |
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We
had some time to kill in the first 60 minutes
upon our arrival. We were only a couple of blocks
away from the capitol building, so we decided
to head that direction. After being stopped by
two security guards, we realized that we could
not enter the capitol without a pass from our
congressman.
So,
we headed over to the Cannon House Office Building
to see if we could get some passes. It turned
out that we recognized Ray LaHood's secretary,
who was Katy Kriegsman, a Pekinite. She was happy
to give us the passes we needed and even scheduled
us for a personal tour of the capitol building
the next day!
Later
she came out of the office, and informed us that
Congressman Ray LaHood actually wanted to see
us. So we were given the opportunity to visit
with Mr. LaHood and have our pictures taken. |
| After
our presentation to the U.S. Department of Education,
we went out to eat a very different style of food...Ethiopian!
All of the food (mush piles of meat and vegetables)
came on a very large community plate. In order to
eat the food, we used pieces of crepes (a type of
sourdough bread), plopped it on the piles of food,
scooped it up, and ate it. Let's just say that this
was a very interesting cultural experience. |
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