To say that I have been chaperoning school field trips is not exactly accurate. I do not speak, read, or understand more than a handful of the most basic words in Mandarin, and am with children too young to understand scolding or direction in English. So I go along on the ride, observe, and take part in the activities. Here is how these trips generally go.
First, the children will be gathered and ushered onto the waiting buses half an hour to an hour after I am told we will be leaving. The school will most likely have rented a few double-decker buses, which must be brightly painted and have ornate window curtains. I mean, fit for a doll house ornate- ruffles, tassels, pompoms, or all of the above.
Once you get where you are going the students will be herded toward the bathrooms and water fountains, to form noisy little swarms while waiting for the tour to start.
Eventually, once the kids have had a chance to really get wound up, a tour guide with a microphone will guide the students through exhibits that are not specifically geared toward children, highlighting certain pieces and generally talking a lot. The students, being obedient asians will pay attention...for about 3 seconds. Because no matter what their ethnicity, they are under the age of 8 and there are at least 40 of them.
Then you will get to the DIY portion. (Side note: this term has seriously taken off here. It is seen frequently, even if the rest of the sign or pamphlet, or whatever you're reading, is in traditional characters.) This is- rightfully- the main purpose of coming on the trip. The demonstrator (always a different person) will also have a microphone. After the 10 minutes it takes for all the teachers to pull and steer the kids into seats (and me, too, because what else am I going to do?), the demonstrator will have the kids put their hands behind their backs. They all look so cute doing this together- and they
do all do it. But again, they are young children, so this lasts about 3 seconds. The demonstrator will then go through the process from start to finish- even if this far outlasts an adult's short-term memory capacity.
Then the kids will be told to go ahead, and the few that haven't already started poking and playing with whatever the materials are will dig in. And the kids will do an awesome job following...whatever it is their creative little brains tell them to do after the first couple of steps they remember. Some of them will look around and ask the teachers for help. Actually they might be saying something else entirely, but I don't speak Mandarin, so I just try to help them follow the model. Really, I think it's far more interesting to see what they come up with on their own, anyway. Isn't a child's unadulterated imagine one of the most inspiring things in the world? Yeah, try and sell me on that when a boy's imagination tells him to scoop up cocoa powder and sprinkle it all over everything and everyone nearby. (One trip was to a traditional dessert factory, which
was as awesome as it sounds, despite getting covered in the food products.)
After the students have had some time to make their craft, the teachers will frantically circulate, trying to get each project boxed up and write the child's name on it. I just sit and watch this part as if I was hired as a cultural anthropologist instead of a teacher.
Before too long, there will be snack time. It is now evident why the students need their backpacks. Bags of chips, crackers, cookies, and candies spill out onto the tables. Lots of kids have entire family packs of individually portioned snacks, or family-sized chip bags (not American family-sized, but clearly for more than one person.) Everyone is required to have at least 3 kinds of snacks. A few of the kids will have some fruit. You see the occasional packaged version of traditional snacks- like dried seaweed or fish-flavored foamy strips (I am pretty sure that's an actual translation)- but most kids have the American imports. Teachers and kids alike wander around, sharing their snacks. I am brought offerings of individual chips, crackers, oreos with purple filling, and dried fruit. (I choose to think of them as offerings because they don't just hold out the bag to me in case I'd like to take one, they hand me individual items, usually with the statement, "Teacher Leia!")
If it's a full day trip there will be both snack time and lunch time, which will include a packed lunch provided by the school
and more packaged snacks.
At some point in time (more than once if possible) there will be group photos. Here is one activity where everyone has confidence in my abilities. I will be asked to step into each group photo even if the kids have not interacted with me at all. The peace or V sign with one or both hands is standard for all pictures here in Taiwan. I have thus far chosen not to participate in this, because I want to be sure I'm distinguishable in the photos.
And there you have it. Sadly my co-teacher tells me that field trips happen mostly during summer camp.
