Hi Kelly:
Being creative will sprout dozens of ideas.
Guest speakers: Recent grads who did well and have secured a good job probably would be delighted to come back and speak to your class. While lacking in experience, there would be an abundance of enthusiasm and resultant motivation.
Field trip: Your city or town must have commercial and hospital pharmacies, clinical labs, diagnostic departments in hospitals. Contacting individuals in charge of these kinds of departments may not be perfect fits, but they could posssibly offer suugestions who to contact, or share their small part of a related area that does lend itself to your study topics.
I spent 30 seconds thinking about just these two ideas. I'm sure if you spent some thought time you'd come up with other similiar/better ideas. Good Luck!
Regards, Barry
I think guest speakers can confirm or support the instructor's credibility and professionalism, but it is difficult to find willing guest speakers in my schools...
I love the idea of both. However, as I instruct anatomy and physiology I find it difficult to find one person or one facility that would give application for the field experience for say the medical office assistant or message therapy. I also need to discuss with administration what the protacol is to set anything up, whether a speaker or a field trip. Some ideas off the top of my head include a field trip toward the end of the term to witness an autopsy with a medical examiner (coroner) and then several guest speakers that are specialty phycisians in a particular body system to give application to that system. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated here. Thanks inadvance!
Benefit of taking field trips are that studetns learn while getting hands on experience and it breaks up the monotony of the class room.
Benefit of having a guest speaker is two fold, primarily students gets a change of pace and as a secondary benefit the instructor can see different styles of lecturing.
Hi Tom:
I think the field trip can so dramatic and inspirational for many students, their studies actually begin to improve as the result of renewed motivation. That vision od a "potential future" can be very powerful.
Regards, Barry
Hi Pamela:
Field trips are very inspirational as you have described. Students get motivated and may begin to do better in class as a reswult. A good guest speaker can also have a similar effect. Preping the students to jot down questions that come to mind sometime allow for more significant discussions by the guest speaker. Usually, if one student has a question, others will have the same or similar questions.
Regards, Barry
Hi Lawrence:
Coordination does take thought, planning, and effort on the part of the teacher. It helps when the teacher knows his students and their varied backgrounds, especially in the plkanning stages.
For guest speakers, one really great idea is to have a fairly recent graduate, one who you consider to be above average, who is working, and have them return as a guest speaker. Although not as experienced, they do being a lkevel of enthusiasm, and inspiration that some "old timers" may take for granted. Most new graduates would be flatrtered to be asked to speak to your class, and the students receptive as they view that graduate more like themselves. "If s/he can do it it, so can I".
Field trips only take a little more creativity. There are some ideal field trips I'd like to plan, but for reasons (some you've listed) they're just not practical. I look in the paper every day for civic activities to give me ideas. I network with people in and similar to my specific profession. There may be professional societies that can be tapped for a visit.
People who are almost always available are town or city leaders, elected board members, community leaders who are willing to participate in field trips because it gets them noticed. They may not have the exact experience you're seeking, but I bet they have opinions, or perhaps know of others who do fit the bill. An inside reference can be very effective.
Finally, I have visited my local Rotary, Soropomist, or similar service club to talk about my program and profession. In turn, I always seek out others who might make for good speakers or field trip outings.
Sometimes, we just need to be creative and with planning, good experiences will result.
Regards, Barry
Hi Timothy:
Great example of what I believe is so powerful with field trips. They open the eyes of students, are inspirational, motivate student to want to learn, and assist them visualize themselves performing these or simliar tasks.
Regards, Barry
Hi Manuel:
I think these activities are wonderful. They're inspirational and stimulate a students desire to be motivated to learn more about their profession and perhaps do better in class.
Regards, Barry
I believe field are a good refresher for the students
I agree! I think it is really exciting for students to be able to see what the workplace setting may entail. They are also able to apply much of what they have learned into the workplace setting. It makes for great discussion topics and a wonderful way to break-up the routine.
By taking field trips students will see skills they are learning in action, they will see the importance of what they are learning. By listening to guest speakers, students will gain additional views on the material, and see other approaches.
Offering field trips to students gives them hands on experience that they cannot get in a class room setting. Also getting out into the community is a good way to develop rapport with industries in your field. Listening to guest speakers breaks up lecture time and is another great way for the students to get information on different career paths within their field.
The first thing that comes to mind is that these things are a break from the regular day to day operations of the course. It gives the students something new and exciting. It also helps them to see things in action. I took a high school class to the Federal Reserve Building and they learned more from that outing than they would've from a week's worth of lecture on the concepts. Students remember things like this much more than a lecture or in-class activity.
Barry:
Field trips are excellent education tools, if you can pull a class together that incorportes everyone, or at least a majority. One of the things we lack is bus to keep the class together. Yes, you can pile a lot of folks in a share a ride program, but much better to have them all together, for discussion to and from the location. Tough to do in our situatiion with attendance so varied.
However, where possible I have accomplished various trips over the past 6 years to the Coroner's Office and to the Cuyahoga Commuity Common Pleas Court and Grand Jury Room, along with the Criminal and Civil Docket rooms. Attendance has been poor, but those that did attend at least got the experience.
We only have a couple of hours for class and then the students have another class to attend. I then had them write up the experience and we discussed when the class met again. The retention and written expression of the experience was not in depth.
The same with guest speakers, however that works a little better because they come to the school and we let other classes know about their presence. So we can at least present a volume of students, in various disciplines, for the speaker to address. Again the information is applicable to the cross spectrum of students, and most get something out of it, depending on their discipline and how dynamic the speaker was in his/her presentation.
Both field trips and guest speaker's are excellent learning tools, but a lot of our students do not take as much advantage of the opportunity as they should, for varioius reasons: child care, illness, pregnancy, work, transportation etc.
Also the time is too limited. You only have 2 hours of class, then another class begins. Some of these opprotuntiies need a whole day or at least 4 hours to really explore the dynamics of what they offer.
To realize the benefit of field trips and guest speaker's the students need to have done some research on the field trip prior, and have researched some questions that they would like answered or at least can presesnt to the organization and administration. That way they can check out their concept against the real world.
Same with the guest speaker's. They need to be provided with a bio so they can formulate intelligent questions based on what the speaker has to offer regarding his/her field of expertise. Even when the assignment is given in this fashion, not a high percentage actually do the research. Thus some opportunity is missed to delve into in depth questions and solicit disucssion.
The field trip and guest speaker concept is a good one, but more time is needed on the field trips and with the guest speakers, and more time needs to be devoted to research and study prior, by the students. Most field trips and guest speaker presentions I have seen are not set up in this fashion.
I look forward to your thoughts and commentary.
Respectfully,
Larry Bignall
Cleveland, Ohio
Barry, I had a motor controls class that could not grasp the relevance of the course material or how the material could help them get a job. After a field trip to a local motor repair shop, everyone was excited about the course and eager to learn.
they get to observe the career they have chosen and how exciting it is once they are threw with class time.
I HAVE IN PAST CLASSES, USED FIELD TRIPS NOT ONLY TO BREAK UP CLASS FROM BEING TO ROUTINE, BUT TO SHOW MY STUDENTS WHAT THEY HAVE TO LOOK FORWARD TO AFTER ALL THEIR HARD WORK IN SCHOOL. I TAKE THEM TO PEOPLE, WORKING ON THE JOB ,IN THE FIELD THAT THEY HAVE CHOSEN. THEY SEE WHAT IS EXPECTED OF THEM AND WHAT ARE THE REWARDS OF THE FIELD THAT THEY HAVE CHOSEN.
The students get a chance to see the work world that they plan to enter up close and see what they need to do to be ready for it.
The first benefit is hearing a different voice! Although that sounds funny and smart sounding, it is true. We all like variety in our lives.
Field trips are great as it provides the students the ability to see what they are learning first hand. They can see what they will be doing upon graduation and see their peers in action. It also allows the students to apply the information into the "real" world.
Guest speakers are such a positive because you can actually get the specialist to teach the unit. Instructors are not great in everything we teach. There are areas we actually know nothing about. Guest speakers also allow students to ask questions about what they really want to know.
