After the success of our visit to the National Inventors Hall of Fame, my friend Mary and I took another little retirement field trip yesterday. This time, we went to Planet Word in downtown DC.
Since its opening in October 2020, I have received many, many promotional emails from the place, which is understandable, considering that I am an English teacher and it is dedicated to literacy and learning. Even so, when I was actually teaching? I never felt like I had time to visit, despite several fun-sounding activities and events, but now that Mary and I are both out of the classroom, we have the time and opportunity to check the place out.
It did not disappoint! The museum has three floors of fun, engaging, interactive exhibits that explore the history and use of words and language. We played games, took quizzes, sang karaoke, designed advertisements, interacted with presentations, and watched videos as we worked our way from top to bottom. Our fellow visitors were a mix of families, couples, and small school groups, ranging in age from about 3 to 70-something, and everyone seemed to be having a pretty good time. The staff was great-- young (so young!) friendly, and informed.
As we were on our way out, the woman at the front desk had obviously overheard our conversation. "Are you teachers by any chance?" she asked.
We laughed. "Retired!" Mary told her. "But that didn't stop us from thinking about how we could have used this place to support our lessons."
She nodded. "I hope you're enjoying your retirement!"
"To be honest?" I said. "Being here without having to worry about 100 middle schoolers was definitely a lot more fun!"
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