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Into the trenches

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Eric Penkas seventh grade history class at Harper Park Middle School in Leesburg had a special lesson on WWI trench warfare Feb. 22. As a reward for good behavior, Mr. Penka set up tarps and gym mats in his classroom and brought in a strobe light and fog machine to help his students understand trench warfare on an emotional level. Times-Mirror Staff Photos/Beverly Denny Saturday, Feb. 25 | 7743 views

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Lined up in about face, these soldiers dont know whats ahead of them. The year is 1918 and World War I is coming to an end. But what they dont realize is that they will spend the next hour and a half crawling on hands and knees through pitch black trenches. Do you think this is Glee soldier? Sgt. Eric Penka yells. The solider quietly answers no, with a chuckle. Then show me your spirit fingers! Penka yells and the soldier complies. But, these soldiers arent really soldiers theyre seventh graders at Harper Park Middle School and this is their history class.
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Penka, actually a history teacher at Harper Park along with Cary Knor, spend one week putting their students right into trench warfare. Their 90-minute class block is spent going through a modified boot camp and then heading straight for the trenches. The two teachers line their students up outside the classroom and take over the role of sergeant. They pull out certain kids and make them do push-ups, give them nicknames and make them march up and down the hallway.
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The abuse we give them, its playful abuse, Penka assures. The students get a kick out of it and spend most of the time laughing.

The main goal is to give the students an emotional connection to World War I and how hard it was for soldiers to be stuck in trenches the shell shock, the insanity and death which can be hard for a seventh grader to comprehend.

Its all about trying to get everyone to love history and to plug in. Some kids come equipped with motivation, their parents give it to them, were trying to give them things like rewards, Penka said. We have a currency system set up, all these things are meant as for that kid that has no motivation who doesnt do it for the love of it or the habit of it, we try to build something in where [they] want to do it.

Knor has been doing these type of activity days for his students for the past 11 years. The idea came to him from a magazine. The trenches have evolved over the years, according to Penka. They now use gym mats as trenches and put up tarps to enclose the entire classroom. Parents have also donated sandbags and barbed wire to help recreate the scene. Penka says that if his students save him time during the class period it goes toward these activity days or a special reward. By using the reward system, he says, it gets the students motivated in the classroom. Something happens after we do this where the kids realize that this is not a normal year. They tend to wake up to the other things we do, the other methods that are kind of unconventional. They tend to loosen up their biased, Penka said. We do lots of stuff through the year like games, songs, weird things that require them to be less inhibited. After this it kind of blows their inhibitions out of the water. Trench day, as the students call it, leaves a lasting impression, Knor says. I do know that the first thing out of most of my former students mouths when I see them is, Do you still do the trench day? I think it just allows them to experience something, as a group and individually, that permanently stamps their mind with that moment in time, and lets them hold onto the information we want them to take away from it, Knor said. Its fun, amusing, serious, and in some instances profound. Im always amazed at how much of it they remember years later. Knor says many of his former students remember the rude and obnoxious nicknames he gave them. I used to teach eighth grade and this is the thing that they all remember. This is the thing they all talk about in eighth grade - trench warfare, said Jill Turner, who teaches seventh grade history and served as Penkas captain in the exercise. Penka shows his students a non-glamorous point-of-view on war. He uses the movie All Quiet on the Western Front as the narrative to tell a story throughout the class. These guys play all these Call of Duty, modern warfare games that their sense of warfare is not emotional. Its more into the weaponry and the strategy, Penka said. They come in expecting this is going to be warfare - we get a gun. Its really just we take them through an experience. We give them a diary that they have to write about experiences watching somebody die, watching shell shock, things that arent in the video games and they dont encounter because theyre not very glamorous. Penka said thats the idea of the exercise. We think of it as emotional impressionism, or historical impressionism. This isnt accurate, but its the feeling of it when theyre done and they leave. Other activities that students participate in their classes include a western day, Raiders of the Lost Pots which is where students become archaeologists and an Apollo 13 simulation day. They also create museum exhibits and have a five-day stretch where they dont eat certain foods or use electronics to better understand the Great Depression, according to Knor. But, when it boils down to it, Knor and Penka do it for the students. They want to make the experience of learning the most enjoyable and long-lasting as they can. I find joy and satisfaction in doing something special for my students that they will never have a chance to do again, Knor said. We certainly want them to be growing strong
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academically, we also want them to have moments in school where they are whisked away to some far off time and place to simply enjoy learning. To do something that makes history come to life also gives us all a chance to just be regular people doing something a little outrageous all together. If something like this can get students interested in learning on their own we have won a major battle as educators.
Students in Eric Penka's seventh grade history class at Harper Park Middle School put on "gas masks" to prepare for a gas attack Feb. 22. A fog machine made it more realistic. Times-Mirror Staff Photos/Beverly Denny

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Eric Penka has one student do jumping jacks until another can follow his instructions correctly while playing the part of a drill sergeant preparing his seventh grade history class for war at Harper Park Middle School in Leesburg Feb. 22. Times-Mirror Staff Photos/Beverly Denny Students in Eric Penka's seventh grade history class at Harper Park Middle School put on "gas masks" to prepare for a gas attack Feb. 22. They each had to take notes from down in the trenches about the experience of trench warfare as it unfolded. TimesMirror Staff Photos/Beverly Denny

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