Why are the field trips so underwhelming?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teachers: As your PTAs for help! We would be thrilled to help you plan and pay for field trips!

Agreed! I’m the OP and I didn’t realize the teachers plan and organize them. We have a very well-funded PTA and a very engaged set of parents - school events are packed with volunteers. We’d be glad to help!!

Who did you think planned them??

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:After having three kids go on the Jamestown field trip in 4th grade, I can honestly say that trip is a complete waste of time. It takes three hours there and three hours back, leaving only a small window to actually see the site. Everything is so rushed, it's absurd. The only way to make that trip really work is to do an overnight.

Our school used todo an overnight. Geriatric principal nixed it. He and granny AP need to go. We need to oust boomer administrators.

How much extra will the teachers be paid for an overnight? I’m a single parent teacher and wouldn’t be able to do an overnight even if I wanted to. I don’t have anyone else to watch my child.

I don’t think many posters are wondering about the impact these trips have on teachers.

I’ve chaperoned several overnight trips. I’ve never been paid extra for being at work 18 hour days and on call 24 hours. In two cases, I even had to pay for my own hotel room and entrance tickets. This was on top of paying for childcare back home so I could chaperone in the first place.

I have a colleague who organizes field trips for her students, but they would probably be deemed “underwhelming” by most of the people posting here. They still require a lot of extra effort and funding which I know she contributes to herself. I hope she never sees this thread.

Exactly. Field trips take a tremendous toll on teachers, who are ultimately responsible for all of the paperwork and all of the details. Every field trip I’ve organized has cost me time or my own money.

This is a discouraging thread. I appreciate that parents want these experiences for their children, but they aren’t aware of the behind-the-scenes that keeps overburdened, overworked teachers from taking on even more work.

And ultimately, most trips would be better as family trips without the stress of returning to a school at a certain time or having to find a place to feed 100 students.

Give it a rest already. Simple field trips are part of curriculum and parents have a right to expect them.
Not overnight, yes.

Um No "right."

Yeah, I caught that word, too.

Sorry, parent. I’m no longer doing field trips as part of my class. They aren’t required by my curriculum. They were always additional work that I placed on myself. Those days are over. I’m simply focusing on keeping my head above water now.

Ask PTA for help. I am sorry you have a shitty job but it’s sad how parents are accepting that their kids are getting shorted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:After having three kids go on the Jamestown field trip in 4th grade, I can honestly say that trip is a complete waste of time. It takes three hours there and three hours back, leaving only a small window to actually see the site. Everything is so rushed, it's absurd. The only way to make that trip really work is to do an overnight.

Our school used todo an overnight. Geriatric principal nixed it. He and granny AP need to go. We need to oust boomer administrators.

How much extra will the teachers be paid for an overnight? I’m a single parent teacher and wouldn’t be able to do an overnight even if I wanted to. I don’t have anyone else to watch my child.

I don’t think many posters are wondering about the impact these trips have on teachers.

I’ve chaperoned several overnight trips. I’ve never been paid extra for being at work 18 hour days and on call 24 hours. In two cases, I even had to pay for my own hotel room and entrance tickets. This was on top of paying for childcare back home so I could chaperone in the first place.

I have a colleague who organizes field trips for her students, but they would probably be deemed “underwhelming” by most of the people posting here. They still require a lot of extra effort and funding which I know she contributes to herself. I hope she never sees this thread.

Exactly. Field trips take a tremendous toll on teachers, who are ultimately responsible for all of the paperwork and all of the details. Every field trip I’ve organized has cost me time or my own money.

This is a discouraging thread. I appreciate that parents want these experiences for their children, but they aren’t aware of the behind-the-scenes that keeps overburdened, overworked teachers from taking on even more work.

And ultimately, most trips would be better as family trips without the stress of returning to a school at a certain time or having to find a place to feed 100 students.

Give it a rest already. Simple field trips are part of curriculum and parents have a right to expect them.
Not overnight, yes.

Not a teacher here and I know that field trips are not a right and there is no reason to expect them. The field trips to DC museums my kid did in ES were a waste of time, thye spent more time on the bus than they did at the museum. There were some nice trips that the kids enjoyed but I know that they are extra work for the teachers. They did not go to Jamestown or Mt. Vernon in 4th grade, which was a disappointment but it was the year after COVID so I wasn’t surprised.

It’s sad how parents have lowered their expectations. Teachers/admin should ask for help if they can’t do the trips themselves but they should happen.

[Anonymous]

There are times I feel like that person…

Back in the 80’s and 90’s we had maybe one field trip a year and that was it. I don’t remember any in MS or HS. Field trips are not a necessity, they can be fun and educational but they are not mandatory.

Plenty of schools don’t have enough money to fund field trips and they don’t have PTAs that can run fund raising to provide field trips and after school activities. The PTA cannot do the paperwork associated with the field trip, that paperwork ends up being the backbone for any liability that might arise from the trip. Teachers are over worked as it is, adding on extra things is a lot. Kids behavior has gone downhill which makes field trips even more of a nightmare, do you think it is fun to watch the kids who are nightmares at school at a museum? Or Cox farm? Or any other location?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:After having three kids go on the Jamestown field trip in 4th grade, I can honestly say that trip is a complete waste of time. It takes three hours there and three hours back, leaving only a small window to actually see the site. Everything is so rushed, it's absurd. The only way to make that trip really work is to do an overnight.

Our school used todo an overnight. Geriatric principal nixed it. He and granny AP need to go. We need to oust boomer administrators.

How much extra will the teachers be paid for an overnight? I’m a single parent teacher and wouldn’t be able to do an overnight even if I wanted to. I don’t have anyone else to watch my child.

I don’t think many posters are wondering about the impact these trips have on teachers.

I’ve chaperoned several overnight trips. I’ve never been paid extra for being at work 18 hour days and on call 24 hours. In two cases, I even had to pay for my own hotel room and entrance tickets. This was on top of paying for childcare back home so I could chaperone in the first place.

I have a colleague who organizes field trips for her students, but they would probably be deemed “underwhelming” by most of the people posting here. They still require a lot of extra effort and funding which I know she contributes to herself. I hope she never sees this thread.

Exactly. Field trips take a tremendous toll on teachers, who are ultimately responsible for all of the paperwork and all of the details. Every field trip I’ve organized has cost me time or my own money.

This is a discouraging thread. I appreciate that parents want these experiences for their children, but they aren’t aware of the behind-the-scenes that keeps overburdened, overworked teachers from taking on even more work.

And ultimately, most trips would be better as family trips without the stress of returning to a school at a certain time or having to find a place to feed 100 students.

Give it a rest already. Simple field trips are part of curriculum and parents have a right to expect them.
Not overnight, yes.

Um No "right."

Yeah, I caught that word, too.

Sorry, parent. I’m no longer doing field trips as part of my class. They aren’t required by my curriculum. They were always additional work that I placed on myself. Those days are over. I’m simply focusing on keeping my head above water now.

Ask PTA for help. I am sorry you have a shitty job but it’s sad how parents are accepting that their kids are getting shorted.

But are they getting shorted? Is the experience worth 2.5 hours on a bus to be at the location for an hour?

And while I appreciate the PTA’s offer, the simple truth is the work still falls on me: the paperwork, the forms, the aggravations. I’m also responsible for students’ and chaperones’ behavior.

I suspect many of us aren’t debating between field trips and no field trips. We’re debating between staying at this job and quitting.

[Anonymous]

Yeah all the PTA can do is throw money at you, maybe (not if you’re at a title 1 school). Requesting the field trip, getting approval, communicating with the venue, getting permission slips, taking the health training for the kids with medical issues who go, because if a kid with epilepsy or diabetes is on your trip you have to be trained to assist them, and they will always be on the trip, putting the lunch orders in with the cafeteria and picking them up, arranging for chaperones, creating student groups, getting there, keeping track of the kids, and getting back- this is SO MUCH WORK for often maybe 2 hours at the actual destination. Forgive us if we don’t choose to add this to our plates as often as you think you’re entitled to expect.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kids are in the younger end of elementary but I'm really surprised by the field trips. They go on one a year, to places like Green Spring Gardens, Huntley Meadows, or Cox Farms. Are the other elementary schools like this? We live 20 minutes from the nation's capital - why aren't they visiting some of the many, many offerings there? (And yes, I take my kids to the museums!). It's not a lack of chaperones - they always have more volunteers than they can use.

Does anyone know if there are big high school trips anywhere? Where I grew up (Ohio) our big high school trip was to DC. Wondering what the equivalent is here.

Field trips takes weeks if not months of planning. I stopped planning them for seven years because students treated them like a day off instruction and we got kicked out of two museums.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yeah all the PTA can do is throw money at you, maybe (not if you’re at a title 1 school). Requesting the field trip, getting approval, communicating with the venue, getting permission slips, taking the health training for the kids with medical issues who go, because if a kid with epilepsy or diabetes is on your trip you have to be trained to assist them, and they will always be on the trip, putting the lunch orders in with the cafeteria and picking them up, arranging for chaperones, creating student groups, getting there, keeping track of the kids, and getting back- this is SO MUCH WORK for often maybe 2 hours at the actual destination. Forgive us if we don’t choose to add this to our plates as often as you think you’re entitled to expect.

This is pretty much spot on. Others should not read this as a complaint, but rather a description.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are times I feel like that person…

Back in the 80’s and 90’s we had maybe one field trip a year and that was it. I don’t remember any in MS or HS. Field trips are not a necessity, they can be fun and educational but they are not mandatory.

Plenty of schools don’t have enough money to fund field trips and they don’t have PTAs that can run fund raising to provide field trips and after school activities. The PTA cannot do the paperwork associated with the field trip, that paperwork ends up being the backbone for any liability that might arise from the trip. Teachers are over worked as it is, adding on extra things is a lot. Kids behavior has gone downhill which makes field trips even more of a nightmare, do you think it is fun to watch the kids who are nightmares at school at a museum? Or Cox farm? Or any other location?

If the PTA does everything else, you can do the goddamn paperwork.

[Anonymous]

Please, Mama PTA,

Explain why you think field trips are an important "right."
Explain how they are a necessary part of the curriculum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:After having three kids go on the Jamestown field trip in 4th grade, I can honestly say that trip is a complete waste of time. It takes three hours there and three hours back, leaving only a small window to actually see the site. Everything is so rushed, it's absurd. The only way to make that trip really work is to do an overnight.

Our school used todo an overnight. Geriatric principal nixed it. He and granny AP need to go. We need to oust boomer administrators.

How much extra will the teachers be paid for an overnight? I’m a single parent teacher and wouldn’t be able to do an overnight even if I wanted to. I don’t have anyone else to watch my child.

I don’t think many posters are wondering about the impact these trips have on teachers.

I’ve chaperoned several overnight trips. I’ve never been paid extra for being at work 18 hour days and on call 24 hours. In two cases, I even had to pay for my own hotel room and entrance tickets. This was on top of paying for childcare back home so I could chaperone in the first place.

I have a colleague who organizes field trips for her students, but they would probably be deemed “underwhelming” by most of the people posting here. They still require a lot of extra effort and funding which I know she contributes to herself. I hope she never sees this thread.

Exactly. Field trips take a tremendous toll on teachers, who are ultimately responsible for all of the paperwork and all of the details. Every field trip I’ve organized has cost me time or my own money.

This is a discouraging thread. I appreciate that parents want these experiences for their children, but they aren’t aware of the behind-the-scenes that keeps overburdened, overworked teachers from taking on even more work.

And ultimately, most trips would be better as family trips without the stress of returning to a school at a certain time or having to find a place to feed 100 students.

Give it a rest already. Simple field trips are part of curriculum and parents have a right to expect them.
Not overnight, yes.

Um No "right."

Yeah, I caught that word, too.

Sorry, parent. I’m no longer doing field trips as part of my class. They aren’t required by my curriculum. They were always additional work that I placed on myself. Those days are over. I’m simply focusing on keeping my head above water now.

Ask PTA for help. I am sorry you have a shitty job but it’s sad how parents are accepting that their kids are getting shorted.

But are they getting shorted? Is the experience worth 2.5 hours on a bus to be at the location for an hour?

And while I appreciate the PTA’s offer, the simple truth is the work still falls on me: the paperwork, the forms, the aggravations. I’m also responsible for students’ and chaperones’ behavior.

I suspect many of us aren’t debating between field trips and no field trips. We’re debating between staying at this job and quitting.

I was disappointed by the lack of the Jamestown trip. A parent of an older kid who had done the trip said not to be. All the kids missed was hours on a bus, 4 hours at Jamestown, and then hours on the bus back home. It was an early start to the day and a late return home and not much learned.

We need to go back, DS last trip to Jamestown when he was 5 or 6, but we can go and spend a long weekend. We can spend a day at Jamestown, a day at Williamsburg, and visit Appomattox and Yorktown. We will have time to walk through the locations and actually discuss what happened there while enjoying ourselves. It will be fun, not rushed.

Mt. Vernon and Manassas would make far more sense for our area. They are closer by and more manageable but still a lot of work for Teachers to put together.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are times I feel like that person…

Back in the 80’s and 90’s we had maybe one field trip a year and that was it. I don’t remember any in MS or HS. Field trips are not a necessity, they can be fun and educational but they are not mandatory.

Plenty of schools don’t have enough money to fund field trips and they don’t have PTAs that can run fund raising to provide field trips and after school activities. The PTA cannot do the paperwork associated with the field trip, that paperwork ends up being the backbone for any liability that might arise from the trip. Teachers are over worked as it is, adding on extra things is a lot. Kids behavior has gone downhill which makes field trips even more of a nightmare, do you think it is fun to watch the kids who are nightmares at school at a museum? Or Cox farm? Or any other location?

If the PTA does everything else, you can do the goddamn paperwork.

Way to completely ignore the multiple posters who perfectly articulated what falls on the teacher. The bulk of the work CAN’T be done by the PTA.

But let’s be honest here: you don’t care. Your cursing above illustrates that quite well. Teachers should simply provide for you, shouldn’t they?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yeah all the PTA can do is throw money at you, maybe (not if you’re at a title 1 school). Requesting the field trip, getting approval, communicating with the venue, getting permission slips, taking the health training for the kids with medical issues who go, because if a kid with epilepsy or diabetes is on your trip you have to be trained to assist them, and they will always be on the trip, putting the lunch orders in with the cafeteria and picking them up, arranging for chaperones, creating student groups, getting there, keeping track of the kids, and getting back- this is SO MUCH WORK for often maybe 2 hours at the actual destination. Forgive us if we don’t choose to add this to our plates as often as you think you’re entitled to expect.

Who's doing all the planning for the Lewis program trips? If your experience is the norm, then there's no way the teacher over there is planning dozens of field trips every year by herself. And as far as I know I'm fairly certain she is the sole teacher in the program. Have they centralized all the paperwork to admin? Seems like the process is inconsistent across FCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah all the PTA can do is throw money at you, maybe (not if you’re at a title 1 school). Requesting the field trip, getting approval, communicating with the venue, getting permission slips, taking the health training for the kids with medical issues who go, because if a kid with epilepsy or diabetes is on your trip you have to be trained to assist them, and they will always be on the trip, putting the lunch orders in with the cafeteria and picking them up, arranging for chaperones, creating student groups, getting there, keeping track of the kids, and getting back- this is SO MUCH WORK for often maybe 2 hours at the actual destination. Forgive us if we don’t choose to add this to our plates as often as you think you’re entitled to expect.

Who's doing all the planning for the Lewis program trips? If your experience is the norm, then there's no way the teacher over there is planning dozens of field trips every year by herself. And as far as I know I'm fairly certain she is the sole teacher in the program. Have they centralized all the paperwork to admin? Seems like the process is inconsistent across FCPS.

They have a program coordinator. That person doesn't teach classes and organizes all the field trips.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah all the PTA can do is throw money at you, maybe (not if you’re at a title 1 school). Requesting the field trip, getting approval, communicating with the venue, getting permission slips, taking the health training for the kids with medical issues who go, because if a kid with epilepsy or diabetes is on your trip you have to be trained to assist them, and they will always be on the trip, putting the lunch orders in with the cafeteria and picking them up, arranging for chaperones, creating student groups, getting there, keeping track of the kids, and getting back- this is SO MUCH WORK for often maybe 2 hours at the actual destination. Forgive us if we don’t choose to add this to our plates as often as you think you’re entitled to expect.

Who's doing all the planning for the Lewis program trips? If your experience is the norm, then there's no way the teacher over there is planning dozens of field trips every year by herself. And as far as I know I'm fairly certain she is the sole teacher in the program. Have they centralized all the paperwork to admin? Seems like the process is inconsistent across FCPS.

There is also going to be a difference in planning field trips for a class of 30 or so kids in the Lewis Leadership program, if that many kids, and planning for 100-200 ES kids. You also have very different behaviors to worry about for ES kids then HS kids.

30 kids is one bus and a more specific program to worry about. Hundreds of ES kids means multiple busses, training for medical conditions, including kids with far more impulse control issues, and a lot more coordination across teams. It is a far different logistical problem. I am not a teacher and I can see that.

Those HS band/choir/honors society trips are kids who are self selecting based on interest. They are smaller, parents are more likely to be involved, and it is easier to say no to a kid who has behavior issues.