The last slice of pie is field trips. It is important to get students out of the classroom and into a great, educational learning environment every so often. My favorite field trips are those to living history museums, because the students can learn so much about times past and how people lived long ago. Science and history museums are also great. We've taken students fossil hunting and taken tours of poultry hatcheries, too. The most important factor is that field trips be educational, and that the students will be experiencing something new. We believe it is a waste of time and resources to go do something that they do all the time anyway. One year, we had a goal to take the students somewhere educational each month. We didn't quite hit that goal, but we came close. Field trips are an important part of learning. Learning doesn't just take place between the pages of a book.
Secondly, the school culture should be so that the students are well behaved, polite, and looking out for others. Field trips shouldn't be a loud-and-rowdy time. On one field trip to a very large zoo, the manager approached me with an armful of calendars, books, and educational materials, giving them to me for free because she (and a few of her staff) had been watching us all day and were so impressed with how well behaved the students were. We need to realize that we are being watched, even more so because of our distinctive clothing, and that should be a good thing. It's another opportunity to witness. Last, because the students are so wonderfully behaved, we can include a meal at a cultural restaurant as part of the field trip. We've taken our students to Mexican restaurants and had them order in Spanish, and to Chinese restaurants after we'd taught them to eat with chopsticks. This gives us more learning and culture -- along with some great food!
And here ends the saga of the School Culture Pie.
On a field trip to Colonial Williamsburg, we enjoyed a great meal in a private room with a fiddler for entertainment.
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