Yay for field trips! They're lots of fun. The planning and organization necessary to make one happen is rather troublesome - need to coordinate with both the field trip location and the school for scheduling, make sure the funding is budgeted, and get all the paperwork for/from the kids to get them off-campus. But wow, they are so worth all the effort.

Me, 42 of my best students (A's and B's), and 7 other chaperones (double yay for chaperones! they made my day so much easier!) all took a trip to the California Science Center. The day started off great with the best school bus driver in the world - he was really laid back but also just scary enough so that you knew you didn't want to mess with him. That's really the ideal type of grown-up for kids at this age because they want their freedom but need some structure so that they don't end up killing each other with their attention-getting antics.

We hit some minor bumps in the road - like i didn't know that the museum doesn't open till 10am so I undid the waiting line chain myself and started leading my group toward the entrance. I promply got stopped by a museum official and had to backtrak my students to the waiting area and we kind of lost our place in line. a bit embarrassing for me, but at least I didn't actually enter the building and set off the alarms like one elementary group did. yikes!

The museum itself is great, though. Lots and lots of hands-on stuff which essentially means that there are a billion buttons to push at every exhibit that all do some random thing but makes the kids feel like they're interacting and convinces grown-ups that they're learning. This last aspect, the learning - the whole reason for the field trip, doesn't always happen but at least the subject material is set up to be educational and even though most of my kids spent their time running around to collect the stamps set up at each of the areas, i was glad to hear comments like, "Hey, this is like __________ that we learned in class" or "we already know all this stuff..." It affirms that my students at least recognize material we went over, if not actually apply it in their lives.

Lunch was nice because we ate in the outdoor patio and rose garden. The kids were happy eating their McDonald's, buying ice cream from the man with the pushcart, and chasing each other with water bottles. That's one major difference between middle schoolers and older kids. My students still play "chase." High schoolers get too "cool" to do it, and while it gets annoying to yell "Slow down" everytime I'm in the hallways of my school, it's kind of cute to see them get all excited to do something as simple as run after each other. I like how they still get excited to pass out papers or erase my board. okay, maybe i like that b/c they're doing my work for me, but i don't think that's all. I just really appreciate when simple things are enjoyed...it makes it so much easier to find pleasure in life.

the day went by really fast and before we knew it, we had to load back onto the bus with the cool bus driver (who had spent the day taking a very nice long nap) and go back to school. The best part of the day was just hearing the kids say that this field trip was really fun. most kids never get to go on any field trips at all, but some of the ones that do come back saying it was really boring. heehee, i feel cool for taking them on one that was fun (yay for me! heehee). i can't wait to go on more.