We have been so fortunate this year to have a great friend in Mr. Tracy. Earlier this year, Mr. Tracy was on board the T/S Kennedy, a training ship from Massachusetts Maritime Academy. The T/S Kennedy visited many different ports during their journey. At each stop, Mr. Tracy sent postcards to every student sharing information about the ship and the location he was at. We learned great information about Mexico, Barbados, and Puerto Rico. You may enjoy some of our previous posts chronicling each of these locations:


Luckily for both Mr. Tracy and us, he’s still traveling! He’s currently in Hawaii on vacation and he was kind enough to take the time to write us more postcards! He even went as far as emailing all the pictures to Mr. Avery so that we could put them all in our post. You can find the pictures he sent and his message to each student about the history, culture, and characteristics of the United States’ 50th state, Hawaii in our presentation below.


Before he left for his trip, Mr. Tracy came in to visit us! He brought along both his guitar and his fiddle. He’s an amazing storyteller and musician. He talked about the culture of each different place he visited. Then, he played us a song that went along with each as well!

The first stop on his storytelling journey was Veracruz, Mexico. He talked of the food and culture and how it can be much different than how we live here in the United States. One of the ways we differ that he spoke of was in our music. He presented us with a sombrero and told us about how they sometimes will do a traditional dance around the hat. Of course, it’s called the Mexican Hat Dance! We didn’t quite have enough room on our carpet to dance around the hat, so instead, our dance looked a bit different. You can listen to the song and see our version of the dance below!


From Veracruz, Mr. Tracy took us on a tour of his next stop in beautiful Barbados. This also just so happens to be the name of the song that he gave us lyrics to so that we could sing along with him!


After sharing some information about Puerto Rico, Mr. Tracy talked to us about teamwork. He mentioned how on ships, the crew used to sing sea shanties to help them know when they all needed to do something. For example, if they sang a song while they hoisted an anchor, they’d know when they should all pull so that they worked in unison. He shared an example of a sea shanty with us.


A huge thank you to Mr. Tracy for all the time he’s taken to teach us about the engineering of ships, the cultures, of different countries, and some great songs! Also, a big thanks to our photographer and videographer, Marshall!


*What was one thing that you learned from Mr. Tracy’s postcards?*


*Have you ever been to a place that has a different culture than where you live?*


*If you could visit any of the places Mr. Tracy has been, where would it be and why?*