Team Effort Teachers Make Learning A Trip

Team teachers Names: Sandy Nuechterlein, Marcie Norstadt, Beth Corigliano

School has barely started, but the fourth-graders at Lake Spokane Elementary School in Suncrest can hardly wait until year’s end.

After Memorial Day next year, these kids will embark on a four-day field trip that will dwarf everything else in their 9-year-old lives.

“My dad went away with us,” said Meagan Charbonneau, now a fifth-grader at the school. “I really liked going out in the kayaks and canoes the most.”

Father? Kayak? Canoes?

At school?

It may sound new-age-like, but it’s an approach to learning that a trio of teachers at Lake Spokane swears by. They say exposing students to life beyond textbooks and maps on classroom walls makes learning meaningful.

“The goal is to provide them with a historical perspective of where they live,” said team teacher Marcie Norstadt.

But there’s more.

“It is so good for them,” said teacher Sandy Nuechterlein. “They were empowered; they were away from home.”

Norstadt, Nuechterlein and Beth Corigliano make up a team that teaches all 100 of the school’s fourth graders. Norstadt likes the team concept.

“There are a lot more ideas and it’s easier to brainstorm,” she said. “If you have a problem, someone else can help you find a solution. There’s no way you could undertake a trip like this and not have a good team to work with.”

For three years, the fourth-graders have gone to Grand Coulee Dam, a giant wheat and cattle farm in Davenport, Lake Lenore Caves, a historic museum in Wenatchee, Walla Walla Point Park and more.

The field trip was incorporated into the fourth grade social studies curriculum five years ago.

The idea started with Doug Segur, a former teacher at the school. It began as a one-day trip before mushrooming into four.

“Some of the parents were a little leery at first,” said Janet Lake, a former team teacher. “But as time went on and the kids talked about it more, their parents felt more comfortable. It’s only an issue for a few people.”

But if it weren’t for parent volunteers, this part of the curriculum wouldn’t exist.

“We need at least one parent for every four students,” Norstadt said. “It’s a pretty big deal. We’ve got it to an organization now.”

Lake, now a fifth-grade teacher, has a third of her former students in her classroom. Some of those kids are still reminiscing about the field trip.

“The apple-packing plant impressed me the most,” said Jon Millard. “I didn’t know so much had to be done to them.”

Shannon Crouse was thrilled with the chance to experience the call of the wild.

“I liked when we stayed in our cabins and played games in the woods,” Crouse said.

Students participate in archery, canoeing and a host of other experiential-learning activities.

The cost of the field trip is $85. Fundraisers help cover the costs for those parents who may have a hard time meeting the cost.

“From what we’ve been able to learn - the geology, geography, the agriculture - it’s reinforced in them by being there and seeing it,” Nuechterlein said.

“When they come back as fifth-graders, we do see that their retention in these areas tends to be higher than those students who don’t go,” she said.

Nuechterlein has noticed something else as well.

“For the kids who don’t have a good family structure, this has given them a good memory. It’s served as a family trip for some.”

The three teachers say it wouldn’t work if they weren’t all on the same page.

“We do a lot of things all year long together,” Neuchterlein said. As for Lake, though she was requested the move to teach fifth grade instead of fourth, she said she’ll miss the year-end adventure.

“When the trip comes it will be hard to wave goodbye,” she said.