Caitlin's Reflection
Caitlin Marshall
TEDU 591 4/24/13
Field Trip Reflection
On April 4, 2013 I went to the Maggie Walker House with my project partner Lloyd. We took a tour of the exhibit hall and house with a group of about fifteen other people (including three or four children). The tour started in the museum’s visitor center with a short video. The video highlighted Maggie Walker’s life and accomplishments. According to National Park Service Archives there are no known audio recordings of Maggie. However, the video cleverly contains autobiographical voiceovers that make it more interesting and meaningful.
After we watched the video, the tour proceeded through the courtyard to the exhibit hall. This building contains various pictures and artifacts from Maggie’s childhood and early adult years. The tour guide stopped in each room and gave us detailed information about Maggie Walker as well as the items in each room. I thought the artifacts were interesting to look at, but you cannot touch any of them. The tour itself is not very interactive or hands-on, so I think the trip would be better for upper elementary students because their attention spans are longer.
After we finished going through the exhibit hall, we went next door to tour the actual house. The tour starts downstairs in the formal living room and goes all the way through the house to Maggie’s bedroom upstairs. I thought the dining room and library were the most interesting rooms we saw. In her library, she had displayed many books, awards, and pictures of her numerous influential friends. Since the tour is “hands-off,” the rangers told us about the during-trip activities that they do with school groups. I think these lessons help keep the children actively engaged during the tour.
The field trip fulfilled my educational purposes because I learned in-depth details about Maggie Walker and her impressive accomplishments. Students will definitely learn everything they need to know about this pioneering woman and her various contributions to the community at the museum. A visit to the Maggie Walker House is a worthwhile field trip for students in fourth and fifth grade because it supports and enhances the social studies curriculum. Teachers should plan ahead and order the travel trunk from the museum before they go to the house. This will help their students get more out of the experience. The travel trunk allows the students to interact with multiple materials that they will learn about at the museum.
My favorite part of the trip was touring the actual house and learning about the fabulous during-trip activities the museum staff does with the students. My least favorite part of the trip was the exhibit hall because it was so “hands-off,” which I think students would find boring. Students would find the museum more exciting if they had more hands-on materials such as clothes to dress-up in or interactive video displays. The only thing I would change about the tour would be to make more interactive materials available for the students to see and touch.
There were several unexpected discoveries that I made during our field trip to the house. First, the upstairs of the house is inaccessible to people in wheelchairs. This is definitely something that a teacher would need to consider before taking a class on a field trip here. This is doubly ironic because Maggie Walker herself was wheelchair bound later in life and the site itself is part of the federal park system, which is required to be ADA compliant by law. Second, there was a woman on the tour with us who actually seemed more knowledgeable than the tour guide! She took over the tour at several points and interjected some interesting facts. I think this was a good experience for me as a pre-service teacher because there may be parent chaperones that could do this on a future trip. Overall, the field trip was a wonderful experience. I look forward to planning my own field trip to the Maggie Walker House with strategies that will excite my future class.
TEDU 591 4/24/13
Field Trip Reflection
On April 4, 2013 I went to the Maggie Walker House with my project partner Lloyd. We took a tour of the exhibit hall and house with a group of about fifteen other people (including three or four children). The tour started in the museum’s visitor center with a short video. The video highlighted Maggie Walker’s life and accomplishments. According to National Park Service Archives there are no known audio recordings of Maggie. However, the video cleverly contains autobiographical voiceovers that make it more interesting and meaningful.
After we watched the video, the tour proceeded through the courtyard to the exhibit hall. This building contains various pictures and artifacts from Maggie’s childhood and early adult years. The tour guide stopped in each room and gave us detailed information about Maggie Walker as well as the items in each room. I thought the artifacts were interesting to look at, but you cannot touch any of them. The tour itself is not very interactive or hands-on, so I think the trip would be better for upper elementary students because their attention spans are longer.
After we finished going through the exhibit hall, we went next door to tour the actual house. The tour starts downstairs in the formal living room and goes all the way through the house to Maggie’s bedroom upstairs. I thought the dining room and library were the most interesting rooms we saw. In her library, she had displayed many books, awards, and pictures of her numerous influential friends. Since the tour is “hands-off,” the rangers told us about the during-trip activities that they do with school groups. I think these lessons help keep the children actively engaged during the tour.
The field trip fulfilled my educational purposes because I learned in-depth details about Maggie Walker and her impressive accomplishments. Students will definitely learn everything they need to know about this pioneering woman and her various contributions to the community at the museum. A visit to the Maggie Walker House is a worthwhile field trip for students in fourth and fifth grade because it supports and enhances the social studies curriculum. Teachers should plan ahead and order the travel trunk from the museum before they go to the house. This will help their students get more out of the experience. The travel trunk allows the students to interact with multiple materials that they will learn about at the museum.
My favorite part of the trip was touring the actual house and learning about the fabulous during-trip activities the museum staff does with the students. My least favorite part of the trip was the exhibit hall because it was so “hands-off,” which I think students would find boring. Students would find the museum more exciting if they had more hands-on materials such as clothes to dress-up in or interactive video displays. The only thing I would change about the tour would be to make more interactive materials available for the students to see and touch.
There were several unexpected discoveries that I made during our field trip to the house. First, the upstairs of the house is inaccessible to people in wheelchairs. This is definitely something that a teacher would need to consider before taking a class on a field trip here. This is doubly ironic because Maggie Walker herself was wheelchair bound later in life and the site itself is part of the federal park system, which is required to be ADA compliant by law. Second, there was a woman on the tour with us who actually seemed more knowledgeable than the tour guide! She took over the tour at several points and interjected some interesting facts. I think this was a good experience for me as a pre-service teacher because there may be parent chaperones that could do this on a future trip. Overall, the field trip was a wonderful experience. I look forward to planning my own field trip to the Maggie Walker House with strategies that will excite my future class.