Field Trips For Teacher

Field trips enable teachers to expand children's learning beyond the walls of the classroom into the vast community outside. They provide children with experiences that cannot be duplicated in the school but are nonetheless an integral part of school instruction. Perhaps a field trip can best be described as a living laboratory in which learning is acquired through active hands-on experience with the rich resources of the local community.

Research has shown that field trips are important for many reasons; they increase student knowledge and understanding of a subject, they add realism to the topic of study, and they provide an opportunity to develop and enhance a student's socialization and citizenship skills.

Planning for Field Trips
In light of their valuable contribution to a child's education, field trips should be preceded by good planning. Careful attention should be given to trip selection, previsit preparation, the trip itself, appropriate follow up, and evaluation. Such efforts should ensure that students will have a successful educational experience.

Items That Teachers Might Tell Students to Bring

• Every student should have the use of a clipboard, hardback notebook, or other hard surface (perhaps cardboard) for note-taking, sketching, etc. Paper or pages in a writer's notebook provide ideal places for children to record ideas and vocabulary which they may use for writing.
• Carry art materials for any sketching which requires color, such as oil pastels, charcoal, or crayons.
• Take along some thin paper (such as newsprint) for doing rubbings on gravestones, building signs, and interesting textures, such as brick or wood.
• Carry Zip-Lock bags for making collections. Pre-label them with the names of students or groups.
• Strong net bags (such as those available at Giant Foods), or other durable totes, provide excellent carriers for notebooks, clipboards, art supplies, etc. Three or four per class would be ideal. They are the perfect size for student assistants to carry.
• If students are permitted to bring cameras, encourage them to plan how they will be used to record information and ideas needed later for writing or to illustrate their writings in a book, pamphlet, essay, etc.
• Arrange to take the school camcorder or QuickTake camera on the field trip. Have a student trained to use it to record interesting sights and interviews. This visual record could provide the foundation for a documentary or narrative script.
• Arrange to bring a tape recorder to record docents remarks. (Be sure to get permission from the docent in advance.) Have a student trained to use it to make an audio record of the trip. This information could be useful in clearing up misinformation, developing a documentary of the field trip, enabling students who missed the trip to hear the information, and serving as a resource for future student research.
• Permit students to bring money for purchasing postcards or other memorabilia which will reflect the field trip site. These pictures, brochures, etc. can be used as resources for writing.