About the Author: This is a guest post by Susan Crawford, an 8th grade Social Studies teacher with the Schenectady City School District, Schenectady, NY. She has been teaching there for 16 years. She has a B.A. in Social Studies and a M.S. in Reading, both from the University of Albany. She has been going on trips with 8th graders from Schenectady for 13 years.
Traveling with 8th Graders
This past May, we took 43 8th graders to Washington, DC for three days. It was my 14th trip with 8th graders and our 3rd with Scholastica Travel. It is always a challenge taking middle schoolers on such a trip. This year we also had with us a student who had some physical challenges. We were very fortunate that Scholastica met every one of our requests for him, checking on accommodations, restaurants and other venues we would be visiting.
MaryLynn Glamp has been our representative since we signed on with Scholastica. It has been a pleasure working with her and all the people at Scholastica. They met all our needs with a professionalism that I, as trip co-ordinator, truly appreciate. The Scholastica offices go above and beyond for us, always. I know that even when we are on the bus, traveling, visiting museums, memorials, they are only a phone call away.
Our tour guide, Mike Epstein, works very hard to make the trip memorable for our students. Many have never been to Washington or have traveled outside of New York, so we want this trip to be extra special. Mike gives them so many interesting and unique facts about the places we will be seeing and visiting that they are still talking about the trip weeks after we return home. He checks with us to make sure we are doing what we want and what fits in with our curriculum. It certainly helps that Mike is a former educator and can relate to our students.
This year was my last year as coordinator for the 8th grade trip. I feel very comfortable in recommending MaryLynn and Scholastica to the teachers who will continue Mont Pleasant’s tradition of taking our 8th graders on their trip.
Thanks Scholastica, for giving our students memories that they will keep with them always.
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