field trips
Kids and Socializing
We took a Red Eye yesterday from Mesa, AZ to Crystal City, VA with one layover. Fueled solely on excitement and junk food, 28 8th graders gleefully walked to the Newseum. They read about the history of journalism and watched a sobering video on 9/11. The kids sat in suspended disbelief while the adults cried in remembrance.
As we walked everywhere, I brought up the rear of the group to maintain our number of 28. It was hard to prod kids normally taking selfies to “rush” their snaps of cherry blossoms.
One overheard conversation:
“Why don’t you eat cheese?”
“I gave it up for Lent.”
“Huh?”
“Cheese is really hard to give up! I mean, REALLY hard!
At the end of the day, I asked kids, “What has been your favorite part of the trip thus far?”
They thought for a long minute.
“Being able to do everything here with my friends.”
Isn’t that what makes everything better?
Minimalist Traveling
My 13 year old daughter and I are leaving tonight for a week in D.C. I’m still practicing “simplistic living” (subtract, subtract, subtract (!)) and my goal is to pack as little as possible.
I’m not checking a bag and everything fits in two my carry on bags. A small, nagging voice is wondering if I have everything I need, but I know I do. With little to worry about, we’re ready for a great time!
Paradise
“I like a teacher who gives you something to take home to think about besides homework.” Lily Tomlin
I love teaching, educating, inspiring students through field trips. Students (especially low income ones) need to get out into the world and meet new people. They need to explore. However, I can’t stand being on the bus to and from our destination. The screaming, the singing and the physical jostling – ugh! I have learned a couple coping techniques from years of experience, but I still believe teachers should be chaperoned separately, in a quiet car with our beverage of choice. The adult chaperones on the bus with the kids should be those people who say teaching is easy and that class size doesn’t matter.
On our bus ride to Arizona State University for a science expo, I allowed my class to board the bus first and then I got on. I stood at the front, assessed the situation, rearranged a couple kids to help minimize noise and “issues” and then took a seat near the front. Fortunately, sixth graders do NOT believe it’s cool to sit next to the teacher. Ah, a seat to myself! The other sixth grade teacher, Mr. Ash was relatively new to teaching. I noted him sitting in the middle of the bus, between his class and mine, sharing a seat with a boy. Mr. Ash is a super nice, tall man with big brown doe eyes. Throughout our ten week stint together, he constantly reflected on his work, noting what was working and what wasn’t. I liked that.
As we rolled down the freeway, one of my students asked me to turn the music up. It was so loud with sixth grade chatter, I didn’t even know the radio was on. “Don’t you think it’s loud enough in here?” He begged and gave me the prayer hands. I asked the driver, “Do you think you could turn the radio up a little? You’re the driver, if you don’t want to, it’s totally up to you.” Safety first!
The driver complied with no expression on his face. His eyes never left the road as his chubby fingers dialed the volume up. Instantly, the entire busload of students was singing at the top of their lungs:
“Your sex takes me to paradise, yes your sex takes me to paradise and it shows, YEAH, YEAH, YEAH!”
I was at once mortified and amused. I looked back at Mr. Ash, his face in his hands.
Kismet 