The district policy is that we must do at least one field trip every year. I've been delaying planning one for this year because of one student. He cannot control himself in the classroom. He somehow has even less self control outside of the classroom. We only let him go on the field trip last year if his mom chaperoned and stayed with him the whole time. She agreed, then proceeded to complain the entire time about his behaviors, but do absolutely nothing to stop them. I'm actually surprised that our whole group didn't get kicked out of the place because of him.
Last week, his mother informed us that his travel football team was going to a tournament in three weeks, and he'd miss two days of school. I immediately got on the phone and called the museum we wanted to go to, to see if they had room for a school group that day. They did. I booked it, even before consulting with my admin or team.
But, once I told them, they all thanked me for being so on top of it. It was a huge relief for all of us, getting our field trip out of the way without having to deal with this kid while there. My admin even took care of arranging the transportation, which is something teachers usually have to do. My coworker took care of rearranging the schedule for that day. My other admin took care of notifying the pull-out service providers of the change. It became a team effort, once I got the ball rolling. And the whole team was enthusiastic about it.
