Traveling to NYC for CSPA

Walking the streets of NYC at CSPA

Yes, I am that crazy teacher who organized a four-day-field trip with 37 students (four from our rival school, Patriot, of course), 4 parents and 5 teachers, to....the busiest city in the country. I love New York. But being in New York with 46 people, all on my schedule, my plan and my watch was a bit unnerving.

Luckily the bus successfully picked up on Wednesday evening, about a half-hour after school let out. Mind you, when I took my first group of students, teachers and parents five years ago, the bus never showed up at the 4:30 appointed time..that threw a wrinkle into our day. Back to this year, my first panic was that I had over-booked out trip. We had fluid numbers until the very last day, with students thinking about cancelling, last minute additions and two amazing yearbook reps who couldn't come (injuries suck the fun out of life). By the time everyone had loaded the bus, we had one extra seat; let me tell you I was sweating it...recounting the numbers and people, hoping I hadn't miscounted...being an English teacher and all. Although kids are used to sharing seats, we adults are not, and we were crammed into seats built for small teenagers, not large adults. Despite the close quarters, the ride was easy and we had WiFi and bathrooms for our comfort, making everything just perfect. Even if we did have to eat Wendy's and Burger King for dinner.

Thank goodness by the time we arrived to the Days Inn on Broadway and 96th on Wednesday evening, every adult on the bus was in agreement that as soon as we had our room assignments, We would do bed checks and get ready for the next day's events, which included breakfast at 6:45, a 1.2 mile walk to Columbia University from our hotel, sessions from 9 am until 4 p,m., dinner reservations at 5:30 and a Broadway show at 7:30. The biggest challenge in all this was the transportation of 37 children between the ages of 14 and 18 through the city of New York, knowing that each one of those students was someone's precious baby. Yep, no pressure at all. Oh, did I mention that I had two presentations to make as well. Yep. no pressure. at. all.

By 11:30 the first night the other teachers and I taped all the students in, after doing bed checks. That means that we knocked on the 15 doors and made sure each student was accounted for, and then placing tape on the outside of the door so that we could verify that no one left their rooms during the night time hours. While doing bed checks, we were astonished by the noise and freedom that the other students in the building were taking. Not only were they running through the halls, there was a strong smell of pot in the halls above and below our rooms. Thank goodness out students made us proud and were happily taped in, and I knew my group of kids would not risk their trip, or reputation by choosing to leave their rooms or causing disruption in the halls. (Side note: if you've ever stayed in old NYC hotels, you know that this hotel was like...long, narrow ringleader hallways that meander to dead=end one random room, room numbers making no sense at all, and all the hallways being strangely claustrophobic..,)

The next morning, we ate at the very sweet little place, the EuroPan Cafe across the street. The hotel actually arranged this for us after I learned that this Days Inn actually didn't offer a continental breakfast. These sweet little men organized breakfast for the 46 of us each morning in shifts..that being said by Saturday morning our kids were done with scrambled eggs, potatoes and toast.

The best part of the trip was just about to begin. CSPA is one of the best organized and most adventurous conferences I have taken students too. The best part of the conference is that it take place at Columbia University, in their lecture halls. 

Columbia University

For many students, it is the first exposure they have had to a true college campus, and for many the only Ivy League experience they will ever have. The campus is located right off Broadway, so we were able to walk straight to the campus. This is exciting for the kids... a real experience, where they walk around the campus in pairs or groups, unsupervised and attend lectures on writing, design, photography, marketing, business and leadership. A teacher's nightmare! How did I make sure kids were where they said they would be? Photo check-ins! So, every hour I would get a flood of photos through our GroupMe Ap, letting me know where each kid was. This isn't my first rodeo folks. My favorite was the "fake" check-in four years ago, when kids posted a photo to the group..but then posted photos of themselves on Instagram posing at the cupcake shop across the street. I share with all my students that my full time job on this trip is to stalk their social media like I am their mom. I will find them. Ironically, on this first day in NYC I presented on using social media to manage your publications! The irony was not lost on me, or anyone in my audience, as I pulled up our GroupMe account and showed everyone where all my kiddos were (bless their hearts most of them were in my session..as if they don't hear me lecture enough at school!).

The best part of Thursday was our trip to dinner and the Broadway show. We had all planned on walking the 2.4 miles there, but many of the kids and parents decided that the walk would be too long. I have complete subway phobia, for good reason (imagine transporting 22 kids on my first trip to NYC four years ago), and I wanted to avoid it any cost. We tried booking a bus for the five mile round trip. In true New York style, it would have cost us $1200...the brave adults took the subway, one adult Uber cabbed it, and I walked with 9 kids. We arrived with bloody feet, wind swept hair...and rain soaked....and smiles on our faces.

After a fabulous dinner, we saw the best Broadway show I've been too (ok, I've only been to four)...Finding Neverland. It was amazing and magical.

Students Kirsten DeZeeuw, Jessie and Lauren Kronzer and Shelby Cesario pose outside of the Finding Neverland Show.

The rest of the trip became easier and more routine, walking to Columbia, and breaking into smaller, more manageable groups to sight see. On Saturday we ended out trip with an incredible experience. We went on a tour with a retired captain of the NYC Police Department. He spoke to us about what it was like to be a first-responder that day, and what it was like to lose colleagues and neighbors. All the pressures, concerns, expectations and dreams we all feel each day were put into perspective. We were brought to tears, remembering that day. For some of the kids on the trip, who had no real memories themselves; this was their first real experience and hearing it first-hand, standing there seeing the memorial was life-changing in the sense that they realized that there were people out there who were willing to give their lives for the security of others.

The group in front of Ladder Company 10 at Ground Zero

What I have learned over the last seven years of teaching is that the most important moments of teaching are not in the classroom, and they often have little to do with curriculum, but they are the life lessons they learn from you, and from themselves as they push themselves beyond their own boundaries, stepping outside of their safety zone and into the adventures that life can and will bring them. Love my kids.