Going somewhere?

Field trips are wonderful and provide great opportunities for students to learn outside of the classroom setting. In my previous post, I detailed the field trip the children's museum. Aside from what a great program the museum put on, another thing always sticks out for me when I organize a field trip. My students are overly excited to be going ANYWHERE.

We get on the bus and roll through local traffic, passing a McDonald's and Dunkin Donuts. My students squeal with delight and marvel at how the signs look from the inside of the school bus. A few minutes later, we approach the highway and again my students are staring out the windows with wide eyes and mouths agape. Traffic. I am groaning on the inside and anxious about arriving on time. They are nudging each other about all the different cars, trucks, and construction vehicles that are visible. We pass the harbor and their amazement reaches still another level. This particular stretch of the highway is a mere few miles, not much longer than a minute drive from where the majority of them live, but still they are awestruck.

Driving further, I point out signs and letters on those signs. Someone says he never knew there were letters on those signs. Exiting the highway, going over a bridge, mouths still wide open. Arriving in the vicinity of the museum, they are commenting about the large skyscraper buildings.

For many of my students, trips like these are the few occasions that they actually leave the small neighborhood in which they live. Yes, the whole city is there, sprawling before them and yet they don't regularly take advantage of or realize how many resources there are. In one way, it saddens me to see their amazement at something so common as traffic. When they are excited to just get on the highway, I wonder if we should just rent a bus for the day and drive around without actually going anywhere at all. In another way though it surprises and motivates me. I am surprised with how little exposure many of them have to life outside of their neighborhood and I am motivated to find opportunities for them to get out of the classroom and learn, to expand their horizons.