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The spirit of Ms. Frizzle lives on with Melissa Dubyak, a first-grade teacher at South Park.
Video Transcript
- '90s kids will remember "The Magic School Bus." I loved it. And on the show, Miss Frizzle took her class on some pretty wild field trips that transcended space and time. Schools can't do some of their regular field trips right now, but the spirit of Miss Frizzle lives on for a local teacher. She's been inspiring her remote students with field trip Fridays. And on this Friday, she is joining us live over Zoom. Melissa Dubyak teaches first grade at South Park Elementary School. Thank you for joining us tonight.
MELISSA DUBYAK: Thanks for having me.
- You've done this every Friday since September, and that's a lot of Fridays. Do you have any favorite field trips?
MELISSA DUBYAK: We've done some really cool things. We've gone to the local fire station and EMS, the library, Oliver Miller Homestead, some farms, Christmas tree farms, pumpkin farms, the dentist, the Public Works Department. I actually got to sit in a salt truck. The kids loved that. Lots of really cool things. And today, actually, we had somebody from KDKA. Mr. Ray taught us a little bit about weather, which we loved.
- Mr. Ray. I heard today's guest was pretty cool. He said that your students asked the best questions he's ever had from first-graders.
MELISSA DUBYAK: They're pretty wonderful.
- Now, why did you feel that the first-graders really needed this outlet?
MELISSA DUBYAK: Well, I know it's my job to teach first-graders how to read and write and do math, but I've always felt like it's my job to also teach them how to love learning and be engaged in their learning process. And this year different with learning from home and not being in school. And I was trying to find a way to engage them and keep them excited to come back and be in front of that computer with me.
So I went back to my early days of watching Mr. Rogers with my mom. I have good memories of finding out about the world around me by watching his tours. And I thought, I can do this. And I can do this in the year 2020 and make it an interactive field trip.
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- And just in case anyone's confused, how does it work? The kids aren't going anywhere. You're going somewhere, right?
MELISSA DUBYAK: They are not, right, correct. I'm going somewhere, or in some cases I've had people Zoom in with me. And the kids log on just like they normally would during my class time. But instead of finding me here in my classroom, they find me somewhere else, and they have to try to guess where I am. And then we take the tour from there.
- I'm sure they love it. What are you looking for in a future field trip Friday guest?
MELISSA DUBYAK: I would love to do some more things around the community. So if anybody has a business or an idea for me and you can help me out, I would love to include that in some of the next coming weeks.
- And if someone wants to help out, they would just call you or call the school?
MELISSA DUBYAK: Yes. If you get in touch with South Park School District, they would put you in touch with me.
- OK. All right. I hope people are listening. You might have some really cool field trips coming up.
MELISSA DUBYAK: That's right. Thank you. And thanks to everybody who's helped me already. It's been wonderful. Thanks to my parents and all the community members.
- Well, Melissa Dubyak from South Park Elementary, thank you for sharing field trip Fridays with us.
MELISSA DUBYAK: Thank you so much.
Published On: Sat, 13 Mar 2021 01:20:31 GMT
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