There are a select group of students that have a hard time adjusting to new settings and new people. As much as we prep and prepare our kids for what they might see and hear on the trip, you can't ever anticipate every little thing that will come their way. On top of this, you have no idea what the facilitators will be like when you get to where you're going. Often, they are older or younger volunteers that have spent time working with kids, but not YOUR kids. They don't know what will set them off- and frankly, you don't either. If they lack patience or are unafraid to discipline, it can get awkward. I spent the last 30 minutes of this field trip just wanting to get back to school. So much of the information was simplified that our kids spent more time talking with each other than talking with the facilitators.
My favorite part of the day was when we went indoors to the "Rainforest Habitat." The kids liked it because they were given a list of things to look for, like a yellow bird, a sloth, and a fan-like plant. It also felt so different from the environment that we live in that the kids were sometimes wide-eyed. I still had kids that were shouting or talking to their friends while the facilitator was talking, but to be honest, the man wasn't entirely engaging. I didn't blame them.
There were some other points where my boy, The Wanderer, would not stop talking while the facilitator was talking. He was shouting out answers to all of their questions and it was drowning out all of the other kids and adults. When I said, "C, you need to stop shouting. No one can hear anything when you do that." He said, "Why do I need to stop shouting?! Why can't I shout out?" I said, "For the same reasons you can't shout out in school. It isn't fair to the adult that is trying to teach or to the kids who are trying to learn." He wasn't having it. Every time we rotated to a new station, he sat away from the group until I invited him in and let him sit on my lap. During one of our transitions, he took another student's hat. When he refused to give it back, that student got my attention. When I asked him to give it back, he said, "He told me I could have it?" I looked at the other student who was shaking his head. I said, "You really need to give that back. It's not yours." His response was to stomp his feet, throw out a "Oh my gooooodness" and walk completely away from the group. I gave him a couple of minutes and then went and found him playing around on a random staircase. I told him he needed to make a choice: come with our group outside or sit in a chair with the other group. As I was waiting for his response, my CT noticed what was happening and walked over. She warned him that he shouldn't do this because the future of his participation in future field trips was on the line. After that talk, another leader told me that he did just fine for the rest of the field trip. Sometimes I wish I could have magical powers to make him do that, too.
The location of the field trip was absolutely gorgeous and for the most part the kids did a nice job. We had a good talk during science about the water cycle (that turned into a lot of laughs about icebergs, glaciers, and quoting lines from "Titanic") that was inspired by one of our field trip stations, so the day wasn't a total loss. Hopefully we'll continue to connect parts of our field trip to what we are learning about ecology during science.
Tomorrow is Friday!! I can't wait for a relaxing weekend.
Peace & love,
Ms. T
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