Teachers panning for educational gold at Barkerville symposium

Barkerville is letting teachers in for the next three days for a symposium on the value of field trips.

Glen Thielmann is behind the Place in Education Symposium and says the event is "professional development on high octane."

"We just decided we wouldn't spend our pro-D days in workshops or seminars where it's sort of 'listen and walk away," he told Radio West host Audrey McKinnon.

"We built our pro-D around participation, engagement and usually some sort of interesting medium like an outdoor location or an historic site."

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Thielmann said these qualities of good professional development are exactly what students find enriching about field trips.

Over the next three days, attendees will participate in seminars, discussions, "walkabouts," writing workshops and more.

There is also a seminar on how to make field trips more attainable. Thielmann said the costs of running field trips sometimes makes them prohibitive.

"Teachers conducting field trips have to scrounge for funding, sometimes have to do fundraising, pass the costs on to parents and so on," he said.

The Barkerville symposium includes teachers from all over B.C., Thielmann says, and will wrap Oct. 1.

With files from CBC Radio One's Radio West

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