Fri/Sat October 8-9: Blanton and McKinney Falls Exploratory Trips

On Friday, October 8, the PBI course went on the Preparation Activites trip to the Blanton Museum of Art. Matt Chalker, the teaching assistant for Professor Delgado’s PBI section, led the students on a tour of the Blanton Museum to highlight aspects they might incorporate into their student teaching. While this trip was not explicitly only for math groups, many of the connections that PBI students made to their student teaching were specifically for math projects.

Students met Mr. Chalker in the entrance hallway of the museum at 3PM and walked around the museum, examining exhibits with Mr. Chalker’s guidance until 4PM. Students were then given time to brainstorm ways to incorporate what they saw at the museum into their student teaching. At 4:45PM, students left the museum.

On Saturday, October 9, the PBI course went on the Preparation Activities trip to McKinney Falls. Fourteen PBI students, Professor Petrosino, TA’s Sara Hawkins and Teddy Chao, and two support staff from the UTeach Institute went on this field trip organized by Master Teacher Lynn Kerby.

Students left UT’s campus at 9AM and arrived at McKinney Falls State Park around 9:30AM. Ms. Kerby started the trip by taking students on a ½ mile hike from the park’s Upper Falls area to the Lower Falls, pointing out various parts of the trail that they could incorporate into their student teaching next month. Ms. Kerby also mentioned that when PBI students worked with their high school students on the actual trip, they should probably start with this same ½ mile hike because it gives students a guided experience to explore the park and to prime them for their own observations.

At the Lower Falls, students broke into their project groups to explore the area and come up with further ideas for their student teaching. Students took advantage of the various equipment brought by UTeach: nets, water collection bottles, GPS devices, microscopes, and thermometers to brainstorm ways in which they could incorporate the field trip to the park into their student teaching.

At around 11:00 AM, student groups talked with Professor Petrosino or the TA’s to ask questions and describe the ideas they were thinking about within their student teaching. At 11:15 AM, the group headed back to the vans in an effort to get back to UT campus by 12PM.