Field Trip #2: Ok... until we got pulled over!

So this morning was pretty hectic. I had told my students (as had the other 4th grade teacher) to be at school at 7:35am, because we were supposed to leave at 7:45am ON THE DOT. Of course, there were bus issues, and we didn't actually leave until about 8:15am. Go figure. So we had antsy kids for half an hour, just waiting and hanging out. Joy.

Then, on the way to the field trip, the other teacher informed me that neither she nor the bus driver really knew where we were going. Ha. Turns out the people putting on the field trip had changed the location yesterday (when I was on another field trip), and no one told me until this morning! Not knowing the area well, I had no idea about where we were going either. Fortunately, one chaperone knew the route and led us to our destination.

We arrived 30 minutes late at the field trip, so we only got to do 3 of the 4 activities. Bummer, but we made it up to the classes by enjoying a leisurely lunch (and HUGE game of duck, duck, goose) in a nearby park. It was great, and I spent nearly the entire time conversing with a chaperone who only spoke Spanish. (Turns out one of my kids was born with a hole in his heart, and when he was 4 years old, his family brought it up at church so they could all pray about it. In a few days, the hole was gone, and the boy was completely fine. Un milagro- a miracle.) It was great to practice speaking, and I like it that I'm the only faculty member in the school who can communicate with the Spanish-speaking parents.

On the way back, as usual, the other teacher and I had to keep quieting down the students. It got annoying, and we ended up moving a few of them. However, there were a few boys in the back of the bus who apparently threw things (sandwiches, rocks, paper, etc.) out the window. At the time they were doing this, a police car was behind our bus, and promptly pulled us over. Awesome. He took the name and number of one of the students from the other class, and we eventually returned to school with two hours remaining in the day.

Since I had a full day sub, I took a break from my class and tried to get some planning done. However, there were allegations that one of my students was also throwing things out the window, so I had the counselor talk to him. I also thought it good for him to talk to the police officer who had pulled us over, since he had followed us back to the school. My student was shaking and eventually cried when he realized that he had to talk to a police officer! The officer assigned the other boy and my boy clean-up duty in the cafeteria next week, as well as the task of reading three books. Interesting. So I helped out in that discussion, and then promptly hid myself in the teachers' lounge.

In the lounge were two Spanish-speaking staff members, both of whom I like a great deal. I keep asking them if they'll help me improve my Spanish, so they had me sit with them. We talked for over an hour, and it was awesome! I realize that I'm very rusty, but we had a nice time. At the end, they said, "te queremos" ("we love you"), and I got big hugs, so that was a great way to end the day! :)

For now, I get out of here quickly and head to my next job (as a hostess)... Time for a 4 day weekend!!!! Yippee!!