So the 8th graders went on a field trip today. Half of them went to Goshen College, the other half to IUSB. I don’t really know what they did there, but they were gone most of the day, and I found out earlier this week that I wasn’t actually going on the trip– I was one of the teachers chosen to stay back at the building and babysit (call it what it is) the kids who weren’t going on the trip. For, like, five hours.

I was, to put it mildly, a bit concerned. I can handle just about anybody for the length of a 55-minute class period, but five hours? I might have to kill one of them to keep the rest in line.

Well, not only did my seventeen kids basically chat amongst themselves, play cards, and watch videos quietly for the entire time, but I got an enormous amount of work done in my room– which, remember, I have to vacate next week for carpet, lighting and paint work– and and and the field trip, and specifically the part of the field trip and the bus for the field trip that I would have been on had I gone, was a nightmare hellscape.

First, it was pouring all morning. Everyone got soaked on the way to the buses, then had to pack three to a seat because the district didn’t send enough buses (which is the second time they’ve pulled that move while I’ve worked at this school) and then the bus broke down, apparently spraying unknown fluids everywhere and forcing an actual bus evacuation through the back doors– still in the downpour, requiring the kids to take shelter at a nearby farmer’s market, which I’m sure was just great fun for everyone involved. Then the next bus took them back to school for some reason, then yet another bus actually got them to the field trip, over an hour late, and then apparently a kid had a major allergic reaction to something? And all of that would have been my problem if I’d been on the trip?