Day: August 16, 2016

Getting Ready for a Field Trip: What You Need to Remember

So, a field trip is coming up and you want everything to go without a hitch. Chances are, it won’t be perfect. There will be problems, but how do you manage the problems to minimize damage?

Organization is key to preparedness. Here are some things worth keeping in mind.

Before the Trip:

  • Emergency Information: Compile all emergency information into one convenient notebook or travel agenda. This can be one you use throughout the year for all field trips. Make sure to take this with you on your trip.
  • Allergies: If you are going somewhere where food is being served, or just outside where the elements might cause triggers for students with allergies, it is important that organizers of the event know which children in your group have allergies, and to what. All the staff in your party should also be aware of the students with allergies. Compile a list with detailed information and give each accompanying staff member a copy.
  • Lunches & Snacks: Make sure students and their parents know this is a trip. Encourage them to pack foods that are easier to carry: light sandwiches and light snacks with easily disposable wrappers are great options. Students should also be encouraged to carry bottled water, especially if trips take place during the hot summer months.
  • Media Release Forms and Waivers: Whatever liability documentation needs to be filled out, make sure it is done prior to the trip.Consider giving out information letters to parents with these forms at least a week in advance of the trip. Make the due date for all forms a couple of days before the trip, to allow for those students who might overshoot the due date.
  • Information for Support Staff: Are all your support staff informed of where you are going? Make sure that all pertinent information is available to each member. Consider compiling a package for each staff member with a map of the place, address and phone number of those in charge, student allergy information or other health concerns, schedule for the day, and any other information that would ensure a smooth and safe field trip. Remember, communicating with those who are helping you on the trip is key.
  • First Aid Kit: This should be prepared ahead of time and one person should be put in charge of it. Perhaps the person who has more experience handling emergency situations should be made responsible. Your usual suspects should feature here: Bandaids, gauze, alcohol wipes, Epipens for students who are too young to carry their own.
  • Identifying Attire: Consider having your students wear T-shirts that identify them all as part of a group. Perhaps your school has a uniform. If this is the case, make sure to remind students to dress to the proper uniform code prior to the day of the trip. If there is no uniform, consider having them wear school mascot T-shirts if these are available, or perhaps contact wristbands or chains.
  • The Safety Talk: Make sure you talk to your students about safety on a trip. Ask them questions about what it means to be safe. Alert them to different situations they might face on this trip, and then how they can protect themselves or a buddy from harm. A Buddy System is a good idea. Establish this ahead of time, with room for accommodations on the day of the trip, should attendance change.

On the Day of the Trip:

  • Supervision Groups: Depending on the students who are attending, establish a staff supervisor for each small group of students. If you have parent volunteers, they should receive the same information as all staff. Typically between 5-8 students per adult is a good number.
  • A Quick Check: Do a quick check before you leave. Do you have the First Aid Kit? Do you have the Emergency Information Notebook? Are all your students accounted for? Do each of them have their backpacks and lunches?
  • Buddy System: In addition to having supervisory groups and counting them all the time, and observing them all the time, making more responsible or older students, in charge of younger ones just means one more pair of eyes is looking out for each student. And that is always a good thing.
  • Cell Phones: Your cell phone should be fully charged for the day, and on Ringer Mode. In case of an emergency, you want to be able to pick up that call right away.
  • Count-count-count: Establish the total number of students attending the trip. Count before you board the bus, count while on the bus, count when you get off the bus. Count your students every chance you get. It only takes a second to lose one of your students, so staying on the ball about this one can be crucial.
  • Observe-observe-observe: Just like counting all the time, watching your students at every turn of the trip is important. You can heave a sigh of relief when they are all safely back at school and in their parents’/guardians’ possession. Until then, they are your responsibility.
  • Washroom Supervision: Always have an adult accompany groups of students to the washroom. The adult can remain outside to monitor students.

Now, while there are many more things you could do to ensure a smooth field trip, these ones are a really good place to start. Remember to stay calm in the event of an emergency. Cooler heads always prevail.

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An Open Letter to the Canadian Women’s Soccer Team in Rio, Brazil.

Dear Canadian Women’s Soccer Team,

Today we watched with an ache in our hearts as we were defeated by Germany. It felt like 4 years ago at the London Olympics, when we came so very close, only to have the glory STOLEN from us. That was a devastating loss when the win SHOULD have been ours. It was a hard pill to swallow then, and remains a bitter memory even 4 years later. Still, you came back from that loss, and you were victorious for the most well-deserved Bronze ever.

We were hoping we could take back what we lost then, but that was not to be this time. And no, we are not disappointed. We are proud. Because, like then, today, you fought. You fought with your hearts, and you fought with your dignity intact. And you were brave. Oh so brave.

Captain Sinclair, as the captain of our team, you have always upheld the integrity of your players and the integrity of your country as a whole. You have battled on with courage, with determination and with compassion, even when battling with all those three was a superhuman feat. You have been the rock that your team leaned on when their sinew fell apart. You have been the boat that buoyed them to the shore. You have remained a model captain. A true star. The stuff of champions.

Coach John Herdman, you held our women together and galvanized them to come back for a Bronze that was their consolation prize 4 years ago. You brought them back this year for another fight on the world stage. We know they are in good hands with you.

Players on the team, we watched today as a nation, as your tears fell after you fought so hard. We cried with you, our tears mixing in with yours. But, we remain unwavering in our belief that you are a GREAT team. Not only in your talent and perseverance, but in your heart, where the real star lies.

And today, as the minutes collapsed into seconds and we as a nation watched hopes for that Gold Medal slip out of our hands, we remembered one thing, we remembered that, “With glowing hearts we see thee rise, the True North strong and free!”. So, with your ENTIRE country backing you, with the weight of our collective hopes pinned onto your very capable shoulders, we bid you the best as you take on the game for the Bronze Medal. And whether you come out with a back-to-back podium finish, or not, know this much, WE ARE PROUD OF YOU, because no matter how many times you get beaten down, you ALWAYS find a way to rise up and fight again. And in the words of Shane Koyczan, we know you have “what it takes”.

All the best, ladies. Your country stands behind you.

 

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Verse 2 of #WhatItTakes Olympic Manifesto by Shane Koyczan and Sport Chek

Verse 2 of the Olympic Manifesto by Shane Koyczan dropped on Sunday, August 14th. Here is the video, and below it, the transcription.

You have to ask yourself, is your prime ahead of you? Or behind you?

Will your worst days remind you that your best are still to come?

Is the drum in your chest loud enough to keep your challengers up at night?

Do you have what it takes when the fight goes into extra rounds?

Will the surplus of pounds you lifted be enough to prepare you for the more that is required when what comes next finally arrives?

 Are you committed to the grace it takes to turn your falls into dives to cut through the surface of the water?

Will you have what it takes when there’s no spotter to save you, and no net to catch you?

When your mind asks for more, will your body match you?

– Shane Koyczan

I realize too that I missed the Opening of this Manifesto (this would go before my post on August 13th, 2016), so here is the video for that, and the transcription below it.

We hope every seat is full

We hope you hear them cheer for everyone but you

We hope defeat is in your cards

We hope your hope splinters into shards

that you must handpick from the bleeding wound of your defeat

We hope that every athlete you meet

is better, more determined than you

But you need to be tested the same way wrong needs right

The same way ROAR needs FIGHT

You must fight to be here

You must pay with sacrifice

You must disregard the price of admission

If you want in, it’ll cost you. It’ill cost you broken bones and blood

We hope for a flashflood of fear and uncertainty

We wish this misery upon you

because it gives birth to brilliance

There will be a moment in which everything you want becomes a singular goal

A moment of debt when every heartbeat you own can’t pay for every breath you stole

You must pay with the whole of you

Because this is the price and these are the stakes

you must pay for all the hurts and all the aches

you must open your heart like a vault and pay for your pain

because THIS is what it takes.

-Shane Koyczan

With Verse 3 dropping on Thursday, the 18th, and Verse 4 (or the closing) on Sunday, the 21st, I shall be here, to post videos and the transcriptions. Monday, the 22nd, will feature the entire poem. All the best, Team Canada. We stand behind you.

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