I said, "Sure, I think. What is it?"
She went on to explain that the 5th grade classes were going on a field trip to Pine Cove Camp for Science.
I thought that sounded cool.
The principal said it was overnight...as in three days and two nights overnight.
OK.
She assured me I didn't have to go if I didn't want to go; BUT, if I didn't go they may not be able to find another male chaperon and that would mean the trip is off and the 5th grades would lose out on a excellent learning opportunity.
OK, thanks for the taking the pressure off.
Any way, I told her that I would go and I actually began to look forward to the trip.
THEN I was told the trip was off; not enough male chaperons.
Rats!!!! I had really begun to look forward to going.
THEN two weeks ago I was told that they had found a male chaperon for the trip and it was on again; and it was a little over a week away.
Goody! Time to arrange for a substitute and prepare things for her and my class to do. Once again, on the field trip we would go to the Pine Cove Institute of Wilderness Studies in Tyler, TX. The trip was planned to give our students hands-on experiences with nature and the environment and was geared to their grade level Science TAKS test (Which is tomorrow by the way).
The big day finally came on Wednesday, April 22. I had made all my arrangements, packed enough clothes for a week, and psyched myself up for the events of the next three days. I was ready for this. I was assigned 7 boys in my cabin and was assigned to a group of 12 students (6 boys and 6 girls)for our instructional periods. Fortunately, one of the 5th grade homeroom teachers was also assigned to my group. (In reality, I suppose that I was actually assigned to her group and not the other way around.) The Teacher, Ms. Steele, is a great teacher to work with and does a great job with her kids. You can tell by the way the kids respond to her. As it turns out, earlier this year I was assigned to Ms. Steele's class for after school tutoring. Because I was with her kids most of this school year I grew to be fairly close to them and this trip made that bond even stronger.
A few pictures of the trip begin tomorrow.
© 2009 Barry T Horst
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
