My First Field Trip

So the New Orleans Hornets had a promotion on Friday night - for every adult ticket purchased you could get a child's ticket for free. The school decided to take advantage of this opportunity to take our babies to the game! About half of the students we took (the best behaved ones) got to stand courtside to watch the team warm-up, and two second grade students got to be the ball boy/girl for warm-up. We had about 50 students there in all, and they had a blast. They got tattoos, balloon swords, pizza, coke, cotton candy, and popcorn and got to cheer and dance and watch some b-ball (too bad the Hornets aren't as good as the Saints, though). All in all it was a really positive night that everyone enjoyed a lot.

After the game I got to take two of my students home, which was quite an adventure. They had an interesting discussion in the backseat on the merits of staying on green on our behavior board and how they just don't understand why some kids choose not to follow directions the first time. I told them I don't understand either.

It was also very interesting to see where my babies live. One of them lives out in the eastern part of New Orleans, near the 9th ward. Her section of town is about four feet below sea level and has made very little progress since Katrina. Nearly all of the houses are abandoned and still have the X's on the door from when they were searched for bodies after the storm. The other kid lives in the Iberville Projects, located very near my school. I knew the projects were not safe, especially at night, but I had to get this kid home. So, I put on my big girl boots and hoped that no one would attack a five year old kid and a teacher wearing her school's t-shirt. I made it through the projects to my kid's door where the grandmother promptly told me I was crazy. She said it was way too dangerous for anyone, much less a young white girl, to walk through there at night. She walked me back to my car, saying that people know not to mess with her and her family and that she was going to strut back home like a proud peacock. I gave her a hug when I safely made it back to my car and thanked my lucky stars nothing happened to me. This is one of the most dangerous places in New Orleans, and I made it out alive! I now have major street cred and a better understanding of where my kids come from. It was an intense night from start to finish.

Btdubs, I would still love donations for my classroom to be named the Yale classroom! I know a couple of y'all have already donated and thank you thank you thank you! You're helping to create the Yale class of 2026 and develop college-bound students for leadership and life long learning. If you too want to help develop college-bound scholars starting in kindergarten, please visit www.successpreparatory.org and click on the donate button on the left. Then, be sure to tell me that you donated so that I can a) thank you and b) tell the office manager to allocate the money to my room. Thank you for the support!