A trip to the aquarium

Field trips are always so much work. But we go because of the learning experiences. OK so the driver did not know how to get there. I learned that I can give decent driving directions in a city where I normally take public transportation or walk. When we finally arrived, we were faced with a long wait because we were late. The first thing we did when we finally got in was see the jelly fish. Jellies are thing for one of my students with Autism, so he was quite excited. He was actually able to tell his friends that some jellies are poisonous to humans, and that there are many different sizes and types of jellyfishes. He was talking in sentences and making eye contact, which is huge for this particular child.

Some of the penguins appeared to be miked, so their calls to each other were quite loud. My students had theories about what the penguins were saying:
"He is saying he wants his dinner"
"Oh. Well the one who is on top of that rock says na na na you cant get me"
"The one with the feather in his mouth says he wants to play"

Some of the kids would touch the star fish in the touch tank, but no one wanted to touch the hermit crab

I felt bad for the kids because I was pretty hypersensitive about safety, and sticking together. There were so many people there and some of my students are runners and just plain good at hiding. I felt like I was constantly counting heads and reminding them to stay with their partners and assigned teachers for the day. When I think back about it, I feel maybe like I reminded them too much. But everyone was safe, no one got lost, and everyone made it back to the bus. So maybe it was OK to be hyper vigilant about safety, head counts, and partners.

The bus was incredibly late picking us up from the aquarium. I tried to keep the kids busy with movement games but then it got to be very difficult. Many of them were tired and wanted to sit down. All of them were hungry, and half of them needed to use the bathroom, despite the fact that we had all used it less than hour before. When the driver did finally arrive, he did not remember how to go back to school. I was embarassed by the way that some of my coleagues handled the situation. Many of them were yelling being down right rude to the driver. I knew that if we wanted to get back to school safely, I needed to handle the situation in a different way. I asked everyone to sit down and quietly take a breath. Then I spoke calmly and quietly to the driver. When I returned to my seat as the bus was turning around, some of my kids started clapping. When I asked them why they were clapping they said " you solved the problem", " you used your quiet voice" and "good job". Yes it is true that we have been working on solving problems and using a quiet voice all year. Yes it is also true that I still do not see too much progress in that area with some of them. But I was also surprised by their comemnts, which shows me that some of my efforts have not been wasted.