Reflection for the Week of April 23

Lori Smale

This week, we took two field trips. On Wednesday, we attended the Golden Knights parachute show. Thursday, we went to Grandfather Mountain for lunch and to see the animal habitat and swinging bridge. Both trips, I believe, were planned on Monday of that week. I thought that much more planning went into field trips than this. It may be because it is a small school, but children who forgot their permission slips had their parents called at home or at work. There were even a few students who went without their parents being contacted first. Although I felt that the school should know that the parents know they are on a field trip, I also realize that this school seems to be an exception to some rules like that. This small community does not seem to be as strict as some of the larger, more urban schools might be. Although the trip to see the paratroopers was short, I feel that the students enjoyed it. They were jumping up and down and tracking the airplane as it criss-crossed the sky. When the paratroopers finally jumped out, there was a bit of silence as the children and adults alike stared in awe. This trip ran smoothly, as all the students were lined up against the fence, and there weren’t and problems.

The trip to Grandfather Mountain was great. The weather was beautiful and most of the animals were out. We arrived just as they were beginning lunch. The teachers all sat at one table, while the students were spread across the picnic area (we ate at Meadows Park(?)). At this time, there seemed to be a lack of organization. When the students were finished eating, they got up and walked around or ran around exploring while most of the teachers still sat all at the same table. I just seem to remember that when I went on school field trips, we had to remain under our teacher’s supervision at all times. While I realize that this is not always possible, in a situation like this, I feel that it is important. There is a great casual feeling in the school community, but sometimes I feel it is a little too comfortable. We (the interns) and one or two teachers tried to keep an eye on the students who were climbing on the rocks by sitting atop a few of them (the rocks, not the students!). I admit that I was a little bit nervous about taking this group up on the swinging bridge!

After leaving the picnic area, we went up to the animal habitat. The k-3 grades stayed there while the 4-7 graders went on up to the bridge. We had a tour guide for the animal walk, which was wonderful in that he was able to keep the children quiet and he gave out a good deal of useful information. Before going on our walk, each adult was assigned about 4 students. I had, in my supervision, three children from Mrs. Johnson’s class. One student walks very slowly, while one was pulling me along. The third child was a bit in-between. While I think the three children I was in charge of are wonderful, one of them needed a lot of attention and was not able to stand still in one place for very long. Although we were on the trip mainly for the kids, I was a bit disappointed that I had to spend more time asking the boy to stand still or to be quiet than actually looking at the animals. While I think that he was just super excited about being there, he does have special needs. It was wonderful how fascinated the children were by all of the animals. When we got to the area with the bear cubs, there were animal handlers in with them. The boy I was with kept yelling that he wanted to hold one. I tried to explain that he couldn’t, since that was not something anyone but the workers did. To that, he pouted, saying that he’s never gotten to hold one before, and he really wanted to. I tried not to laugh, but I told him that no one here had gotten to hold a bear, either. This seemed to help a little, as he quieted down a bit.

One thing that really bothered me about our trip to see the animals was when we were at the bear exhibit. Usually, they have a shack where you can buy peanuts to feed the bears. The children had been looking forward to this, but the shack was closed. One of the teachers had brought some peanuts with her to feed the bears and asked the guide if it would be OK. He said no, going through a detailed explanation about why we could not feed the bears (they get overweight from all the feedings). Then, he thought about it and decided that he would take some of the teacher’s peanuts and feed the bears so that at least the kids could see the bears better. Unfortunately, the peanuts were salted. The guide said that the bears absolutely could not have the salted peanuts. The kids were disappointed, but understood. This was the guide’s last stop on our animal walk, and he bid us good-bye. A few minutes after he left, I looked over to see the teachers throwing their peanuts into the bears’ habitat! Stephanie and I were both amazed and appalled at this behavior. The tour guide had just given us this wonderful tour and explained thoroughly why the bears could not eat the salted peanuts (and in front of all the children). Yet, here were two teachers doing exactly what the guide had said not to. I felt that this was disrespectful to the guide and to the bears. The children, having heard the guide say “no”, were now watching their teachers purposely disobey the park rules. It’s no wonder some of these children have a hard time following rules. I was worried that we would be kicked out of the park, should anyone see this. Although we were not in a position to say anything, we were both very bothered by this scene. I’m not sure why the teachers disobeyed the guide’s requests, although my guess it that it was something they really wanted to do (feed the bears), so they waited until he was no longer in sight and went about their plan. I did not hear any of the children remark about this incident, but I am sure they noticed, as children often do.

After leaving the animal habitat, we continued on up the mountain to the swinging bridge. I was getting nervous, as I remembered there being a big rock formation at the end of the bridge, but no safety fences. In my head, I pictured a student playing around and falling. Fortunately, every child was fairly well behaved. They did not go beyond the steps at the end of the bridge. Most of them were very proud to have just walked across the bridge, which really doesn’t swing at all anymore. Once they had had their fill of the bridge, we all went into the dreaded gift shop. It was interesting to see how little concept of money some of these children have. Because we had the younger group, this was understandable, as many children came up to me asking, “Do I have enough for this?” Most of the time, the answer was “no”, and I would walk around with them until they found something they could afford. The children who came with a lot of money were intent on spending all of it. The staff at the gift shop was very patient and understanding. I thanked them for their kindness and patience, to which they replied “You’re welcome . . .we’ve gotten used to all the commotion!”

Overall, I really enjoyed this field trip. I hope that my students will get to experience outing like this in their community. This area is lucky to have so many paces where the children can learn in an environment that is entertaining and familiar to them. I also hope that my field trips will be organized to the point that I feel in control, yet that my children still feel like they can have fun.