This past week my SA and myself took the class to Fort Langley for a field trip. I was super excited as this would be my first real field trip experience with my class. As soon as the parents had arrived and attendance was taken we set off en route to Fort Langley.

When we arrived we split the class into two groups based on their name tag sticker (they wear name tags with stickers on them- a circle face or a star face). My group was smiley circles.

The guide explained to us that we would have a banker, a picture taker (which was myself), and a map guide. We would be given cards that directed us to a location on the map as well as a challenge to complete at that location. For the most part my group did fairly well. I was a little thrown off by the fact that no guide goes with you to the different stations, so while I was trying to manage my groups behavior, I was also trying to figure out the challenges and how to scaffold my kids learning on the spot. It was also quite nerve wracking to be doing all of this infant of parents who I have never met before.

During the course of our day I had to deal with 2 fights, one verbal the other physical and 3 kids crying. I felt as if I dealt with these issues in an appropriate manner, however, have realized that I do need more instruction on exactly how to handle these situations. I basically just brought the kids into a separate room, got down to eye level and then had them each explain to me what happened. After hearing out the kids I had each of them apologize to one another. I then waited a few minutes and then checked back in with each kid to make sure that they were feeling bettering to see if they had anything else they needed to talk about. In all cases the kids were fine and happy to be continuing on with the field trip.

Other than the fights the day was very enjoyable and my students and I learnt a lot about the relationship between the First Nations, HBC employees and the environment. I think my favourite part was watching my students pan for gold!