Spoiler alert. This is a teacher story.
In education there are many different philosophies that come and go. Anybody remember the open class concept? Remember the pods? Pods were supposed to limit the number of different teachers kids were exposed to.
Well, our school was organized into pods and it worked quite well. The pod I was in had four gr seven classes. I had an assignment of three language arts classes and one math and some options.
We got the idea that we would take all 120 kids out for an all day field trip. We decided to take them to Fort Normandeau which is a nearby heritage site on the Red Deer River. . This was where the first white people came to the area. At that area you could ford the Red Deer River. You could walk across, ride your pony across or drive your horses and wagon across.
Today there has be development on the site so that there is a credible museum of western history, theater, replica of the old fort and stopping house.
We divided the kids into groups and assigned them activities to take part in. Of course , being teachers we made them record what they learned and thought.
One of our caretakers had the hobby of gold panning. Small amounts of gold have always been found on the Red Deer river. Glayde got gold pans from the club and showed kids how to pan for gold. Kids did find the odd fleck of gold or bit of gold dust. I can still see their faces today when Glayde showed them that they had a tiny piece of gold. Of course, we had not prepared the kids to take small bits of gold back home so there was some stress until we found some envelopes. .
Of course , we had a big hot dog lunch and in the afternoon we took four bus loads of very tired and dirty kids back to the school.
This is just one part of the complex. This is a replica of the original fort and trading post.
This sounds like a great field trip, one the kids will remember.
ReplyDelete... and I hope they learned a few things.
DeleteI just got rid of Neil Young's Gold Rush, giving me an earworm.
ReplyDeleteI like Neil Young . I'll have to listen to goldrush again.
DeleteWhat a great field trip! Love this days!
ReplyDeletethe way it was organized , it gave the kids variety for the day.
DeleteAn interesting teacher post is to be expected from you, Red. I would have loved to be one of your students.
ReplyDeleteYou'd have been the little kid standing as close to the action as possible.
Deletewow i just checked on google for the term "pods" and i liked the answer
ReplyDeletei can understand that taking kids to such sensitive site can be stressful for the team of teachers .
i hope no kid took the gold along with him
Several kids found bits of gold. I imagine they'll remember that for a long time.
DeleteOh, that sounds like a wonderful outing, Red. I bet those kids still remember finding gold! Hurray for teachers!
ReplyDeleteIt was a great place to go as there were a number of easy ways to divide things so there was variety.
DeleteIt does sound like a great field trip for the school trips.
ReplyDeleteThe fort replica looks like an interesting place to visit.
Take care, enjoy your day!
The fort was carefully constructed to look like the old one. Some of the old fort was left when they built this one.
DeleteI don't think we ever did pods? The field trip sounds perfect, I went along a couple field trips to the Oakland museum (4th grade) where the kids got to pan for gold. It's one of the more fun trips I remember!
ReplyDeletePods came a long time after your time. The fad didn't last long but it worked.
DeleteThe last time I was down that way, none of that was there, still just an old campground that was called Oldtimers Picnic ground, I think. I'll have to take a look at it, next time I'm in Red Deer.
ReplyDeleteYou would never recognize the place. It's only open for a few months in the summer. It's one of my wife's favorite places to go.
DeleteWhat a great field trip. I don't recall any so involved from my school days.
ReplyDeleteJoanne , field trips and buses came after our time.
DeleteSounds like a lot of fun! Linda in Kansas
ReplyDeletethe kids could tear around and burn off energy. When I look at the site I'm surprised we didn't have a few get wet in he river.
DeleteI for one am a big fan of your teacher stories. This one was great! Thanks for sharing Red!
ReplyDeleteThere is something eye opening to kids when they are actually able to physically participate in some old activity. Tim and William have 'gold pans'. No actual gold has been found, but they always were so excited at the prospect (did you get my little funny there?).
ReplyDeleteSounds great! -Christine cmlk79.blogspot.com
ReplyDeleteWhat a fun outing for kids!
ReplyDeleteIt's good to do some learning away from the classroom. When I was a school kid, field trips left special impressions upon me. In modern times, it has become much harder for teachers to arrange field trips with paper work, insurance and risk assessments to consider.
ReplyDeleteOh gosh! I can just imagine the fun the kids had. We took my mom and her sister to a gold mining tourist town several years back and they got to pan for gold that was already planted there. Hmmm.... I wonder what she did with her little bottle.
ReplyDelete