On Saturday, I traveled with with some other teachers, counselors, and students to Kings Dominion: an amusement park. We had approximately 47 students. We met at 10, boarded the bus and rode to King's Dominion. I must admit that I was probably more excited than the students: I haven't been to an amusement park in years.
We got to to the park, we told the kids where and when to check in with us, and off we went. We rode rides, ate junk food and talked trash all day.
So, at check in time, there were three students who were about 30 minutes late. We knew that they were okay, because we called their cell phones, but we still needed to lay our eyes on them and get back to the rides. We were laughing and talking as the late students approached. I said to the other teachers "we have to act like we are mad," so we stopped laughing and put on our stern teacher faces. The students approached, and we talked to them about being on time for check in etc. in our teacher, responsible voices. As they walked away, we all laughed about how nervous they were. They had no clue that we weren't mad; we just wanted to get back to the rides.
The rest of the day went without a hitch. Finally, we boarded the bus and went back to the school. I got home and sent a text to the other adults who went and said "Awesome trip; we have some great kids." And the funny thing about this text is that I really meant it.
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| Teachers and counselors waiting for check-in |
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| Teachers have fun too! |
The next day, I popped up early, packed my lunch, and headed to the school to meet another group of students to go canoeing. We met at 8, drove an hour to a lake and went on a six hour canoeing trip. We got into our canoes and off we went down the Rappahannock River. We stopped on the river to eat lunch, we stopped later to swim, and later we stopped to swing from a rope that was tied to a tree. Hurrying was not on our minds.
The scenery was absolutely amazing with bright sunshine, beautiful trees and a cool river. While we were canoeing, we could hear the noise that nature makes. You know that sound, not sure how to describe it, but it's that sound that nature makes when it wants to be noticed, and we did notice. Also, blended with that nature sound, was the sound of us laughing and talking with all of our cares left behind: no textbooks, no homework, no bells, no teachers. You read it right! For just a short moment, we were not teachers, but grown ups who wanted to spend quality time with children on a lake. We ended the trip at a barbecue place and afterwards we had soft served ice-cream, and we rode happily home.
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| The beautiful view |
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| Our Canoes |
The grown ups on the trip!
Now, for some people, spending their entire weekend with somebody elses children is a bit too much, and I ain't the one to just spend time with just any old kids on the weekend, but these kids really are worth every moment, and I mean it.
If you are a teacher or a home school teacher and you love the students whom you work with, "Throw Your Hands Up!"
OK, I can only show pictures of the adults; I have to respect my students' privacy :)
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