Point Park Education Majors Take Elementary Students on Pittsburgh Field Trips Friday, November 30, 2012
For the past seven weeks, Point Park education majors in the "Methods of Teaching Social Science" course taught by Christal Chaney, Ph.D., have been working directly with preschool and elementary students from the Three Hierarchs Eastern Orthodox School in Heidelberg, Pa.
Chaney, a professor of education and co-founder and director of Three Hierarchs Eastern Orthodox School, has her Point Park students spend eight weeks in a University classroom and seven weeks in the field with the preschool and elementary students.
"It's a unique opportunity for students to plan a lesson and then implement that lesson with real children in a structured setting," explained Chaney.
For their final week of fieldwork, Point Park students took the kindergarten and elementary students on field trips related to the topics they were teaching them.
"The field trip was a great chance for the children to tie in everything we taught them over the past weeks," said Chelsea Balawejder, a junior majoring in pre-kindergarten through 4th grade with a dual certification in special education.
Students learning about "Pittsburgh: Then and Now" rode the Monongahela Incline, located across the river from Point Park, to Mount Washington to get a view of the city and point out landmarks.
The Kindergarten group learned about land, air and water and sailed boats in the water play area at the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh on the North Side. The children then concluded their trips by having "lunch with the big kids" at Point Park's Lawrence Hall Dining Room, where they enjoyed choosing from an array of food.
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