Irina's Conocimiento Walk

Several things were going through my mind. For one, our walk felt like a small field trip and reminded me of the many field trips I went on in elementary school. When I transferred to middle school I was disappointed to find that we did not have any fieldtrips. In high school the only fieldtrips were serious ones to visit potential future college campuses. One time I asked my teacher in high school if we could have a fun fieldtrip that was not so serious and he replied that it was simply not in the budget. That is too sad. I remember I had one class, A.P. Government, in which the teacher decided to teach outside on the grass for one day. I really enjoyed it. The fresh air, the wind…and just a change of surrounding. The teacher then asked the class for feedback. Interesting, most students were not interested in repeating another day outside because they were not “comfortable” sitting on the grass that could potentially stain their clothes. I also care for my clothes but I would have really loved it if we had some designated “outside class” days. On those days, I would wear the pants that I don’t care that much about.
Walking by the grassy area gave me an idea: I think it would be wonderful to one day have class outside, on the grass, as a class picnic. In a few weeks, there will still be light around 6pm so we would be sitting in the dark. And we could pitch in a couple of dollars each to order some pizza from the dominoes across the street. Others mentioned earlier that they would like to spend time with the class outside of class. This could be a more relaxed classroom experience. We could even bring something to sit on like a beach blanket so that we would all be comfortable.
The last thing that went through my mind was the cleanliness of the air. Usually, the air does not feel so clean because numerous people are smoking. I really enjoyed the minutes outside without cigarette smoke!