Take a Field Trip

My school is practically buzzing this week as two of our grade levels prepare for field trips. My second graders have been studying animals and their habitats for their trip to the Lowry Park Zoo and my son and his fourth grade peers are getting ready to immerse themselves in Florida history at Cracker Country (http://www.crackercountry.org/). I love to see the kids getting excited about learning and I've been extra busy in the media center this week finding books and other resources for the teachers and students. 

It reminds me how excited I was when I was in school for Field Trip Day. Not only was it a chance to have an adventure off school campus, but it made learning even more fun and relevant. I loved to read, but I needed to see and touch things. Preparation usually included stern warnings about being on your best behavior and requests to wear special clothes. It was a small price to pay for the opportunity to eat a bagged lunch outside of the noisy cafeteria and see the more informal side of my teacher's personality. 

During the last two years as a Teacherpreneur with the Center for Teaching Quality (teachingquality.org) I have had the opportunity renew my love affair with field trips. I've been working more closely with new and established media specialists throughout my district by visiting their school sites. I get excited every time I have the chance to go to a new school because I know I'm going to learn something new. I've taken hundreds of pictures and incorporated many of the ideas I've seen. It has challenged my thinking about how I use the space in my media center and what I'll do next year.

It hard to work as a media specialist sometimes because of the isolation. I'm the only one of "me" at my school. I can visit other teacher's classrooms for ideas and inspiration but it's not the same for me as being in another library space with another library teacher. Next year, as I return to my full time media specialist position I hope to find ways to continue to visit other spaces in other places.