Guest Speakers and Fireld Trips
Guest speakers and field trips are very helpful in the classroom. Students love field trips because they get a chance to leave the classroom setting. Guest speakers motivate them to do there best in school so that they can be sucessful in their field.
I am one of the instructors who does not like fireld trips. I would like the students to see what the industry has to offer, but in going on a fireld trip, it takes so much time from there day. I have never had what I would call a sucessful fireld trip because I am at the beginning of the program and I feel some students feel alienated because they can't get a ride, and some are just too shy to ask the others, some want to skip or leave early and I simply don't have the patience for that. If things were like elementary school in which I had a bus and could wrangle people I think it would be better. I just don't feel comfortable having so many people driving themselves. (Wrong spelling intentional)
I agree with you that field trips in the career field that is being taught adds a very valuable part to a students learning of the field that they have decided apon.
In the Medical Program at our school we use guest speakers often as well as field trips. The students can gain on-site visualization of the area that we are currently studying. I liked the idea of having the students use an index card for questions to ask. The guest speakers also help to reinforce in class teachings and can help the students to network. I liked the idea of sending information to the guest speaker prior to the visit.
I love to take students on field trips, when i have the opportunity. I think it reinforces what they are learning in the classroom and hearing in lecture. It gives them a sense of the real world setting. For most of my students, have never been in an office or medical ceneter setting.
Both field trips and guest speakers provide an aspect to the student the teacher or institution is unable to provide.
A good guest speakers brings workplace information that students find interesting, and the opportunity to ask questions, usually more "nitty-gritty" type questions that help satisfy their curiosity without feeling like their questions are dumb.
More inspiring is the field trip that may give insight and a vision of a future reality students will soon be a part of. Grasping that vision of a better future, and seeing themselves successful (maybe with a better paying job in a more satisfying work setting) cannot be matchede in the classroom. Video's, CD's, and related media attempt to do this but none are as meaningful as actually visting some site or setting that conveys the reality of some aspect of what the job entails.
Regards, Barry
I would have to agree with you on the part of getting everybody there and there on time. I had a class that we did a field trip and three people came at the end of the tour. it was very embarrassing for me as an instructor.
I am not totally counting field trips out but i need to figure out a better way to do them first.
Hi Daniel:
When an assignment is graded, the penalty for absence is apparent (zero points). What students miss by a field trip is invaluable. Many people will focus the whole of their career based on something seen, said, observed, or revealed. The vision of a potential successful work career is very powerful. That inner motivation is quite unlike anything else. So, woe to those students who miss.
That said, conveying how unacceptable arriving late is to the offending students is warranted with whatever degree of action is customary for your institution.
Regards, Barry
Yes, I do feel it is very important to have both guest speakers and field trips. I am a general education Mathematics teacher and I still find time to bring in speakers. I have brought in Police Officers, Nurses, Accountants, etc. to show students how they incorporate Mathematics into their fields of work. Students can then relate their work to a career.
The field trips I have had always have a rubric.The student knows that the field trip is worth so many points toward their grade for the class. If they arrive late they lose points. If they are out of uniform they are sent home and counted absent. They also know that the trip can not be made up. Once they return to the class room a written assignment is completed,with questions focused on the field trip experience.
Hi Tierra:
Right - the students get a fresh perspective of the content, or get the chance to see the information in action. This is especially helpful for students in career based classes.
Regards, Barry
Hi Paul:
While time consuming, these tools offer the student an additional perspective about the content you may have been discussing in class and gives them an opportunity to ask questions to others besides the main instructor.
Regards, Barry
Hi Kathleen:
Right - it offers them another perspective of what you've been discussing. And, it may offer the students the chance to speak with someone other than the main instructor, which facilitates the learning process.
Regards, Barry
Hi Noreen:
These tools are an exclellent way to renew the student's interest in the topic at hand.
Regards, Barry
Hi Sara:
These can help renew the student's interest in the topics you've been describing, and bring a fresh perspective to enhance the learning process.
Regards, Barry
Hi Benetta:
If that rubric has a general comments section, it would be interesting to see if the students describe a renewed sense of perspective about the topics you've been covering that had to do with the field trip.
Regards, Barry
