Field Trip

On Thursday, Oct. 28th, we took the afterschool tutorial and enrichment program students on a feild trip to Wake Forest University for Project Pumpkin.  We took 102 students, but I was terrified because we went in conjuction with Communities In Schools also known as CIS.  We collected the permission slip applications and turned them all over to CIS and they in turn gave them to Wake Forest; however, they did not compile a listing of the names of the students so at the very last minute we were scrambling trying to find out who had parental permission to go and who did not.  Finally we got a listing 84 names and were told there were 14 others to be added.  We compiled out listing so we could inform the parents of the itme to pick up their children.  We were supposed to leavet at 3 pm but actually boarded the buses at 3:45.  We finally arrived at WFU at 4pm and took a head count.  We had 102 students on board.  We had groupsed our kids a specific way, but the moment we got of the buses, WFU regrouped our students into smaller groups to start the tour.  I was terrified becasue there were other schools and childcare organizations there.  To be exact there were over 700 kids on this field trip.  We had name tags but no real means of identifying our kids.  I was so afraid we were going to lose a child and end up on the six o'clock news.  Our students were so excited becasue they gave out free candy and got to visit each booth where there were a variety of activities going on.  The kids had so much fund but they kept running from one station to the other becasue we were on a time schedule and they didn't want to miss anything.  I had an assistant but he kept stepping off to the side usign his cell phone.  I forgot to bring my cell phone which I surely needed in case of an emergency.  Finally, we ported back to the central location and a head count was taken repeatedly before we got an accurate count.  I was so glad when we arrived back at our school and the parents were there watiing for their children. I have always enjoyed taking students on field trips, but never in this kind of chaos.  The students had so much fun, becasue of all the candy they received, but for me it was a nightmare.  I think it could have been better organized.