Field Trip Flashback

Yes I realize that after a long time of being faithful to blog, the past few weeks I have remained silent. It has been a very busy few weeks here in Huston Land. We had grades to complete, a spring break with family, and I've been busy getting grad school stuff done. So let me give you a little insight about taking 80 - 9 year olds on the Metro to go to the Museum of Natural History in DC.

My class this year was awesome. I only had 2 chaperones this time, so I had 7 kids in my group. This may seem like a lot of kids, but if you have good kids it seems like a small group.

So let's take a flashback to the same field trip on the Metro to DC three years ago. During this field trip, I had a few trouble makers and didn't want to give my chaperones a bad day. I "thought" I could handle them just fine. Well besides having to constantly tell them not to run ahead or to hurry up or not to touch something, it was a pretty uneventful day.

The trouble began as we left the museum and headed into the bowels of the Metro again. There was a bus transfer ticket dispenser that some boys decided was fun to play with. I told them not to do that and they all continued ahead....except one. This kid decided to challenge me and kept on pushing the button for bus tickets. So I yelled at him for disobeying. When I did this he decided to pout and throw a temper tantrum. He sat down and refused to move. The stand off had begun.

I grabbed his arm to take him with the rest of the class but he grabbed a railing and wouldn't let go. I told him to hurry up because I had 25 other students to watch. He refused and yelled, "Get off of me." People began to stare but I assured them that I was indeed his teacher. (Thankfully we had matching shirt)

So I said, "Okay I will let go of you if you promise to get on the Metro." Well, it was about that time that I let go of his hand and he immediately sprinted the opposite way of the awaiting train. What did I do you may ask? I ran after him, caught him and tucked him under my arm and took him into the car kicking and screaming. So for the next 30 minutes all eyes were on me and my student. This was by far my worst field trip EVER!