However, an undisciplined and unstructured fieldtrip can ruin the excitement as well as the learning opportunity involved, resulting in a possible bad reputation of your school.

Therefore, you must have a solid student management plan for dealing with potential disruptive or strong-willed students who are bent on challenging your authority.

In my first year of teaching, I fell into the trap of disregarding a discipline plan. Instead, I trusted my students who promised to keep themselves under control, even the most challenging of my middle school students gave me their word.

My Nightmare as a First Year Teacher

The goal of the field trip was to familiarize my students with the great achievements of famous black Americans. The trip involved a meeting with Liberian specialist on the subject, watching a documentary film, and checking out books for a short midterm report.

However, the trip was known other than the definition of chaos. The girls where pretty manageable (initially) until they started mingling with the boys. The boys were definitely not to be trusted. Several of them took off through the library, running from librarians and hiding under computer tables. Other had exited the library side door in a dash toward a nearby Duncan Donuts in downtown Milwaukee.

Eventually, my entire class was thrown out of the library into the lobby and prevented from reentering the main entrance.

Embarrassed, the school called and apologized to the library for the fieldtrip disaster. But this was the finale time I ever took this group anywhere. I learned a valuable lesson, resulting in a series of successful field trips from then on.

To successfully manage a middle school fieldtrip, three essential resources should be in place to provide any since of security:

• A behavior support person
• A Container for disruptive students: preferably an empty school bus
• Parental support for the most challenging students

Behavior support person

Taking a challenging classroom on a fieldtrip alone is recipe for disaster.  I discovered this the hard way, but other newer teachers learned from my mistake. In fact, the administration assigned a behavior support person to chaff iron teachers who had disruptive students.

Teachers could basically focus on guiding and helping students understand and achieve the purpose of the fieldtrip instead of worrying about student behavior.

In the past, the school would keep challenging students at home, especially if parents did not accompany them on the fieldtrip.

Container for Disruptive Students

One of the responsibilities of the behavior support person is to contain disruptive students in a space where they cannot interrupt the others. Having an empty school bus to take highly challenging students away from the group is a godsend for the success of an important fieldtrip.

Such students, uncontained, can cause havoc and ruin the trip for everyone involved. No teacher wants to end a special trip after all the planning and demanding work that goes into the project.

Parental Support requirement for the most Challenging Students

This was the approach taken by the administration at my school. Some students may be so disruptive that even behavior support would have a tough time controlling them.

If parents desired such students to participate, these parents would need to accompany their child on the trip, with full responsibility for that child’s behavior.

Taking the above measures to ensure that your middle school fieldtrip is a success is important. Such strategy can provide a sense of security from public shame and embarrassment.

The post Field Trip Management for Challenging Middle School Students appeared first on Edu-Power-Today.

I made such a nerve-wracking, new teacher mistake when I first became a teacher in 1996. It was a combined 7 & 8-grade class. I took them on a trip to the library without a well-planned discipline strategy for negative behavior.  What a revolution!  The security guards kicked our entire class out of the library. We stood there in the rain until the bus came to rescue us.

The reputation of our school was ruined, at least from the perspective of those in the library. As was expected, the 7 & 8-grade class wasn’t welcomed to the library anymore that year.

As a beginning, first-year teacher, don’t fall into this type of trap. Make sure you have a fully devised plan for handling your students as well as other potential problems. The goal is to take your students on an exciting and productive field trip in which the reputation of the school is greatly represented and enhanced.

On a well-organized field trip, students should display an image of respect, focus and passionate engagement with the project at hand.  To plan such a magnificent field trip a teacher must carefully prepare for several things.

7 Things to Do for a Successful Field Trip

Schedule the Time and Date

Call the destination of the field trip and make an appointment.  Never assume that times and slots will be available the day or week before the field trip. A field trip should be made at least a two or three months ahead of time so that parents can be prepared to make a decision as to whether to allow their children to attend or not.

Inform Students of the Trip

Inform students of the field trip as well as the requirements for attending the event. Students need to understand the purpose of the field trip as well as what is expected of them regarding representing the school.  In other words, students must be well-behaved by making the right choices every step of the way.

Therefore, the rules and regulations of the field trip must be communicated plainly. You must have a fully formed discipline strategy designed to carry out logical consequences.  Students must know what will happen to them if they get out of line.

Arrange for Field Trip Support

Get support.  Never go on a field trip with 20 or more students without some adult supervision and support.  Attempting to manage more than 25 students on a field trip may be quite nerve wrecking.  If personal conflict erupts among them, then you may be in danger of losing total control.

Asking for a chaperone to come along is an intelligent way of preventing situations that might become uncontrollable.  These chaperones can be other teachers, support staff or even parents who are willing to participate in the lives of their children.

Support is crucial for a strong discipline plan to be effective. Teachers need to have a base prepared to send disorderly children. For example, you may have some chaperone to take disobedient children back to the bus or other designated place until the field trip is over.

Leave the Bad Guys Behind

Warning: to prevent a good deal of discipline problems you might want to leave highly disruptive students behind unless a parent accompanies them.  Students who do not listen to you in the classroom, students who you are always sending to the behavior room and students who are always fighting with another classmate will most likely embarrass you and ruin the reputation and image of your school. Keep such students away.

Send Out Field Trip Slips to the Parents

Next, send letters out to the student’s parents and highlight the time and date of the field trip as well as the cost.  Parents have a right to keep their child from attending the field trip. Don’t take it personally. Also, sending letters out a couple of months ahead of time will give the parents plenty of time to come up with field trip money for their child.

Many parents are hard-working and can barely make ends meet.  And sudden expenses only add to the pressure of trying to make money stretch.

Keep a Record of Submitted Money

Record the number of students who submit their field trip money on a daily basis. Keeping up with the number of students who have paid will go a long way of preventing the stress of attempting to find misplaced money.  Attempting to find something under pressure can be quite stressful.

Therefore, never just randomly place the money in your desk drawer. Choose a special place to put the cash so that it want mysteriously come up missing on the day of the field trip. Such issue will result in unnecessary chaos.

Make Sure Administration is Clearly Aware of the Trip

Make it clear to the administration the time and date of the field trip so that buses can be prepared to take the class or classes to their destination.  You may have to inform them more than once.  You don’t want to wait until the day of the trip and find out that administration has forgotten to make bus arrangements. Such misfortune would be a bad start to what you would like to be a fun and exciting day away from school.

Following these guidelines for planning an effective school field trip will result in a fun, exciting and productive day.  Not only will the children have fun discovering new information, but the school will also be well represented, and you will feel confident and assured things will go well.

The post The First Year Teacher: Preventing Chaos on a Field Trip Day appeared first on Edu-Power-Today.