Trams, Cars, and Kids, Oh My!

Today I did something I had never done before.

No, I did not eat bugs.

I didn't speak a full sentence in Czech (I wish).

And I didn't go skydiving.

I led a field trip.

Now, this does not seem very extraordinary... but to me it was.

The thought of leading a bunch of kiddos through a city in which I don't speak the language, keeping them from getting run over by trams, cars and whatnot, and wondering how I could keep them under control without shouting at the top of my lungs (which would surely expose me to the passing strangers as an American :) )..... was a somewhat daunting one.

But we did it: we hopped on the 22 tram after riding the 16 from our school, and none of the kids got lost or run over (Thank you God!, and the two other teachers who led the trip with me- Miss McLeod and Mrs. Corpus!) I did not have to shout at the top of my lungs, (though the kids certainly made plenty of noise) and the students learned some things in the process.

We had a good time at the Náprstkovo Muzeum, where my 6th grade Geography students and the 5th graders got a chance to view the Native American exhibit and learn more about the people of the North, Central and South American continents.

At first they were a little intimidated and confuzzled by the Scavenger Hunt worksheet I had given them to complete.... but in about 10 minutes they stopped complaining and began to have much success on their quest for objects and answers to questions. One of things they learned was why the feathers in a headress made by North American Natives are much less colorful than the feathers on South American clothes: because in S. America, one finds TROPICAL birds! (This tied into the 6th graders' study of climates and biomes nicely).

At the end of the day, I heard at least one girl tell her mother that she enjoyed the museum!

And me? I learned a little more about how to be patient with students. And I'm glad they got to see and learn some new things and that all 17 of them got back to school with us safely :)