My little heart nearly burst today…
After months of organizing, researching and planning a visit to the local seniors home – it finally took place! I had become fascinated with intergenerational learning over the past few months through my inquiry project. Though I wasn’t initially sure I would be logistically able to put this idea into practice, in the end it all worked out better than I could have dreamed.
The students read the residents fractured fairy tales that they had written and illustrated. Part of my idea was that this trip would motivate them to get moving on their work, as they had a real purpose to finish it. The students had never done a field trip like this before and there was a lot of nervous and excited energy in the classroom before we left.
I had let students know that this was my first time organizing a field trip and we would all have to be extra flexible just in case things didn’t work out quite in the way we were expecting it. The students (and the seniors) took everything in stride, and it worked out that they students read their fairy tales in pairs to an individual senior. Every 15 minutes or so I would let them know it was time to change groups, and the students would walk to their next ‘granfriend’.
Throughout the afternoon I was blown away by both my students’ warmth, engagement and flexibly, and the seniors’ love and attentiveness to the kids. The students that I had been most worried about, in terms of behaviour management, rose above my high expectations.
What a positive and memorable way to end my 10 week practicum!
