1. Field Trip!

2. Getting the details I  Network with other teachers to find out “good” places for field trips  Where to go? –Environmental learning centers –Salmon fisheries –Museums –Industries (Werhauser, Boeing, Seattle Public Utilities) –Sites of high tech (dams, locks)  Many of these places have people especially hired to conduct school trips

3. Getting the details II  Call up these places and find out if there are fees, if they have brochures for you, if you can make a preliminary visit  Visit the site yourself, walk through with a guide and ask questions –Is there a place where you can gather students before and after the visit?  Get back to school and find out how this visit will fit into your curriculum!

4. Fitting a field trip into your curriculum I  After visiting the site, consider what concepts can be explored by the trip experience  Decide if you want students to be accountable for taking notes, asking certain questions, taking pictures (use digital camera, video camera)  However, don’t make the field trip a joyless, academic exercise

5. Fitting a field trip into your curriculum II  Before they go, they should have enough classroom experience to ask good questions, recognize examples of concepts  Debrief with your students after you get back-- get out the pictures and videotape to aid recall

6. Preparation I  Read school’s policy on field trips  Bring it up at a faculty meeting and get approval from department  Ask, “Who will I impact outside the department?” and consult them  Are you going to bring one class? All at a grade level?  Recruit parents, other teachers to go along  Talk to parent about what you expect of them and of the kids

7. Preparation II  Make permission slips  Distribute permission slips a week early, and say they are due one day before they are really due  There is a fee for transportation, collect students’ money only on the day you go, no checks please  Make arrangements for keeping kids at school who don’t have permission slips

8. Preparation III  Going to eat on the trip? Call the restaurant a couple days before and ask if they can accommodate large groups  Find out when the earliest is that you can get a bus, when do you have to have to bus back?  Consider special clothing that students should have, forget looking fashionable

9. The day of the trip  Take with you: a class roster, cell phone  Talk to your kids one more time about behavioral expectations  Make sure they know that no one other than their parents can pick them up directly from a field trip site, no siblings, no friends  When you get to the site-- –Where are we meeting later and when? –You walk BEHIND students, not in front –When split in groups, always have 1 adult, no one is “out of sight”