Field Trip

I am still recovering. I took my students on a field trip yesterday.

The kids were spectacular. I knew they would be. I call them my Dream Team. They are probably the best class I've taught in my entire 18 year teaching career.

The day was long, though, and there was a lot of walking around on cement floors, and my feet and legs still ache, even after going to bed last night before nine o'clock.

We started the day touring a television studio, and I think it maybe wasn't as interesting as the students had expected it to be. I found parts of it fascinating, and it was cool to see where they plan the news and where they film the news. Still, I saw quite a few yawns before the tour was done.

Then we toured a soundstage in our city. Now that was cool! The kids got to walk through sets of a TV show that almost all of them watch. Some of them snapped pictures of each other in the sets, pretending to be the characters. I think they enjoyed that.

On the top floor of the soundstage building was a computer animation school, so the kids were invited to walk through their space, as well. The animation students were working on their term projects, and some of the projects were quite intriguing.

There is a large park area around the soundstage, so my students and I had a picnic lunch there. The weather was perfect. We sat amongst the huge trees and enjoyed our lunch on the grass. As the kids finished, the boys began to play football, and the girls showed off their cartwheels on the pillowy lawn.

We spent the afternoon at a fitness club, where the kids were able to climb walls and play racquetball. I think the wall climbing was the highlight of the day for most of the kids. It was so cool to watch them - especially my really shy, timid ones - tentatively make their way up the wall and, ultimately, triumphantly ring the bell at the top. The fellow working there and teaching them how to do it seemed to have a real instinct for knowing when to push and when to pull back, depending on the kid. He would talk them into climbing higher and higher, even when it seemed to me they were too scared, but then they would ring the bell and their smile would light up the room.

The bus ride back to the school was pretty quiet. The kids were exhausted, I think. My exhaustion didn't hit until about eight o'clock in the evening. Suddenly, I simply could not get up. In fact, it took me about ten minutes to talk myself into getting out of my chair and taking the dozen or so steps to the bedroom to go to bed. I slept very well.