Hi again. I know. You just heard from us. It was a quick turnaround for us too! The original endeavor years ago was to have one field trip every month. We’re getting out earlier and earlier in June, so our final trip was technically still in May, and just a week after Yosemite.
After school on Wednesday, we took a quick trip down the road to the Oakland Ice Center. The kids got one last new experience for the year. Most of the kids had not been ice skating before, and really didn’t know what to expect. But I can assure you, it was a great time. Kids were so excited as we laced up our skates, and felt the cool ice for the first time. Lots of wall-hugging of course, and shuffling along. Others embraced their propensity to fall, and just went for it, consequences be damned. Interesting to me to see the progress of that kind of kid compared to the wall-huggers.
It was notable to me, the attitude of some kids who were brand new at skating. They watched the 8-year-olds in the center ice with their coaches, leaping and spinning away, and proclaimed “I’m not good at this!” But it was a good opportunity to explain that anything that we’re good at takes time, and practice, and lots of repetition. No need to feel bad struggling the first time.
One of my favorite moments was watching one student, who really wanted to learn to skate backwards. I watched him take lap after lap, barely moving, maybe 7-8 minutes or more to go once around the rink, but set on learning to do it. You can give a kid tips, but I loved watching his determination in figuring it out, and sticking with it, just by doing it over and over.
After a couple hours skating, we headed back through traffic to Cerrito Vista Park in El Cerrito. We ate pizza, ran in the grass, threw the frisbee, and climbed on the play structure. A casual, fun way to end the final trip of the year.
A special shout-out goes to Jason for putting both the Yosemite video and this one out so quickly:
You’ll be getting one last email with the link to our year-end summary video, and a few final thoughts on the year, next week.
Talk to you soon.
john