Art class field trips are probably one of the best ways to make students have a real-life learning experience. But for any teacher, planning an art class field trip can turn to be a stressful nightmare. It not only requires an unending series of to-do tasks but you also need to create an encouraging and engaging experience for your students. Hence, in this article, we will give you all the necessary tips for areas you might need some help, such as planning a schedule, renting a school bus, and preparing for everyone’s fun and safety etc.
Planning an Art Class Field Trip
Decide your destination
If you are new to planning field trips, it is important to remember that the destination of your trip has to be in sync with the curriculum of the students. Hence, if you are planning an art class field trip, you would prefer going to some art galleries and museums such as the National Gallery of Art, Smithsonian American Art, and Renwick Gallery etc. In case of doubts, you can take suggestions from your colleagues or even discuss with students about their art preferences. Go through some proper research work and check if the ideas are feasible and cost-effective. You might have to run your ideas through your school or college administrator as well.
Prepare a budget plan
Another important thing that you will have to consider while planning a field trip is the budget plan. Although art class field trips are usually free, you will have to pay for booking a school bus unless you have bus services already available in your institution. For the purpose of preparing a budget, it might be useful for you to learn that the price range of school buses is generally over 80$ per hour. Talk with your front office, and figure out if the funding is done by the institution, the district, or whether the students have to pay for it.
Book transportation
This is probably the most important part of planning your trip. Here you should note that taking a school bus is one of the safest means of transportation as compared to other alternatives. They are not only comfortable and can seat as many as 40-45 students, they are also considered to be almost 70% safer. If your institution already has school bus services available your work is already done. But even if there are no school bus services available, renting one is very easy nowadays. There are both online as well as offline options available and have amenities such as Wi-Fi system, Air Conditioning system, an attached bathroom etc.
Plan your schedule
Another important thing that you need to prepare beforehand is your trip schedule. Make sure to involve one or two stoppages like parks and plazas so that the students have a fun time. A useful tip that you can follow is to break your schedule into activities and consider the maximum amount of time that you need to devote to each activity. You also need to consider the amount of time that students will require for a lunch break. Update your students about the maximum amount of time that is available for each spot and don’t forget to notify parents and the administrator about the schedule in hand.
Connect the field trip to the curriculum
The most important part of the trip is to make sure that the field trip is well connected to the curriculum. For example, do some background research about the artists and the artwork that the students are going to see in the museum’s collection and help them identify some of their key works that are also mentioned in your curriculum. You can also teach them to identify some specific skills or themes so that they remain engaged in the trip and learn something new.
Finally we can say that art class field trips are one of the best methods of teaching students about various types of art forms and showing them parallelism between the collections of a museum and their school curriculum. It doesn’t even have to be all exhausting for you as a teacher and by adhering to the abovementioned tips, you might actually end up having fun.