Open Mic 2

Last week, I took students on field trips to Jackson State Prison. I have to take multiple trips because they only do tours of 30 people at a time, so I took one class per day. I complained to my husband all weekend about the trips. Although I admitted that it was my fault for planning them, I complained that the kids were so ungrateful and that I am very pregnant and should have just skipped them altogether this year. There was one morning in particular in which I was feeling extremely regretful. I had students that seemed to have zoned out when I went over the rules of the tour...one kid forgot an ID, one kid came wearing shorts...those kinds of things. Yet, I found that each day upon returning from the trip, the kids were very grateful and appreciative that I had taken them. They all said that they really learned a lot from the experience. I felt like all of the hard work that comes with planning field trips had paid off. I left work in a very good mood each day feeling impressed by my students' behavior. At the weeks end, I was left with thoughts and reminders of how doing things for others can really be rewarding. I think it can be easy to allow yourself to feel taken advantage of and unappreciated in the field of teaching sometimes and then moments like the ones I experienced last week happen to remind us of why we do what we do.