How many field trips has your MCPS Elem School taken so far this year?

[Anonymous]

2nd grade, Silver Spring Focus School. Three so far this year, although one was walking distance.

[Anonymous]

Wayside parent of 4th grader - we did those trips cited by PP to DC and Baltimore.

[Anonymous]

2nd grader. 4 field trips so far with the 5th one in two weeks. Butler's Orchard, Strathmore, one I forget, and Glen Echo to see a play.

They are going to somewhere in 2 weeks too. Something about moon, stars, planets. Not a typical museum though. They are all pretty pricy (in the teens) so I am not sure how everyone is able to go. We are like 30% FARMS

[Anonymous]

My daughter went to MCPS and she went on 5 field trips her entire 6 years. It was pretty pathetic.

My younger one seems to have more. I guess with this slow of a curriculum, you can afford to go to more places?

[Anonymous]

OP here. Just reporting back that they have each gone on 2 field trips so far and 2 more on the calendar: Imagination Stage, AFI, Building Museum, Baltimore Science Center. I expected more

[Anonymous]

My kids are a few years out but they generally had 1 a quarter. 1 was a larger trip..to Baltimore, St Mary's etc. 1 was a play or concert. 1 was a smaller local trip .. like the recyling center.. and 1 was an in school event like mad science coming in i.e (they called that a field trip). Non W school

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:2nd grader. 4 field trips so far with the 5th one in two weeks. Butler's Orchard, Strathmore, one I forget, and Glen Echo to see a play.

They are going to somewhere in 2 weeks too. Something about moon, stars, planets. Not a typical museum though. They are all pretty pricy (in the teens) so I am not sure how everyone is able to go. We are like 30% FARMS

Our school has a fund where we pay for the kids who cannot afford to go. We are at a Focus school that is 30% FARMS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Just reporting back that they have each gone on 2 field trips so far and 2 more on the calendar: Imagination Stage, AFI, Building Museum, Baltimore Science Center. I expected more

That's far better than us. We don't even know in advanced if they are scheduled. We get a few days notice. We had one walking, one other. Our old school/private did them monthly, though some were in house.

[Anonymous]

Somerset ES parent. We just did a trip to the White House followed by lunch at Old Ebbitt, thanks to some connected parents. It was amazing!

[Anonymous]

I feel like this thread has been going on forever, so my apologies if I already posted this sentiment. While funding is a factor for determining field trips, I would say that the major decider in how many, where, and when for field trips comes down to the teachers that plan them. Somebody on the grade level team has to get all the information, get administrative approval for location and date, make the reservation at the place, reserve the buses if necessary, draft and send home permission slips, and just in general make it all happen. It's a lot of work.

I teach kindergarten, and we have a few regular trips where we have a relationship with the location's coordinator, so that makes it a little less complicated, but it's still not as easy as saying "Let's take em all to the farm on Friday!" We've tried to reach out and do new and different things, but a lot of times we've done a ton of planning and research for a trip and it just never came to fruition for one reason or another. For example, we explored taking the students downtown to the mall to see the monuments to go along with our American symbols social studies lessons. We mapped out a route and estimated costs, but when we went to next steps, we found that buses were blacked out on the only days that would have worked. So, no field trip, but that doesn't mean we didn't even try.

We also have looked at "alternative" in-house field trips that tend to cost less because there are no transportation costs. We had one of those recently where we would have had to pay $15 per student to cover the buses, but only $10 each for the group that came to us.

We're a Focus school and try to keep the trips inexpensive, but I'm pretty sure we'd be able to get funding from somewhere if we wanted to do something more elaborate, and we have funds available for every trip to cover students who don't/can't bring in money. Many parents also send in double payment to cover a student who needs a sponsor.

To answer the question, we've had trips to the pumpkin patch, College Park Aviation Museum, an in-house STEM activity "field trip," and a few walking field trips to observe the changing seasons. We plan to go to the zoo in the spring and possibly somewhere else if we can get it together. Some grades at my school don't have a teacher who is as enthusiastic about planning trips, so they might not take as many. Honestly, field trips are fun, but a lot of them are a whole lot of work for just not that much educational value. It can be a science finding the right trip at the right time for the right price.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I feel like this thread has been going on forever, so my apologies if I already posted this sentiment. While funding is a factor for determining field trips, I would say that the major decider in how many, where, and when for field trips comes down to the teachers that plan them. Somebody on the grade level team has to get all the information, get administrative approval for location and date, make the reservation at the place, reserve the buses if necessary, draft and send home permission slips, and just in general make it all happen. It's a lot of work.

I teach kindergarten, and we have a few regular trips where we have a relationship with the location's coordinator, so that makes it a little less complicated, but it's still not as easy as saying "Let's take em all to the farm on Friday!" We've tried to reach out and do new and different things, but a lot of times we've done a ton of planning and research for a trip and it just never came to fruition for one reason or another. For example, we explored taking the students downtown to the mall to see the monuments to go along with our American symbols social studies lessons. We mapped out a route and estimated costs, but when we went to next steps, we found that buses were blacked out on the only days that would have worked. So, no field trip, but that doesn't mean we didn't even try.

We also have looked at "alternative" in-house field trips that tend to cost less because there are no transportation costs. We had one of those recently where we would have had to pay $15 per student to cover the buses, but only $10 each for the group that came to us.

We're a Focus school and try to keep the trips inexpensive, but I'm pretty sure we'd be able to get funding from somewhere if we wanted to do something more elaborate, and we have funds available for every trip to cover students who don't/can't bring in money. Many parents also send in double payment to cover a student who needs a sponsor.

To answer the question, we've had trips to the pumpkin patch, College Park Aviation Museum, an in-house STEM activity "field trip," and a few walking field trips to observe the changing seasons. We plan to go to the zoo in the spring and possibly somewhere else if we can get it together. Some grades at my school don't have a teacher who is as enthusiastic about planning trips, so they might not take as many. Honestly, field trips are fun, but a lot of them are a whole lot of work for just not that much educational value. It can be a science finding the right trip at the right time for the right price.

As a parent, I'd be happy to help coordinate field trips. But, our teachers make it clear we are not welcome to help in the classroom or in our child's education.

[Anonymous]

Is that an MCPS school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I feel like this thread has been going on forever, so my apologies if I already posted this sentiment. While funding is a factor for determining field trips, I would say that the major decider in how many, where, and when for field trips comes down to the teachers that plan them. Somebody on the grade level team has to get all the information, get administrative approval for location and date, make the reservation at the place, reserve the buses if necessary, draft and send home permission slips, and just in general make it all happen. It's a lot of work.

I teach kindergarten, and we have a few regular trips where we have a relationship with the location's coordinator, so that makes it a little less complicated, but it's still not as easy as saying "Let's take em all to the farm on Friday!" We've tried to reach out and do new and different things, but a lot of times we've done a ton of planning and research for a trip and it just never came to fruition for one reason or another. For example, we explored taking the students downtown to the mall to see the monuments to go along with our American symbols social studies lessons. We mapped out a route and estimated costs, but when we went to next steps, we found that buses were blacked out on the only days that would have worked. So, no field trip, but that doesn't mean we didn't even try.

We also have looked at "alternative" in-house field trips that tend to cost less because there are no transportation costs. We had one of those recently where we would have had to pay $15 per student to cover the buses, but only $10 each for the group that came to us.

We're a Focus school and try to keep the trips inexpensive, but I'm pretty sure we'd be able to get funding from somewhere if we wanted to do something more elaborate, and we have funds available for every trip to cover students who don't/can't bring in money. Many parents also send in double payment to cover a student who needs a sponsor.

To answer the question, we've had trips to the pumpkin patch, College Park Aviation Museum, an in-house STEM activity "field trip," and a few walking field trips to observe the changing seasons. We plan to go to the zoo in the spring and possibly somewhere else if we can get it together. Some grades at my school don't have a teacher who is as enthusiastic about planning trips, so they might not take as many. Honestly, field trips are fun, but a lot of them are a whole lot of work for just not that much educational value. It can be a science finding the right trip at the right time for the right price.

As a parent, I'd be happy to help coordinate field trips. But, our teachers make it clear we are not welcome to help in the classroom or in our child's education.

Honestly, while I appreciate your offer to help with a time-consuming task, that really isn't something I would trust a parent to handle, even one that I knew well and trusted with other tasks. There's just too much that could go wrong. It's a shame that your child's school doesn't welcome parent involvement. My school certainly does.