No field trips so far this year?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Field trips suck! They are a ton of work. Teachers have to do these enormous packets for the field trips. What time do we have to do them? I do not think people truly understand the work these packets entail.

Tell us, please.

Different teacher. First we have to actually plan it and get the tickets. We have to provide the district a full itinerary and how every part of it aligns with standards. A permission slip for every single child. Then the nurse has to review every single attendee and give us their health plan and medications and epi pens to ensure they’re safe on the trip. We have to arrange for the cafeteria to provide bagged lunches. Then we have to get chaperones. Then arrange transportation. Then assign chaperones and groups and keep track of everyone. Then ensure we get the money from the kids whose parents signed them up. Then remind the kids whose parents haven’t signed up of the deadline multiple times. It’s a LOT of moving parts.

Thank you - I had no idea the teachers were responsible for all of this. I thought our PTA did a lot of the coordination - do they only provide the money?

I have no idea at your school. The PTA where I teach doesn’t pay for it and they certainly don’t coordinate anything. The teacher is the one responsible for their students, not PTA moms.

[Anonymous]

Our school doesn’t have a PTA. We get one field trip per year. The worst part by far is the amount of time and effort required to beg parents to please sign the permission slip and let us know one way or another whether their kid is going. It is ridiculous how much time and effort we waste on just this one thing. It’s not just got field trips but for everything that involves parent involvement/permission.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our school doesn’t have a PTA. We get one field trip per year. The worst part by far is the amount of time and effort required to beg parents to please sign the permission slip and let us know one way or another whether their kid is going. It is ridiculous how much time and effort we waste on just this one thing. It’s not just got field trips but for everything that involves parent involvement/permission.

And don’t forget, for the kids who don’t go, because their parent never signed the slip, you then have to get a sub and write sub plans for them or find another teacher to take them and give them the plans. It is so.much.work.

[Anonymous]

MCPS:
2nd grade—Strathmore
3rd grade—theater
4th grade—farm

We already go to these places but I know it’s exciting for the students.

[Anonymous]

I’m a title one school and we only had a fake field trip in three years. The “field trip” was that a petting zoo came to the school.

The issue is discipline and money. They can’t ask title one parents for money and they also can’t control the kids. I remember as a kid the bad kids weren’t allowed to go and would stay back with the principal. I bet they couldn’t do that today.

[Anonymous]

MoCo 1st grader went on a field trip to the planetarium in Baltimore (which is NOT close to us so lots of time on the bus). The activity there was two videos. Not something I'd choose for my kid.

I don't know if more are planned for this year but I haven't heard anything about another one.

No field trip last year in K.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our school doesn’t have a PTA. We get one field trip per year. The worst part by far is the amount of time and effort required to beg parents to please sign the permission slip and let us know one way or another whether their kid is going. It is ridiculous how much time and effort we waste on just this one thing. It’s not just got field trips but for everything that involves parent involvement/permission.

And don’t forget, for the kids who don’t go, because their parent never signed the slip, you then have to get a sub and write sub plans for them or find another teacher to take them and give them the plans. It is so.much.work.

We just walk them across the hall to a pre-k class. Some of them fit in very well there even though they are kindergarten age. There are no subs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our school doesn’t have a PTA. We get one field trip per year. The worst part by far is the amount of time and effort required to beg parents to please sign the permission slip and let us know one way or another whether their kid is going. It is ridiculous how much time and effort we waste on just this one thing. It’s not just got field trips but for everything that involves parent involvement/permission.

And don’t forget, for the kids who don’t go, because their parent never signed the slip, you then have to get a sub and write sub plans for them or find another teacher to take them and give them the plans. It is so.much.work.

We just walk them across the hall to a pre-k class. Some of them fit in very well there even though they are kindergarten age. There are no subs.

No hon, I don’t teach kindergarten. You know there’s 12 grades in k-12?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our school doesn’t have a PTA. We get one field trip per year. The worst part by far is the amount of time and effort required to beg parents to please sign the permission slip and let us know one way or another whether their kid is going. It is ridiculous how much time and effort we waste on just this one thing. It’s not just got field trips but for everything that involves parent involvement/permission.

And don’t forget, for the kids who don’t go, because their parent never signed the slip, you then have to get a sub and write sub plans for them or find another teacher to take them and give them the plans. It is so.much.work.

We just walk them across the hall to a pre-k class. Some of them fit in very well there even though they are kindergarten age. There are no subs.

No hon, I don’t teach kindergarten. You know there’s 12 grades in k-12?

Actually, there are 13 grades in K-12. I hope you’re not a math teacher.

[Anonymous]

My kid went on one this year and one last year.

My other kid had like 3 in sixth grade but none in fifth. They missed their Jamestown field trip because of Covid.

[Anonymous]

My upper elementary kids in PGCPS have been on two so far this school year.

[Anonymous]

DS had 2 in K - 2. Then COVID so none in 3 or 4. He had 3 last year, 5th, and has already been in 3 in 6th grade. But the 6th grade has some special field trips for the kids that everyone looks forward to.

Pretty much every year has had some short trip to a museum in DC and then one other trip. There has been a farm, several plays at local colleges, and things like that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Field trips suck! They are a ton of work. Teachers have to do these enormous packets for the field trips. What time do we have to do them? I do not think people truly understand the work these packets entail.

Tell us, please.

Different teacher. First we have to actually plan it and get the tickets. We have to provide the district a full itinerary and how every part of it aligns with standards. A permission slip for every single child. Then the nurse has to review every single attendee and give us their health plan and medications and epi pens to ensure they’re safe on the trip. We have to arrange for the cafeteria to provide bagged lunches. Then we have to get chaperones. Then arrange transportation. Then assign chaperones and groups and keep track of everyone. Then ensure we get the money from the kids whose parents signed them up. Then remind the kids whose parents haven’t signed up of the deadline multiple times. It’s a LOT of moving parts.

Oh wow, that is a lot! If I were a teacher I’d never take my students on a field trip if I had to do all this coordination to make it happen.

[Anonymous]

FCPS elementary - last year I think DD went on 3?

I admire the hard work of the teachers. I’m also a teacher and refuse to plan any at my school. They are a tremendous amount of work, responsibility and are expensive. The PTA doesn’t pay. We are already stretched so thin with time and not all parents want to pay for these. DD had a group of very young, ambitious teachers last year.

[Anonymous]

11:44 again - through elementary school, field trips regularly cost us 60-120 foe a single trip. I personally think that’s way too much to charge. They rent a chartered bus and it’s the only thing the kids like. Of course, there is the line to contact the school if you can’t afford to pay but I would have been fine with fewer field trips.

Between my kids in elementary school, the most expensive were the chartered bus one day trips for Luray caverns, Gettysburg, Jamestown and I’m probably forgetting some. There were always several field trips per year with one being $$$$ -FCPS