My First Field Trip

Tuesday, the first day of our school week with kids, was a field trip to this small farm with pumpkins galore that had mostly frozen from harsh frost the two previous nights. Many pumpkins had been laboriously made into jack-o-lanterns, forming a path through the farm. We walked by a pen of about 8 stinky turkeys, 3-4 half-Siamese cats and many kittens in a crate, smelly, noisy geese penned with one duck and one hen (I'm wondering if the 'loners' were from 'Joey' on "Friends"...made me laugh in the middle of insanity to think of it, anyway.) There was another pen of peacocks, pea-hens and half grown chicks, another of 3 pigs (black, brown and whitish-pink.."The Three Little Pigs"?) and a field of cows behind an electric fence that had been supposedly made 'safe' by putting a line of hay bales in front of it. Do you know how fast a 3-5 year-old can get over a hay bale? The cows were fed the half-frozen pumpkins and Mr. Pumpkin fed them corn-on-the-cob around which they wrapped their long, long tongues......and some people think cow tongue is a delicacy! >Shudder< Gross!

Thankfully, the sun was shining and the cold weather of the previous two days made the paths hard (frozen) with no muddy potholes that kids might have found fun. It was a beautiful crisp fall day for a field trip, despite all my fears and reservations about taking my group on this field trip. I think the best pictures of kids are taken around bright orange pumpkins in the fall. Maybe its the golden glow of the sun and air or something. Of course, I forgot my camera, but the other teacher had one and took some excellent pictures of my kids...thankfully! If I had taken the pictures, they probably wouldn't have been so good! As much as I try, I am not a good photographer!

We were directed by the owners of this operation, known as Mr and Mrs. Pumpkin. They had orange hunter-type jumpsuits on and the man had orange hair that looked like it had gotten electrocuted in the electric fence. (In the middle of his head was a large green stem poking out!). I'm surprised the kids weren't more afraid of the duo.

Okay, there were 3 special education teachers, 2 assistants per teacher/class and two-three parents. In the morning I had eight students of the 24 total from all three classes. Of those, I'd say about 3 of mine were able to process what was even happening. One kept running back to the geese pen and imitating the honking.....only words he's said! Anyone heard of 'goose therapy'? One kept running back to the cat crate to pinch the cats...I wanted to pinch Him! Another just whined and threw himself on the ground whenever we stopped to listen to a story from the Pumpkins. We could never let go of this one as he would run off just for the joy of running. Another is visually impaired and couldn't really see the animals unless he was up close....thus no fear of electric fences! He just hummed his little tune as he wandered around, stumbling over pumpkins in the pumpkin patch. Thank goodness 'the screamer's' mom came with us and so we had no trouble with her!) We had to help them all find the few pumpkins that had not frozen. Of course, none of the kids brought money from home (as asked) to get a pumpkin, but Mr. Pumpkin set them up by saying, "Okay, go find yourself a good pumpkin!" So guess who ended up paying for the pumpkins? At $2 per small, orange globe, they weren't cheap! Then we sat on hay bales to eat a snack we'd brought for the kids. We had their favorites: goldfish crackers and gummy bears (the current M&M motivators), juice boxes or small water bottles.

Of course we also had to push one child's wheelchair around this set up; he doesn't like to be outside, as the bright sunshine hurts his eyes (He had a stroller rooftop to handle this) and if we stopped, he just wanted to 'go', as he enjoyed the movement over the bumpy ground. Add to that the limitations of my assistants: One has morbid obesity, knees ready for replacement and a bird phobia [remember geese, duck, hen, turkeys, peacocks, pea-hens?] The second suffers from lymphodema, so she can't run or get on her knees. Is it any wonder I couldn't sleep the night before and forgot to take the camera or have the kids wash their hands with the carefully packed Purell before snack? Yikes!

Remember, I have one class in the morning, and another in the afternoon, so we returned to the school, let the kids run on the playground for 15 minutes, then loaded them all on the buses to go home. We staff ate lunch, gathered our courage and repeated the process all over again with the afternoon classes. Believe me, by the time we returned to the school that afternoon, we were all exhausted physically and mentally and emotionally.

Now as I have been taught and actually enjoy, I reflected on the experience. The first thought that entered my mind was selfish: Who thought of field trips for these kids, anyway? And, What in the world was the educational relevance and why should I have to go through all that, worrying about all those kids perhaps being injured, bee-stung, bit, scratched, having seizures, etc?

To minimize the children's stress, I pre-made picture schedules of the event, took those schedules with us on the trip and repeatedly showed them to kids who were fearful or 'stuck'. I had to take two backpacks: one with snacks and the other Full of first aid equipment, blood-borne pathogen kit, diaper changing supplies and emergency information on each child. A few kids were able to process the experience, but only a minority.

Then I calmed down to think about it from another view: If I were the parent of a child with special needs, I'd still go to the Pumpkin Patch, so I could let my child have at least the stimulation of participating in community activities and giving him/her the same opportunities other children have. And really, we don't know for sure how much the kids were able to retain for happy memories.

Okay that was Tuesday. On Wednesday the school day was off kilter as we'd had that field trip the day before and kids were all unruly and out of sync and, of course, (1) assistant called in 'sick' as her knees hurt too much.

On Thursday, I think the stress of it all had caught up with me and I just wanted to velcro each child to a chair, put my hands over my own ears and rock in the fetal position! I was tired of listening to the perpetual high, ear-piercing screams, listening to the whines, keeping one child from continually stripping off his clothes, trying to keep calm, quieting those whose ears are overly sensitive to sound and chasing after the runners. All this while trying to do the daily learning activities. Thankfully, in our little classroom, my assistants can function well so they were good help. But it rained that day and we couldn't take the kids outside to work off some of their energy, breathe deeply, and, frankly, to give us teachers a breath of fresh air. Even though there are problems with the playground, it is basically enclosed and fairly safe for the kids to run and play 'free'. I know there are learning activities outside, too, but not that day!

I called Cindy Thursday night to wish her well on her Peru trip. I think she was actually feeling positive about it and wanting to get going. But she relayed the horrible news about James Barnes. My heart aches for their whole family. Could someone send me their home address so I can send a card? They are writing in their blog, so I am commenting there. Let me know, too, of anything you guys do as a group. I'd like to help out.

I've been very glad for this weekend of rest. Yesterday was really rainy and I took advantage of it, napping and reading and watching 'Free Willie" on TV. It actually reminded me of the kids we get in our classroom, it that we put so much of our heart and soul work into trying to help them be 'free' to be their best selves. Then like Willie (Keiko, for real) , our hard years of work seems very disappointing and rather worthless, just as Keiko didn't make it out of his 'self-contained classroom.' It's sad. Janet always said: "For this one (at least for this moment, sic) it makes a difference."

Today is the calm before another windy/rain storm and I took advantage of the break and took a walk along the water. I breathed deeply of that fresh sea air. It was very interesting to see the low tide and all the seaweed that actually covered the shore so that it looked like green grass. Then there were lots of pieces of driftwood that had floated out into the bay from the high waves and tide, I guess. I'm going to try to go down to the shore during the next storm and see it first hand. The herons were close to the water's edge, very close to the walking path, looking for breakfast. There were lots of other shore birds and the local kingfisher was there too. No eagles today, but I had my first view of the local pair last weekend on pilings in the bay. I'd heard a lot about them from others. I love my nature ramblings here!

Okay, I've got to get busy for another week. I'd love to hear from any of you!