Hook Mountain Field Trip

It has been forever since I have blogged. I apologize for that becuase I am just not in the habit of blogging. I am now at my second placement but I want to share my experince taking my class on their field trip to Hook Mountain.
We took the kids to Hook Mountain for part of their geography unit. We had to walk as a class up through the park to the base of the mountain. There the students got a lecture on the type of terrain we would be hiking through and how they need to stay with the group. Naturally the teachers broke into sections to keep an eye on a different part of the group. I was somewhere in the middle. I hadn't realized how steep some parts were going to be, let alone helping the kids work their way to the top.
Once at the top the students were split into two different groups because there wasn't enough room for all of us to fit. This was not the original plan. For my lesson, I had planned to instruct them as a group, so quick thinking was necessary. I started with my group first. I asked them to tell me which direction was south. Being at the top of the mounatin the students were confused as to what direction was what. Finally, one student said I can see the Empire State building. Instantly I jumped on the fact that if they could see a landmark such as that then they would know what direction it was in. (south) I then instructed them to record in their social studies notebooks what they saw in the southern direction. Then, I went to the second group and did the same with them. While the second group was working I went back to the first group and did the same activity for north. This bouncing between the two groups went on until each group had recorded their findings for each direction.
I was disappointed because I had a worksheet for the students to do after the directions were done. Because the groups were separated, I wasted a lot of time having to walk back and forth. The day overall was a lot of fun and I really got to bond with my students, learning things about them I hadn't known before.