When I was younger, I counted Ms. Frizzle, the zany teacher from Joanna Cole’s The Magic School Bus book series, as one of my personal heroes. She’s smart, unpredictable, fun, intelligent, and loves taking her classes on wild field trips. Sitting at my desk, coloring in diagrams of the human body, I’d dream of floating down the blood stream on purple cell inner tubes, or being blown out of a nostril when someone sneezed (see Inside the Human Body if you need this explained). While my own elementary school field trips to the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, or the Baltimore Aquarium were cool, they were nothing quite like what the “Friz” offered her class.

Now that I’m a teacher, I idolize Ms. Frizzle even more. My reasons are the same, if perhaps a bit more nuanced. To begin, she gets her students involved in their material – every day she pushes them to ask more questions, poke around, try daring new methods of learning. She approaches subjects in many different ways, tailoring each lesson to the evolving needs of her students, and doesn’t dumb down material; she has faith in the nascent genius of her kids and trusts logic and clear explanation to help her students connect the necessary dots. Finally, she always  encourages her kids with the mantra “take chances, make mistakes, and get messy!” words I’ve always taken very much to heart. I’ve thought about this phrase a lot over the past six months, and about how necessary it is to encourage my own students to overcome their fear of “wrong answers” and rigid test structures. Watching our students at Railway slowly shed their anxiety and inhibitions, as Kara, Asma, Neha, and I pushed them to take small creative and inquisitive leaps, has only reinforced my belief that the Friz provides an exemplary teaching model.

On Friday, January 21st, I had the wonderful opportunity to put into action not just the Friz’s classroom methods, but also her out-of-class methods. That’s right, we took a field trip, and not just any field trip, but a field trip to beat all other field trips: we went to Google.

With the fabulous organizing efforts of our friends at Google, Suchi, Vignesh, Rohit, and Raji, TMS was able to accompany our students at Railway Girls’ High School to Google’s headquarters in Hyderabad for a day of exciting learning. Accompanied by our “multimedia storyteller” friend, Daniel Schwartz, Kara and I helped the girls document their experience at Google. Below is a small photo essay of shots taken by Daniel and me, an interview that the girls conducted with Suchi, and a link to the entire album of photos that were taken by the girls throughout the day.

Photo by Daniel Schwartz

9:20 am – Dressed in their “Saturday” best (the girls wear blue uniforms the other five days of the school week), our students line up in the school’s maidan, each equipped with a notebook, pen, water bottle, and a prepared list of questions for the Googlers. In creating our interview sheets, we focused on questions we could ask about the choices and decisions Googlers had made which brought them to the jobs they currently hold. This line of query connected to our final project on “Choices and Decision Making.”

Photo by Daniel Schwartz

9:30 am – As Ms. Frizzle says, “Class, to the bus!” Google sends a lovely luxury bus to pick us up, and the girls are giddy as they settle into their comfortable seats. Along with Kara, Daniel, Asma, Neha, and myself, Mr. Prabhaker, Shailaja (the computer teacher), and two other Railway teachers join us on the field trip.

Photo by Ilana

9:30 am – Neha boards the bus!

Photo by Ilana

10:15 am – About half way to Google, our students plead with the teachers sitting in the back of the bus to sing them a song. Preethi (left), Sara (center), and Monika (right,) were among the most vocal proponents. After some debate, Kara and I decide to teach everyone the old Girl Scout tune “Make New Friends (But Keep the Old)”. It’s a hit.

Photo by Daniel Schwartz

11:00 am – Arriving at Google, we are greeted by Vignesh, Rohit, Raji, and their Googler friends. The girls are agape with wonder at Google’s impressive, colorful foyer. Vignesh helps us get name tags, and we enter the google offices.

Photo by Ilana

11:10 am – Mr. Prabhaker poses with students as we wait for everyone to get name tags.

Photo by Ilana

11:15 am – Students and teachers marvel over the intricate rangoli-style art made by Googlers to celebrate Pongal and Sankrati. The students of Railway Girls’ High School make lots of handicrafts for school programs and events, and really appreciate lovely art.

Photo by Daniel Schwartz

11:20 am – Students settle down in one of the Google office rooms.

Photo by Daniel Schwartz

11:40 am – After a great introduction by Suchi, we all participate in an icebreaker activity: everyone writes his or her name on the top of a blank piece of paper, and then puts the paper down on his or her chair. Walking around the room, we stop at each person’s paper and write down something positive about them. In this photo, Nikhila adds to the long list of positive things others have already written about one of her peers.

Photo by Daniel Schwartz

12:15 pm – After our icebreaker activity, the Googlers lead us to the wondrous Google lunchroom. Each girl grabs a tray and investigates the variety of lunch options – salads, a pasta bar, a sandwich bar, veg, non-veg – although most girls settle on the good and familiar: rice, papad, sambar, and some curry. The girls sit in small groups at scattered tables, with one or two Googlers per group, and Kara and I are delighted to hear them bravely chatting and laughing with their new Googler friends. The biggest hit at lunch, by far, is the ice cream freezer. Above, R. Monika, Firdous, and Divya (left to right,) enjoy their ice cream.

Photo by Daniel Schwartz

12:50 pm – Back in the Google meeting room, Preethi and Kara (right) discuss the morning’s events, while Sandhya, Amreen, and Nikhila (left to right) chat and sip some Diet Coke (soft drinks and fruit juice were another big lunchtime hit.)

Photo by Daniel Schwartz

1:10 pm – Eager to learn more about what Google does, and everything it can offer us in the classroom, the girls listen attentively to Sri Laxmi explain a few things about the company and its products.

Photo by Ilana

1:45 pm – A Googler assists Sara in a demonstration about how to create  a gmail account.

Photo by Daniel Schwartz

2:15 pm – Sandhya, R. Monika, and Firdous (left to right,) pay close attention to the presentations on YouTube, YouTube EDU, Google Maps, Gmail, Google Earth, and more. They each hold gifts given to them by the Googlers – a Google notebook, a pen, and a beautiful decorated box to hold notes.

Photo by Daniel Schwartz

2:20 pm – We conclude our day at Google with two interviews conducted by our students. Here, Jayashree works the Flip camera as Firdous interviews Sri Laxmi about her job at Google,  how she decided to become a Googler, and any advice she has for us.

Photo by Daniel Schwartz

2:30 pm: R. Monika (back to camera) interviews Suchi, as Srilekha, Pravalika, Lalitha Vani, and Shailaja (left to right,) look on.

Railway Girls School’s Field Trip to Google: An Interview with Suchi Kumar from The Modern Story on Vimeo.

Photo by Daniel Schwartz

2:45 pm – Vignesh answers a question asked by Preethi (standing).

Photo by Daniel Schwartz

2:45 pm – Our Googler friend Vignesh.

Photo by Daniel Schwartz

2:50 pm – Our day concludes with a group photo of our teachers and our friends at Google!

Our field trip to Google was a wonderful experience – something straight out of one of The Magic School Bus books. We are all incredibly grateful to the Googlers for hosting us and teaching us about so many things.  As a token of our appreciation, the girls made their own digital thank you to send to the Googlers:

Thank you, Google! from The Modern Story on Vimeo.

For more of the girls’ own photos from the trip, click here.