Virtual field trips the next best thing to being there
A Phoenicia Elementary School teacher takes her second-grade students to a pottery studio, horse barn and a town highway garage in real time online
School field trips can be the highlight of a student’s day, but with in-person learning restrictions in place amid the coronavirus pandemic, one local teacher has been taking such outings virtual.
So far this year, students in Sharon McInerney’s secondgrade class at Phoenicia Elementary School have virtually visited a local pottery studio, seen what it takes to care for and ride a horse, and toured the Woodstock Highway Department’s facility. Still to come are virtual visits to the Olive Fire Department, the town of Ulster Police Department, and a local Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) shelter.
McInerney said the idea for virtual field trips came about during a conference with the parents of one of her students. She said Leo Peltzman’s parents own an art studio and in the past had done Christmas craft projects with students throughout the elementary school.
McInerney said she asked the parents, Doug and Pam Peltzman, if they would be willing to take the students on a tour of their Shokan studio, and the couple agreed.
"I’m just glad that it’s fun and that the kids are loving it. It’s a different way of learning, but it really has a lot of pluses.” — Sharon McInerney, second-grade teacher
The Peltzmans, who are professional artists, provided a virtual tour of their studio and gave hands-on demonstrations, according to a press release from the Ulster Board of Cooperative Educational Services. During their virtual trip, the students learned about pottery wheels, kilns, glazes, and how different kinds of clay materials can be used to fashion useful and beautiful objects.
“Pam made a porcelain mug in front of our eyes on the wheel, explaining her techniques as she created it,” McInerney said in the release. “It was a great way to bring art into our classroom and also to demonstrate that a job can be something you enjoy.”
McInerney, who has teaching at Phoenicia Elementary School since 1993, said in a phone interview that she likes the virtual field trips because they take place in real time.
“They’re live,” McInerney said. “They’re real. They’re with people that we sort of know in the community. The kids can ask questions.”
During the trip to the Woodstock Highway Department, she said, her students used the chat feature of the video meeting program to talk about what they were seeing.
“The chat was going crazy,” McInerney said, adding that she was “psyched to see that” because her students were not only enjoying the trip, but also practicing their writing at the same time.
McInerney said her husband, Ralph VanKleeck, is a mechanic at the highway department garage, and he and another mechanic showed her students some of the vehicles and equipment they use. They also demonstrated welding and put one of the vehicles up on a lift, allowing the students to see what it looks like underneath, McInerney said.
McInerney said her 18 students are all learning remotely this school year.
To participate in the field trips, they log on to their Chromebooks at the appointed time, often joined by other members of their families.
Another field trip the students took online was courtesy of McInerney’s daughter, Annie VanKleeck.
Annie, who is studying to be a teacher, introduced the students to her quarter horse, Dudley, and provided a virtual tour of her Shokan barn, according to BOCES. She also demonstrated how to tack up a horse for Western-style riding and spoke about safety measures.
Annie VanKleeck then took the students for a virtual “ride” on Dudley, taking her laptop up on her horse and riding around the paddock.
“I’m just glad that it’s fun and that the kids are loving it,” McInerney said. “It’s a different way of learning, but it really has a lot of pluses. We’re allowed to go to places where maybe we wouldn’t have been able to. And talk with people on the jobs.”
McInerney said it is also less stressful holding the trips virtually than having to chaperone the students on in-person outings off school grounds.
The virtual trips are also making the students feel loved, McInerney observed. She said the people participating in the virtual trips are doing them out of love for the students, and the children can feel that. The hosts encourage the students to ask questions, which makes the kids feel good and feel connected to people they might not see or meet in real life, McInerney said.
“The kids are seeing adults and people in the community still doing good things and wanting to spend time with them,” McInerney said.