Final Project Narrative: More Access, More Perspectives

 When I was thinking about what I wanted to do for my final project, I was reflecting on what I think my students don't have access to. Something that came up for me was field trips. I want my students to have access to opportunities to see as much of the world as possible and be exposed to different ideas and perspectives. I believe that this type of experiential learning is how students discover their interests and passions and leads them to find what fulfills them later in life. I believe that all students deserve to have these experiences early and often, but the school's budget and their family's finances can constrain them.

When I was a kid, I didn't get to travel a lot with my family because it was simply out of our budget. However, I went to a very well-funded school that took us on numerous field trips per year, including multiple art and history museums, outside field trips such as making observations at a river, and many more. This broad scope of real-world opportunities not only made me feel passionate about education and learning, but showed me that I could do and be anything, as we saw so many different kinds of people doing amazing things. The belief that guides this project is that all students deserve to engage in real-world, hands-on, experiential learning because it will empower them and help them find their passion. I want my students to believe that they can do anything. This project is one part of that. 

My kindergarten class goes to the zoo every year. While adorable, it does not teach them a lot about all the possibilities for them in the future. You are never too young to believe you can do anything you set your mind to! I would love to take my students to the Museum of Natural History. I want to take them to a planetarium. I want to take them to the Cornell Vet School, where they can milk a cow and learn all about surgery and medical care for animals (my elementary school did that!). So much of the world is unexplored for them that it makes them feel small. I want them to feel larger than life. 

I was exploring how to bring them to at least one additional field trip, but the budget simply didn't allow for it. So I thought... What if I could bring the field trip to my students instead of bringing them to the field trip?

I investigated online and it turns out that a lot of the places I wish I could take my students to offer virtual, interactive tours. This feature would allow me to explore the place, usually a museum, with my students, for free. They could see a museum right from the classroom and see themselves as architects, astronomers, historians, artists, paleontologists, and even teachers. My belief that all students deserve this varied experience led me to find this tool of virtual tours. 

The first place that I explored with this feature was The Museum of Natural History. Not only can you tour all current exhibits, but you can also see all of their past exhibits. This particular museum is in New York City, a place where the majority of my students has never been. It combines their interest in the natural world with academics and seeing a new place. You can move around in the museum as if you were in the building. Here, I see an opportunity to give my kindergarten students agency and control over the museum tour. They could each have a chance to explore the museum on their own, as the arrows and controls are fairly intuitive and simple. I could also choose one child to be the "guide" and choose where we go in the museum. If we do this activity for every child, we will see twenty museums by the end of the year, with each child getting to feel as if they are the teacher and the tour guide in one. I love any opportunity to create more student voice in my classroom! 

I also discovered a website called Discovery Education. Discovery Education has a multitude of virtual field trips available on any topic that you could imagine! I explored a few on sports, on animals, and on the sea. These tours are also aligned to certain units in my EL Modules curriculum. We explore toys and telling stories, and there are virtual field trips about these topics! I think this is such a fun way to get my students engaged in the curriculum while not deviating too far from what I am expected to be doing in my classroom. 

Here's an example of the Discovery Education catalogue:

I loved seeing these virtual tours, but I wanted a way to highlight student voice even more. This thought was what led me to find the website Meta Steps. This website allows you to make you own museum. When the museum is done, you can walk through it online. 

Here's an example of a museum template, where I could upload pictures of my students' art, math, science, or writing work:

With a free trial, I would be able to put whatever I wanted in this museum, as dictated by my students. Families would not need to have an account to view the museum, just an internet connection, which they could access at our school or the Central Falls library if they don't have one at home. 

I see this project not only as a centering of student voice and agency, but as an opportunity to connect deeply with families and bring them in to what their children are working on in schools, especially families who cannot usually attend our school events or conferences due to work. Students could see that not am I proud of their work, their families are, too. 

This project represents my shift from Scott Noon's label of techno-traditionalist to a techno-constructivist. Before this project, I used to internet to keep myself organized and do my grading, as well as to communicate with other teachers and behaviors specialists throughout the day. I would have been doing all of these things anyway without tech, I was just doing them faster with tech. I was seeing tech as a tool to do what I was already doing more efficiently, not as a something to create an entirely new idea that I didn't previously see as possible. Taking my students to these museums would be impossible without tech, as would them creating their own museum that they can browse with their parents at home. While I am still a never, ever user of AI (a hill I will definitely die on), I have grown a lot in my willingness to create new projects with tech (even though I will always gravitate towards a pen and paper assignment). 

This project is also connected to Dr. Wesch's TedTalk, Learning from Baby George. His ideas reflect my beliefs that all students, no matter their age, learn best from experiences. My students are brave enough to fall and fail, just like baby George. My job is to be there to catch them and give them the opportunity to fall again and without judgement. Failure is how we learn best. If I don't give my students a task with enough cognitive load to fail, how will they learn?

Finally, I kept coming back to Rita Pierson's TedTalk, Every Kid Needs a Champion. I remember her telling her class that they were the best class in the whole school and that she was the best teacher. I want my students to feel this way. I want them to feel lucky. Even if they don't arrive believing in themselves, I want them to feel my belief in them from the second that they step into the classroom. I believe that giving my students agency in the classroom and highlighting their voices will help them feel this. I trust them to do hard things. I know they can. This project is just one reflection of that overarching belief. 

When kids see the world, they become braver. Their world gets bigger. I want my students to have the biggest world in the universe.