Bees Mistake!

So, today we had our first field trip of the school year. We packed 106 students and 10 parents/teachers into three beautiful yellow school busses and headed for the beach. How many schools can say that they get to go to the beach for a field trip? While I was a little nervous about having so many middle school students in an open space, I mostly hoped to have some of my voice left at the end of the day. With all the groud rules set and a short devotional time with our homeroom class we let the kids loose. After an hour of free time, a couple of the teachers, a group of students and I are chatting about life and punking 6 graders when we hear ear piercing screams. All of a sudden a swarm of bees, and not just any a few bees, many ANGRY bees begin to attack our students. One by one, students begin crying because they've been stung, and the teachers are rapidly pulling out First Aid kits to help. Trying to figure out why we were being attacked, I asked a student what had happened, and this is where our day get's a little more exciting. Four boys were throwing rocks at a bees nest and managed to hit it dead on. Of course if someone was throwing rocks at you what you would you do? Exactly, they attacked. We had 6 students and 1 teacher get stung and thankfully all those who were allergic to bees, and would've needed an Epi pen, managed to avoid this dramatic scene. I felt bad for our young boys, who knew they had made a bad choice and had to watch all their classmates get stung. I explained to them that while it wasn't their best decision that after a weekend of rest and relaxation, all those who were stung would be over it by Monday.

The rest of the day went off without a hitch, although I think the teachers were more tired than the students by the time we departed at 2:00. I'm not blogging about this story because I am angry that it happened, more that it made for an interesting field day for me. Since it was my first field trip, I hope I don't always begin the day worrying about what could possibly go wrong, but rather look forward to enjoying the learning experience with my students.

Princeton has their first football game tomorrow! GO TIGERS!! and #6!