Epic Fail: Observing a Field trip

Last Thursday, three grade six classes went to the Aboriginal Festival at the Canadian National Exhibition (CNE). We all took the TTC (bus, subway, and a streetcar) in order to reach the destination. Hence, it was a great practice to observe how teachers manage transportation of student groups on field trips. Since, I’ve been a camp leader for several years and had to take kids around the city via TTC bus, it wasn’t much of a surprise to me. Obviously the trip to and fro was immensely noisy due to all the chattering, but still it was a joyous part of the day.

We reached CNE at the expected time and the classes were split into mini groups. Since they were 10-11 year old, they were given the freedom to explore the building with their assigned groups. (Also, since there was only one entrance/exit, the teachers felt the students would be responsible enough to stay within the boundaries of the building). During class at OISE, I had the impression that teachers need to be hovering around and taking note where all the groups where. However, in this area, there were a lot of other school groups, so it was impossible for teachers to keep an eye on all the groups even if they had tried running laps around the building. However, all the teachers walked around periodically and then stood at a prominent spot in the building hence the students were able to find them easily. So it worked out.

What really ruined the field trip was not the management or the transportation of the students, but rather what the place had to offer. The description of the event was a hands-on experience of soap-carving, Aboriginal music & dance, hair-braiding, and games such as snakes-&-ladders and tug-a-war. This had really excited the children when the teachers had told them about the field trip plan in class. But once we got there, the stations which they had advertised were really crowded that most of the students didn’t even get an opportunity to participate. As well, about 75% of the place was covered with stalls selling aboriginal arts, CDs, and souvenirs. I perceived it as an over-priced flee market. It was a pretty useless field trip, because I could see a lot of the students were simply tolerating the environment and weren’t enjoying (even though they were free to walk around with their friends). They learned absolutely nothing from this field trip because the activities were a fail and there wasn’t anyone explaining educational/valuable content about First Nations. I felt it was a misrepresentation of the First Nations. Many of the students were disappointed that they had not brought enough money to buy the (over-priced) souvenirs, which definitely wasn’t the aim of the field trip anyway. As well, when I asked several of the students how they felt, they simply shrugged their shoulders unsure what to say. I had the same reaction too.

Things to learn from observing a field trip:

o I now understand why OISE instructors suggests that teachers should actually visit or get a review from past-teachers about the place they will be visiting

o It is not sufficient to rely on the description provided by the event-coordinators/field trip providers because it might be ‘advertising’ more than they actually offer.

o Go to sites which are more commonly visited for field trip purposes or have educational resources