Kids Love A Field Trip…
Just pick up a pile of permission slips and your students will start to get excited before you say one word. Let them hear you talk about “busses” or “hotels” and their little hearts will be all aflutter.
Kids love field trips. Frankly, they love anything that gets them out of the daily grind of school and classes and work and teachers.
Okay, okay…I’m talking about me, too! I love field trips almost as much as the students do.
…we hate the paperwork!
But the paperwork, Boo Boo, the paperwork. It’s enough to make anyone throw up their hands and go back to regular classroom instruction.
Not only is it a lot of paperwork, but the line in the sand keeps moving, too. Every time I submit a field trip packet, it seems like it gets returned to me for some new reason—I didn’t have dietary requirements on it one time. The next one got sent back for the street address of a Las Vegas Strip hotel. Um….Las Vegas Boulevard?
If you are as lucky as me, you will have a strong team at school who can help guide you through the process with both step-by-step instructions and pre-filled forms. The biggest piece of advice I can give to you is this: Keep one complete copy of your field trip packet in your possession—including the packet the kids had to fill out—so that you can use it as a guide for the next few field trips.
How To Find Good Field Trips
Think outside the box for some fun and cool new trips for kids. They did the zoo and the museum in elementary school, so we need to find some trips that are relevant to their current position in life—getting ready to become independent citizens.
What’s in your neighborhood
Start your search by looking right around your school for things that you can do. I am a big fan of field trips to clean up neighborhood parks and environments, as well as visitations to the nearby elementary school for some Reading Week activities. In addition to those types of trips, consider visiting local businesses. Your students are spending money at these establishments, so it isn’t a bad idea for them to learn some of the “back of the house” running for these companies.
About an hour away
That is my personal rule for day trips with students. If I can’t get there is about an hour, it’s too far for me to do during the school day. By extending my field trip radius outside of our neighborhood, I do add the requirement of transportation, but my options become much more interesting. For us, that includes the entire Las Vegas Strip as well as a National Park in Red Rock Canyon, so we have a plethora of options. I learned very quickly that, despite living very close to it, some students never have the opportunity to go to the local touristy areas. It was true when I taught ten miles from NYC, and it’s true now. Don’t discount anywhere because you assume kids have already been.
Building community connections
The best part of all of these options is that you are building your own professional network of people who are supportive of public education. Once I have the contact information for the community liaison of a location, it becomes easier not only to plan field trips, but to reach out for other assistance, as well. A recent field trip to the World Champion Las Vegas Aces WNBA team, for example, netted me our keynote speaker for graduation this year!
Going far out of your way
This is more likely CTSO travel, so kids will be intrinsically motivated to attend. If you are already doing your state and national conferences, consider branching out to the Fall Leadership or professional conferences that students can attend. That is a fantastic way to build stronger leaders in your local chapter, and get kids more excited for the prospects the CTSO offers in college.
Convincing Everybody…
So, you’ve got that great idea. Now you need to pitch it to the stakeholders, which is your specialty! As a business teacher, you know exactly how to put together a pitch and a marketing plan to make this the best field trip of the year! How? You ask. Let’s see:
Administration
In my experience, administrators will get on board with my crazy plans if they are well-considered and I’ve already done some of the preliminary background work. So, make sure you will have the answers to their questions before you venture into their office. Especially the monetary questions…
Students
This is your easiest sell, but it is still very important. If you are traveling to compete or visit offices, it is important that students recognize the serious and important nature of where they are going. Not all field trips are a day at Disneyland.
Parents
Clear and concise information seems to be the key to the hearts of the parents, because they want their kids to enjoy every opportunity. It is important in your correspondence, too, that you note what days will be missed, and any important information about making up work or transportation. I’ve found parents to be quite receptive to a well-planned field trip.
Now You Need Chaperones
So we really did visit the Aces headquarters last month. This was an easy sell to all of the stakeholders, and I was beating chaperones off with a stick! The same is true of our Disneyland overnight in January—it sells itself. CTSO travel, on the other hand, requires an act of God for me to get people to commit. Not only is it four days with kids, but it includes a nine-hour bus ride to fabulous Reno, NV.
Here are my suggestions for chaperones:
- Lock them in as early as you can. I have the dates for every field trip at the beginning of the year ready to go, and I start plugging holes.
- Make it attractive to them. They should not go out of pocket for anything on the trip, except souvenirs. Fundraise enough money that you can do per diem for them, at the very least.
- Keep them comfy. I don’t need all five chaperones on the bus ride to Reno, so we allow chaperones to fly one way so they only have one bus ride. This is, however, at their own expense.
- Make sure you give clear directions. How involved will they be? Are they responsible for specific kids? Who’s doing the dreaded bed check?
Tips For The “Day Of”
The more prepared you are, the less likely you will have any nasty surprises on the day of the trip. Organization will be your friend!
- Bring the Bible – That’s what we call the three-inch binder with all of the important medical information. You can’t go anywhere without it. Make sure it is neat and in alphabetical order.
- Split the kids in groups – Having each chaperone responsible for a small group of kids will make everything easier on you. We go one step further, and have one kid in each group the Leader for that group to help the chaperone. This is especially helpful if the chaperone doesn’t know all of the kids.
- Create all lists in advance – I’ve got clipboards with lists and attached pencils ready for each chaperone on the day of, so they have everything they need to be successful. Most importantly…they have my phone number!
- Bring water and snacks – Hangry is ugly, whether it’s a kid or a chaperone. We always load cases of water on the bus, and some light snacks like granola and chips for everybody at the end of the day. You never know what you may—or may NOT—get at the location.
After The Event
- Thank chaperones – I’ve always got another field trip coming up, and I need to be able to count on my people to volunteer. That is significantly more likely if they feel appreciated for their time and efforts. Make sure the kids send thank you notes to everyone involved from the school side.
- Send note to host – I leave it to me personally to thank the host or location. While getting notes from the kids is very nice, the kids don’t often include the important points that you want to show gratitude for, so consider doing a bit of both. I’ll have several students or club officers write short notes, and I will include my own when I send it.
- Do self-reflection survey for kids – Something we as educators often forget to do in our busy and overcrowding workspace is reflect on things. Make sure you create and share a Google form for kids to comment on the experience. Be certain to leave the last item as a free-form response, so they can highlight what mattered most to them.
No Matter What…
Schedule that field trip right now! There is absolutely nothing more beneficial for students than to see business in action. Experiential learning is the highest form of education, and we owe it to this next generation.
See you on the bus~
