One of my biggest fears as a future teacher is the feeling of not knowing the right thing to say or not knowing the answer. With field trips, teachers need to get comfortable with this feeling of not always knowing the answers. I would think that in many cases the museum expert or tour guide will be much more knowledgeable than the visiting teacher at the topic covered by the trip, and that is okay. When I completed a long-term substitute teaching job, I remember a staff meeting where the teachers talked about it being okay to not always know the answer and that it was good to model in front of students what to do in this situation. It is important to show students how you would approach finding the answer when you don’t know it. I think this goes along with what has been discussed at our teaching courses at UR as well – that it is the thought process that is so much more important than the actual answer and that we need to teach kids how to logically problem solve. With so much information available after a couple of clicks on a device, it is so much more important to teach students how to think and how to know what to do with information. While I know this in my head, it still is a challenge for me to let go and know that I don’t need to have all of the answers. Also, since I tend to be an analyzer and introspective, it is a challenge for me to remember to think out loud and share my thoughts with students.
I think the VMFA field trip was a great opportunity and learning experience for me because it gave me a chance to observe what a field trip with students might look like. It gave me a chance to learn how to help students find “the maybe.” (i.e. maybe the gentlemen is a lawyer, maybe family is important to him, maybe the columns indicate his position in society, etc.) and promote their curiosity. I had no idea how much information was on the VMFA website. I love all the tools that are out there as well as the guide cards that were in our informational materials. These resources will be very helpful to practice the skills of modeling for students how I SEE, THINK, and WONDER.