The Wednesday before break, the Des Moines staff got together to exchange gifts. However, this was no ordinary gift exchange. The teachers drew names of another staff member, then they were tasked to buy a children's toy that they thought represented that person. 

Our first field trip of the year, gave us an insight to our future careers. We were given all-inclusive tours of three different businesses in the Des Moines area. We started out with visiting the Des Moines Feed and Nature center. We learned about the different types of feed, where they store it, and how they keep it fresh. We also got to see firsthand how they bag and package seed. The elementary went to another part of the company and they built bird houses as we explored the next two businesses. 

After seeing all there was to see at the Nature Center, we headed to Ex-Guard. We were greeted by Jeremy Drever. Our tour there consisted of a video that gave an overview of Ex- Guard and a detailed tour of where the bumpers and bent, welded, and cut. We then watched the laser cut out sheets of metal. 

How we got the ideas of the quotes is that we all made up quotes about what we though respect meant to us. We were going to just use one quote on poster but decided to use more than one. Ethan decided to say, " Let's have respect instead of plain respect". Kelsey looked at a picture to draw the shaking hands. We decided to make a black hand and a white hand so it is saying everyone is included in respect. The group we