Top Teachers
Saturday, December 27, 1997
Name: Alice Roberts
Age: 53
Education: University of Hawaii at Manoa, Gettysburg College
Pastimes: Synchronized swimming; driving the school bus for other teachers' field trips
Just call Alice Roberts the master of the 105-minute field trip. Helping students meet world
An average of four times a week, Roberts takes her marine science class at Maryknoll High School into the field via a 40-passenger school bus.
So passionate is Roberts about her class that three years ago, she paid for half the cost of the school's $44,000 bus with a family inheritance.
"We were having trouble getting a bus all the time," Roberts said.
Nearly all her field trips are taken during regular 105-minute class periods.
Roberts is so efficient in the art of the mini-field trip, she gives workshops on them. Most recently, she talked to teachers at a Hawaii Association of Independent Schools conference. "Talk fast and walk fast," Roberts said when asked the secret to her outings.
It also helps to know where you're going. Roberts has a lengthy and eclectic list of potential destinations each trimester. One favorite stop is the Blaisdell Center pond which, unbeknownst to most residents, is inhabited by barracuda, parrotfish and other exotic denizens.
Roberts advises teachers to use their imagination when it comes to field trips.
The focus is to get students into the environment and be able to relate to it. "We live in the most beautiful place in the world," she said. "How can we get them to see it and appreciate it?"
Gordon Pang, Star-Bulletin
