You can contact LEARNZ, part of CORE Education, at:
Postal Address:
PO Box 13 678,
Christchurch 8141,
New Zealand
In terms of the students' topic specific language, and all talking about things in the same context, it was fantastic. It also spread into the community and the children were sharing what they learnt with their parents.
It was a great way to expose the Year 7 and 8s to something new and different, and to learn at their own pace. I have had very focused classes during each lesson. It covered all The Arts, with visual art (props and scenery), as well as dance, drama and music.
The students learned so much more than I thought - they were engaged when seeing students their own age asking deep questions. We are looking at creating our own movies and seeing the interviews with cast and crew helped to focus their ideas and find realistic goals.
From the beginning, our learners were very interested and engaged. We overlaid SOLO taxonomy as an activity pathway and for children to set goals and evaluate progress in terms of being supported, self managed or self directed learners. We have found all the Learnz field trips give a great scaffolding for explicit teaching of skills, and effective tools for those children who learn differently, such as oral material and videos to provide information.
Students were engaged, motivated and excited to be taking part, and learnt a great deal from this field trip as it encouraged them to work towards excellence. Participating meant they engaged with the curriculum in English, The Arts (Music, Visual Arts, Dance and Drama), Technology, and with many of the Key Competencies.
Inspired and developed an appreciation for this field of the arts to a group of children from a variety of backgrounds, who all all said they enjoyed it and looked at opera differently now. Marvellous student opportunities - also developed and extended the knowledge of some students for whom music is a personal skill.
Fantastic for my year 5/6 class. They learned so many skills and it was great to apply them to a real-life purpose, putting questions to experts in the audioconference. The field trip was a very effective learning experience for my class, which was added to by attending the dress rehearsal.
This Opera field trip turned out to be a really neat and enjoyable experience for my tauira (students). There was a lot of interest and comment about the careers and qualifications each member held. Major links to The Arts but also to Technology (creating/designing costumes, props, sets) and Health/P.E (rehearsals, nutrition, rest, decision making, looking after each other, relating to others, taking responsibility).
We were doing an inquiry into plays and performance and it was a great hook for the kids. It was good background for our topic and was good to hear from actual experts.
Allows the students to go beyond their own back door and extend their learning to other areas and experiences that may not be available otherwise. Encouraged the Arts and English curriculum areas and I have noticed my children listening to different music during class time.
It was an opportunity for students to experience something they may not have ever been able to, had it not been for this field trip.
This field trip fitted in with the Arts Curriculum perfectly. I used the background information to teach the children about Opera and its place in NZ culture.
Our values at our school include Creativity, so this was a great link to the curriculum as well as seeing the production elements of performance. The performance technology students got to see elements of performance for something we can't teach at school.
This field trip tied in perfectly with our own school production and really got the ideas and understanding flowing. The videos kept the kids attention and sparked their interest for more.
As we have our school production this term, it was really valuable for the children to see it done on a larger scale. I love these trips - the children really get to learn things in a lot more depth than they would normally. The use of technology is a great way of hooking them in too!
We used this as an ignition to our art and drama unit. Added depth to children's learning and they enjoyed the interactive experience. The pre and post assessment showed a lot was learned during the field trip and some children asked their parents if they could go to a performance
Our KC for Term 3 was Using Language, Symbols and Texts. This trip offered the opportunity to see a completely different view of the ways people communicate though opera. We were also able to integrate the trip with our Arts programme. One of the best virtual field trips we have been involved with.
This field trip tied in perfectly for our school focus this term, as we are putting on our own school production so it was great for the students to learn about the variety of roles involved. Helped develop deeper understandings about the Arts, particularly with Understanding Drama in Context (UC) and Communicating and Interpreting (CI).
Every time I have used a LEARNZ field trip with my class, the students have absolutely relished the chance to explore something outside of their realm of experience. We are focussing on the performing arts (Music, Dance, Drama) in class/school - this field trip helped to expose them to the combination of these arts areas, and all the efforts that go into putting on a show of this type and size.
This term's topic is wearable arts, so the field trip was a perfect immersion into the world of performance and costuming. It was useful for increasing interest in the world and performing arts, and I was able to use the information and interactive questions as an effective reading activity, which I then used as a prompt for writing.
It's great to have SOLO linked to the lessons. Children are able to work on this independently and show responsibility for their learning.
Fitted in nicely to the curriculum (The Arts) - I found the unit plan really helpful and a time saver. The background information gave a great range of information all in the one place.
Used this for my music unit this term. It was exciting for the kids. Great opportunities to participate and contribute to each other's learning. The learners used what they discovered in many ways.
The children really enjoyed this unit, as there was lots of awesome information relevant to them putting on our school production next term. I will use LEARNZ again because I love the field trips!
My online (distance) class was focussing on a topic about creativity this term so the Opera Trip was a great complement to this. LEARNZ trips offer rich, pertinent learning about the place we live in.