Field trips are simultaneously super fun and horribly stressful. It’s great to get out of the classroom, let loose, have new experience, but if you are anything like me – you probably feel like you are on the verge of a panic attack the whole time. Check out my quick tips on surviving a field trip and keep those heart palpitations at bay:
Plan, Plan, Plan!
If there is a word called overprepared you now embody that word. You live and breathe overprepared. You think in checklist form. You’ve planned for best case scenario, worst case scenario, and everything in between. You’ve written it out. You’ve made copies of that plan for your staff. You are ready.
Prep Your Students for the Change
While field trips are a cause for celebration and a special, exciting day in most general education classrooms – in your classroom it may not be such a joyous occasion. Many of our learners struggle with changes to their schedule. And first and foremost – a field trip is a change. Even if it is a good change that they may enjoy – it’s still a change and we need to be sensitive to that. Our students thrive off of routine and predictability and field trips have literally none of that.
Use visuals to show student the change. Put it on the calendar, put it in their daily schedule, use mini schedules.
Don't Stop Counting
If you feel like you have counted enough – go ahead and count those pretty little heads one more time. Safety is your number one priority on a field trip and everything else is a distant second. Spend the extra few minutes to count and recount. Regroup every so often and have everyone sit down so you can collect yourself, stay organized, and do another headcount.
Pack it Up
Hand sanitizer? Check. Tissues? Check. Gloves, diapers, wipes, and more gloves? Check. Candy? Check. Sensory toys? Check. When I go on a field trip, I feel like I am packing my carry on for a cross country flight. But no. These are just my in-case-of-emergency essentials. Usually I don’t need most of this things but my motto is – better safe than sorry! Bring anything and everything you may need. I also recommend tossing in a bunch of reinforcers. And think about those high powered reinforcers that will get your stubborn kiddo to get off the school bus when he is edging towards a level 6 meltdown. Stash them away in the bottom of your bag – just in case!
If you end up on one of the field trips where you end the day in a solemn vow to never ever take a field trip again – I encourage you to take that as a learning experience. What exactly went wrong? How could this have been prevented? Would more staff have helped? What taking a smaller group of students have made it easier? On those bad days – there is no where to go but up! So get back on that horse and try again! 🙂
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