Field Trip #1: Mission San Juan CapistranoSo, for the History of California class I am currently teaching at CBU, I built in a Field Report assignment that requires my students to attend at least one of 3 field trips I have arranged for us throughout the semester. This is, by far, the most ambitious I have been in following through with this idea; in the past I just sent them off on their own to visit somewhere and hoped that they didn't lie about going there. I was encouraged by Janell saying that her professors from UCR had done field trips for art history in a similar way to how I've set them up this time. The students have to provide their own transportation, but what I've tried to do to make this even easier on them is to give them the option of taking the Metrolink train with me. The first 2 places I've chose work out perfectly with the train because there are train stations right across the street from both the mission in San Juan Capistrano, andEl Pueblo de Los Angeles/Olvera Street which is next on the itinerary. So we (Janell and I) got the train from the Downtown Riverside station and met a few of my students who got on at the La Sierra station and arrived at the Mission in perfect time. The students who said they would drive themselves were another story; a few of them never showed.
At the Mission Yes, both Janell and I had been to the mission before, but it was really nice to be able to take my students around to see a real-life example of what I had been telling them about in the classroom. I know that they are bound to learn so much more, and have so much more fun learning, when they can have this kind of hands-on experience. I know that I have had the opportunity to learn history on-the-ground by traveling, and it has made all the difference.
The students got the fantastic narration of Derek, an adorable old English man, now living in San Juan Capistrano apparently a mile from the mission by the creek, who served as our tour guide. I wish I had taken a photo of him to share here, alas, it is not to be. But believe me when I tell you that he was a gem. Being used to taking around 4th graders, he asked for questions then immediately said, ok, follow me this way without giving pause to hear questions. He also gave us the 4th grader's favorite part of the tour: the ghost story about a young woman who died in the stone chapel when the earthquake brought it down and still haunts the ruins by appearing in an upper window. My favorite bit from our tour guide was when he said, 'Do you want to hear a personal story about ringing bells?' then began telling us about the first job he had when he finished school at the age of 14, working as the bell-ringer in an all-boys school near Manchester. He ended the story by saying his favorite part of an otherwise awful job being when he got to ring the biggest bells, rung only on major holidays, from which he could swing up and down on the ropes. :)My favorite parts of the day were:
The low doorways I didn't have to duck under
The Koi fish pond with floating water lilys
The Great Pumpkin in the Indian vegetable garden
Taking silly touristy photos with Janell
Lesson Learned: Don't book a tour group of 15 and hope 15 students will show.
Unfortunately, because there was a minimum of 15 people required to get a docent-lead tour booked at the mission it meant that no matter what we had to pay for 15. The other option was for every person to pay a dollar more and have a handheld audio recorded tour (lame!). So because I really wanted a real-live person to walk us around and talk to us, I ended up having to pay 6 extra admissions for those who didn't show. :( Needless to say, for the next field trip I am going to collect deposits of money from everyone who signs up to attend. Hopefully if I have their money, they will be a little more committed.
PS/ I also had a student who I spoke to several times after class before the trip to tell him the various routes to get to the mission, stressing that the fastest way was on toll roads, and that he would have to take a different route if he wanted to avoid the extra cost. Guess who decided to just follow his GPS and ended up at a toll booth he couldn't afford and had to turn around & go home?
PS/ I also had a student who I spoke to several times after class before the trip to tell him the various routes to get to the mission, stressing that the fastest way was on toll roads, and that he would have to take a different route if he wanted to avoid the extra cost. Guess who decided to just follow his GPS and ended up at a toll booth he couldn't afford and had to turn around & go home?
Afterwards Janell wanted to get something to eat from a diner, but I had a better idea...Ikea! Yep, Ikea has a pretty darn good little cafe and I had a craving for some Sweedish meatballs, yum! Yeah, its probably unsual to go to Ikea just for the food, but I would recomend it. 
For example, I didn't know that there were storm troopers and 4-wheel off road vehicles protecting the frountier. Did you?
Also, did you know that there were crossbows, axes and huge swords at the last stand of the Alamo? This one seemed to be so well done that it recieved the first place blue ribbon!