feature stories
Class trip opportunities abound in Big Apple
Oct 5, 2006 4:31 PM
New York City school kids are mighty lucky they live in the Big Apple. After all, where else are there so many exciting things to do, see, explore and interact with beyond their classrooms?
Teachers, of course, are the link to connect kids with this greater world of museums, zoos, labs, cultural centers and historic sites that are available in every borough and the surrounding area.
Teachers who have forged that link over the years are always enthusiastic about the ways it enriches the curriculum and the lives of their students and they always come back for more.
Take their word for it.
Gloria Cunny, a 5th-grade teacher at PS 132 in Springfield Gardens, Queens, “loves” taking her students on trips and may hold the class trip record — 14 trips a year.
“There are so many opportunities for them to experience and see things they never get to do on their own. These trips inspire them and give them hope and wider horizons for their futures,” she explained. One of those trips was to see the Dance Theatre of Harlem, part of the Kupferberg Center’s yearlong Revelations programs for students K-8 at Queens College.
Perhaps best of all, she said, “is the sophistication that comes and the social skills that develop.” Trips into Manhattan include a restaurant so students learn not only about ethnic cuisines but about “appropriate behavior and conversational tone,” Cunny said.
Last year’s class had done such a great research job before their trip to the New York Historical Society’s exhibit on slavery that they were adding details to the guide’s presentation. “They were so proud of themselves and so was I,” she said.
Christy Bakatsas of PS 149 in Jackson Heights, Queens, found that her students “were glued to their seats” at the Toying with Science workshop at the Kupferberg Center. The mad scientist’s daring feats and unending supply of surprises to investigate scientific principles of gravity, resistance, leverage and simple machines were “very interesting, humorous and fun,” she added.
There’s no limit to Laurel Adam-Sherbell’s enthusiasm for the Paper Bag Players, “a class trip I’ve been taking every year since 1987 without fail, a trip of really high quality that’s never disappointed me, the children, parents or colleagues.”
And she’s looking forward to this year’s trip with her pre-kindergarteners at PS 198 on the Upper East Side
“I love the fact that each skit is imaginative, well written and addresses issues children can relate to. And I love the fact that they use common household articles for sets and costumes — a lesson in itself about the creative use of what’s available that I use in follow-up lessons,” she explained.
Pam Talish, a kindergarten teacher at PS 139 in Rego Park, Queens, shares that enthusiasm for the Paper Bag Players. “The kids love it and love getting interactively involved in the skits,” she said.
What student wouldn’t want to get behind the cameras and broadcasters and see how TV news is put together, what studios and newsrooms look like, what control room jargon means and how the technology of TelePrompters and the Green Screen ChromaKey system used in weather reports works?
CNN has tours that do just that for all academic levels and, like many other class trip choices, offers educators’ guides that include suggestions about pre-trip and post-trip activities appropriate for elementary, middle and high school students. The CNN study guide indicates its link to national standards in the subject areas of social studies, language arts/journalism and technology.
The mind-boggling wonders of technology are not just on display at the Sony Wonder Technology Lab but draw students right in to be part of it. They get an opportunity to create musical compositions and then perform them, take a cyber-journey and examine the innards of the technology. They even get a graduation certificate at logoff.
Class trip choices come in all shapes and sizes. There’s something out there that will add a new dimension to what’s going on in the classroom and help students understand the wider world in which they live.
The Paper Bag Players rehearse Dandelion, a fantasy based on Darwin’s theory of evolution.
In the post-concert workshop by the Soh Daiko troupe, 7th-graders from IS 230 in Jackson Heights practice the techniques of taiko drumming.
Students on tour at the Sony Wonder Technology Lab rehearse their own compositions on instruments you will never see on a concert stage.
A dancer from the Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company performs Chinese folk dance movements with 3rd-graders from PS 82 in Jamaica.
The whole class enjoys interacting at Sony.
