Field Trips

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Class field trips are the events that most students look forward to the most during the year. Whether the field trip be to somewhere on the school campus, somewhere within the town's city limits, or to a destination that is hours away. Field trips provide students with the opportunity to learn outside of the classroom setting. Many times field trips involve hands-on activities that students will participate in. 
Although these trips bring much joy and excitement the the students, they can easily bring about much stress to parents and school faculty and staff. Much planning must go into organizing a school field trip. Contact must be made to individuals in charge of the destination of the field trip, permission slips must be signed, and the funds to support the expenses of the trip, must be available. A nice alternative that would avoid all of these issues, would be to take a virtual tour. By going to websites like http://www.uen.org/utahlink/tours/ and http://www.internet4classrooms.com/vft.htm , teachers can skip the hassle of planning and organizing an extravagant trip, and can visit locations all across the world without ever having to leave the classroom. While it is still fun to partake in field trips outside the school walls, in times where the time and resources aren't available, technology provides a great alternative with these virtual tours. 

Technology in the Classroom

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The days of schools just having computers located in a computer lab are long gone. Almost all schools these days have at least one computer located in each classroom. Many schools now have computer stations with multiple computers for student usage, and a personal computer for the teacher. Also, the percentages of internet access in classrooms has made a great jump from that in past years. This progression in technology has proven to be very beneficial for students. Teachers that have computers in the their classroom with Internet access, have unlimited classroom resources at the click of a button. Teachers can use these computers to create various lesson plans to present to their class. They may also instruct the students to use the computers to complete assignments or to conduct research. Children develop many important skills while using computers. It is key for children to learn and develop computing skills, and while some children still might not have access to a computer at home, having computers in the classroom is a nice alternative. Organizations such as Computers for Schools, strive to refurbish retired computers and place them back into schools for educational use. This organization was founded in 1991, and since then have placed over 25,000 computers into school systems. Overall, having computers in the schools and classrooms, equips teachers with a more efficient, interactive way of teaching.