MAKING THE MOST OF COMMUNITY RESOURCES AND FIELD TRIPS

Have you gone through a field trip? What do you suggest to improve a failed field trip?

Planning a field trip includes these steps:

Preliminary planning by the teacher
• Make preliminary contacts, a tour on final arrangements with the place to visited.
• Make final arrangements with the school principal about the details of the trip: time,
schedule, transportation arrangements, finances, and permission slips from parents.

Preliminary planning by the teacher

• Make a tentative route plan, subject to later alteration based on class planning and
objectives.
• Try to work out mutually satisfactory arrangements with other teachers if the trip will
conflict with their classes.
• Prepare preliminary lists of questions or other materials which will be helpful in planning
with the students.

Preplanning with students joining the trip

• Discuss the objective of the trip and write them down. The main objectives should be
included in the permit slip given to the parents and should be consulted later when the trip
is evaluated.

Preplanning with students joining the trip

• Prepare a list of questions to send ahead to the guide of the study trip.
• Define safety and behavior standards for the journey there and for the field trip itself.
• Discuss and decide on ways to document the trip. Everyone is expected to take notes.

Preplanning with students joining the trip

• List specific objects to be seen on their way to the site, on the site of the field trip and on
their way home from the site.
• Discuss appropriate dress. Wear comfortable shoes for walking are important.
• Before the trip, use a variety of learning materials in order to give each student a
background for the trip.

Preplanning with others joining the trip

• Other people accompanying the group need to be oriented on the objectives, route,
behavior standards required of everyone so they can enforce these standards. These may
be parents who will assist the teachers, other teachers and/or school administrator staff.

Taking the Field Trip

• Distribute route map of places to be observed.

• Upon arriving at the destination, teacher should check the group and introduce the guide.
• The trip keeps to the time schedule
• The students have the opportunity to obtain answers to questions
 • The group participates courteously in the entire trip
• The guide sticks closely to the list of questions

Evaluating Field Trip

• Could the same benefits be achieved by other materials? Was it worth the time, effort, and
perhaps extra money?
• Were there any unexpected problems which could be foreseen another time? Were these
due to guides, students, poor planning, or unexpected trip conditions?
• Were new interests developed?
• Should the trip be recommended to other classes studying similar topics?

Educational Benefits Derived from a Field Trip

 The acquisition of lasting concepts and change in attitudes are rooted on concrete and rich
experiences. Fieldtrips are opportunities for rich and memorable experiences which are
fundamental to learning that lasts.
 Field trips brings us to the world beyond the classroom. The real-world connection is more
work but the benefits of broadening teaching beyond textbooks far outweigh the little bit of
time it takes from a teacher’s schedule.
 Field trips have a wide range of application. It is not meant only for children. It is for adults
also. It is not only meant for the social science subjects. It is for all the subjects as well.
 It can bring a lot of realizations which may lead to changes in attitudes and insights. The
field trip “can nurture curiosity; build a zest for new experience, and a sense of wonder.”
(Dale, 1969)

Disadvantages of Field Trips

 It is costly
 It involves logistics
 It is extravagant with time
 Contains an element of uncertainty.

Community Resources
• Let us begin with the parents of our students. Many of them can be our source speakers in
their field expertise.
• A dentist may be invited to talk to the children on how to care for their teeth.
• A journalist may serve as source speaker on the parts of a newspaper and how to write an
editorial.
• A senior citizen and a war veteran in the community may be invited to class for an
interview on a topic of which he is expert, say for example, his memories of World
War II.
• A barangay captain may be asked on what the barangay intends to do to curb the
rampant alcoholism among the youth in their community.
• As to places to visit, popular destinations are museums, zoos, botanical gardens,
historical places, places of exhibits, scenic spots.
• Performances like a play, a concert, and dance presentations also form part of
community resources.
 • Public libraries and private libraries can also be community learning resources. May be
classes are not brought to these libraries for a field trip but students can go there for
research and learning.

The Power of Film, Video and TV in the Classroom

“Next to the home and school, I believe television to have a more profound influence on the
human race than any other medium of communication- Edgar Dale

INTRODUCTION
The appeal of visual media continues to make film, video and television as educational tools with
high potential impact. They are now more accessible and less cumbersome to use. Let us take
advantage of them in the classroom.

The Power of Film, Video and TV in the Classroom

• Transmit a wide range of audio-visual materials; including still pictures, film, objects,
specimens and drama.

• Bring models of excellence to the viewer.

• Bring the world of reality to the home and to the classroom through a “live” broadcast or
as mediated to through film or videotape.

• Make us see and hear for ourselves world event as they happen.
• Be the most believable source.

• Make some programs understandable and appealing to a wide variety of age and
educational levels.

• Become a great equalizer of educational opportunity because program can be presented

over national and regional networks.

• Provide us with the sounds and sights not easily available even to the viewer of a real
event through long shots, zoom shots, magnification and split screen made possible by the
TV camera.

• Can give opportunity to teachers to view themselves while they teach for purposes of self-
improvement.

• Can be both instructive and enjoyable.

Limitations/disadvantages
• Television and film are one-way communication device consequently, they encourage
passivity.
• The small screen size puts television at the disadvantage when compared with the possible
size of the projection motion pictures, for example.
 • Excessive TV viewing works gain the development of child ability to visualize and to be
creative and imaginative skills that are needed in problem solving.
• There is much violence in TV. This is the irrefutable conclusion, “viewing violence
increases violence”.

“If Muhammad cannot go to the mountain, bring the mountain to Muhammad.”

BASIC PROCEDURES IN THE USE OF TV AS A SUPPLEMENTARY ENRICHMENT

Prepare the classroom.
 Darken the room.
 The students should not be seated too far nor too near from the TV.
Pre-viewing Activities
 Set goals and expectations.
 Link the tv lesson with pass lesson and or with your students’ experiences for integration
and relevance.
 Set the rules while viewing.
 Put the film in context.
 Point out the key points they need to focus on.
Viewing
 Don’t interrupt viewing by inserting cautions and announcements you forgot to give
during the previewing stage.
 Just make sure sights and sounds are clear.
Post-viewing
 What do you like best in the film?
 What part of the film makes you wonder? Doubt?
 Does the film remind you of something or someone?
 What questions are you asking about the film?
Post-viewing
 Go to the questions you raised at the pre-viewing stage.
 Tackle questions raised by students at the initial stage of the post-viewing discussion.
 Ask what students learned.
 Summarize what was learned.