Critical Roles of the Classroom Teacher

The experiences that the Hidden Villa staff, volunteers and beautiful natural surroundings provide during the field trip create this magical spark of enthusiasm, understanding, personal growth and motivation. As a classroom teacher, I realize that there is no way that I could recreate these experiences by myself in the isolated environment of the school classroom. This is what draws me again and again to take my students to Hidden Villa.

As a classroom teacher, I feel that it is my role to prepare my students' hearts and minds for their Hidden Villa field trip so that they are ready to take full advantage of all their experiences there. Likewise, it is my responsibility to validate the importance of my students' experiences on our return to the classroom and to integrate our field trip into our academic curriculum. In this way I hope to cultivate in my students a burning passion for discovering more about the environment, themselves and the diversity of human expression in the world.

As teachers, we have the responsibility and honor to nurture our students for only a year, or if we're lucky, two. However, one day we may be surprised by what our love and efforts helped produce.

I have included some specific suggestions of things to do BEFORE (plan and prepare), DURING (participate, investigate and document) and AFTER (validate and integrate) the Hidden Villa field trip that I found particularly valuable in getting the most out of the Hidden Villa magic.