A highlight for me during block 3 was
our class trip to Barkerville. I had been to Barkerville a few times before growing up but I went there with a different focus this time. As I move through the program, I am going back to familiar places and looking at them from the perspective of a teacher. Going to Barkerville and having students in mind made me think about things differently and look for new opportunities.
I really appreciated the stops along the way to Barkerville because I did not know that some of them existed before this trip. They are gravesites and other historic places that are basically on the side of the road or down a dirt road just off the main one. There are tiny signs that say “stop of interest” right before the turns. I had not known about them before because I would always drive straight down the road until we hit Barkerville. Those stops, combined with our stop in Wells to visit the school and listen to student presentations, gave me context and background information on the people who are important to Barkerville. Once we got to Barkerville, I recognized the names that were discussed during the tour and that were on the informational signs so it helped me connect the pieces of history together and actually remember what I learned. It was cool to get to learn from the students and experience a school in a rural town.
I enjoyed getting to experience place-based learning throughout the trip as well. We have talked about it a lot in classes and practicums but it was nice to be able to go out as a cohort and engage in place-based learning activities. I enjoyed the “art start” drawings where we drew what we saw but had to give ourselves a limitation such as “draw from a birds perspective.” It shows the different ways you can portray what you are seeing. Art start can also be cross-curricular because if you draw plants or animals you can connect with science and identify them. It can also be connected to social studies where you are drawing what is there now but you can think about how it would have looked in the past. Another place-based activity we did that I enjoyed was the sound walk. Most of the time we don’t really stop and listen to all of the sounds going on around us. It is interesting all of the different things you hear when you start focusing on sounds over everything else. In Barkerville, the sounds will not be ones that you may hear every day so doing the sound walk helps identify “new” and “old” sounds.
Overall, Barkerville was a fun experience and a great way to learn more about place-based activities. It was nice to see all of the things that Barkerville and Wells offer and also be able to witness how field trips are managed. I liked that we got to choose the activities we wanted to do on the second day so that we could follow our interests and go at our own pace. The trip was also a good way to connect with our peers outside of the classroom and catch up about our practicums in a less formal way.
