Virtual field trips belong in every classroom! Thanks so much for dedicating the majority of a class period to the virtual field trip presentations! What a great way to create a memorable image of what a virtual field trip is by allowing us to see it in action from a variety of interpretations! We each got a chance to experience what a virtual field trip is as a student and as a teacher.
As a student going on the virtual field trips hosted by my peers, I found myself wanting to experience the full field trip and wanting to learn more about each topic. I was truly engrossed in the Statue of Liberty field trip from the point when Lisa showed us how we would travel from Virginia to New York to get there. What a great visual and use of maps! I have been to the Statue of Liberty in person, but it has been almost 20 years, and I don’t remember learning that level of detail about the statue’s skin. What a fantastic way for kids to make a personal connection! They can almost relate to the statue by imagining it to have skin like theirs; placing pennies at each table to describe the thickness (2 layered pennies) created such a powerful, lasting image that is so understandable for students because it is concrete. Additionally, I agree with Caroline and Sarah (State Capital field trip) that kids will be more engaged in the trip if they see their teachers actually on the site of the field trip. It makes the field trip seem less distant by showing students, “Hey, I’ve been there, and this is what I saw while I was there.” Also, teachers can speak with greater authority and confidence about the location by having a first-hand eyewitness account of the location. There are just so many great opportunities for kids to make connections through virtual field trips – imagining you are on the Susan Constant traveling to Jamestown listening to the sounds of the ship (“which space will you pick as your own”), imagining the base of the pyramid as larger than a football field, picturing what the Monticello dome room could be used for, etc. If I get excited watching the virtual field trips, the kids will feel that way too! Just because the SOLs say that students need to learn 2-3 bullets on a certain topic doesn’t mean that the lesson needs to be limited to only those 2-3 bullets and that they need to be restated over and over. Why not instead create context for the 2-3 bullets that creates a long-lasting image of the topic for the students and a desire to learn more.
As a teacher taking notes about how I will implement virtual field trips in my future classroom, I was so impressed by the presentations of other students and excited to try to implement some of their research into my future virtual field trips. I paid attention to resources that I could use (ex: National Park Service website, Nearpod, http://virtual-tour.battlefields.org, etc.). I also took note of the way the material was presented. For example, I love how Deborah had great quality images with very friendly, student-facing language and she really invited the students onto the ship by the way that she engaged them and the directions that she provided to students. I loved Marlea’s use of the Nearpod questions as formative assessments. I haven’t previously used Nearpod, but I hope to use it soon. I think Stephanie’s use of QR codes to encourage student-directed learning was great. I have some experience using QR codes, and I think they would be a great addition to virtual field trips. I was really curious to see where the links would take you, and I am sure that students will be equally curious.
Across the course, I have learned skills that I can implement in my future classroom because we were able to try out so many techniques during the semester. The textbook, articles, and videos are great resources that I will to refer back to, but what has been most helpful has been the amount of collaboration that we have had with peers where we have actually practiced techniques (literature circles, analyzing source documents, critically thinking about literature, determining cause and effect, creating meaningful rubrics and assessments, understanding document-based questions, building background knowledge, teaching vocabulary, etc.). Hands-on experiences are so valuable because they create a lasting memory of how you used that technique and how it made you feel as a learner. For me, it makes me much more likely to use those techniques with my students because I have experienced first-hand how much more effective that technique was versus having the teacher lecture the same information or ask the students to read it alone independently. What I have learned this semester is how interesting social studies is and how engaging it can be for your students. It does not have to be and should not be rote memorization. History, civics, economics, and geography are full of stories and interesting cause and effects. As teachers, we just need to know our students, know the information, and plan ahead for how to make the information meaningful for our students. It does little good to have students memorize information for a test and have them forget it the next year. The social studies teacher’s role is to ignite student’s interest and passion for social studies by teaching them how to analyze the information and create their own interpretation of the evidence and make them excited to learn more.