New Teacher Survivor Series
Part #8 - The Ag truck, trips, and traveling
Introduction:
Traveling and taking trips are an essential part of the Ag Ed experience.
We can all remember jumping in the Ag truck and going to shows, sales,
contests, or to the Ag farm. We can
also remember the overnight stays, trips to the State and National FFA
Conventions. In addition, we can
also remember what we did when we where there.
That is what's scary. To
eliminate problems for you, other sponsors, and students, you should be prepared
for trips, traveling, and overnight stays.
Do Not Just Fly By The Seat Of You Pants!!!
1.
The Ag Truck - The Ag truck is a part of the job.
However, do not abuse this privilege.
The Ag truck is for school or program use only.
This means that Saturday fishing trips or trips to play golf or visiting
the folks can and usually will get you in a bind.
In fact, it is very possible that abuse of the Ag truck can result in
your privilege being structured and monitored.
It can even get you fired.
2.
The Ag truck should be used for any portion of the program that
requires you to transport students, supervise projects, or fulfill your duty as
an Ag Ed instructor. Use it wisely.
3.
Most Ag trucks are bought by the school district.
However, some schools and instructors have opted to enter into a lease
agreement. This means that the
school leases the truck from the Ag instructor.
There are good and bad points in this agreement.
You will need to seek out instructors who are participating in leasing
their trucks to the school for more details.
4.
If an Ag truck is unsafe, inform the principal and superintendent
of the problem. Whether it is
tires, brakes, or the fact that it is unreliable, you will need to inform the
administration. The school is
required to provide transportation. If
there is a major problem and the superintendent is unwilling to remedy the
situation, call your District Program Specialist to discuss options.
Do not transport yourself or students in an unsafe vehicle.
5.
Fuel is always an issue with an Ag truck.
Sooner or later it will be the topic of discussion.
To remedy the situation, make sure that you are organized and that you
can justify each and every trip you take. Even
to the point that you keep track of your SAE visits.
People will not argue if you can show you are only doing your job.
6.
Take care of the Ag truck. Wash and clean out the cab regularly. If the Ag truck looks good, you will have fewer problems.
Treat it better than you treat your own vehicles.
If a superintendent knows you will take care of it, he/she will be more
willing to get you a new one on a regular basis.
7.
When traveling, especially with students, obey all traffic laws.
Plan ahead so that you do not have to speed.
Remember that you are responsible for the safety of someone's child. Speeding tickets, wrecks, or students commenting to parents
about unsafe driving practices will come back to haunt you.
8.
Do as little traveling as possible when you are extremely tired
and run down. Remember Ag Ed
teachers are not immune from liability issues. Use good judgment. If
you are tired, others driving in your convoy are probably tired also.
9.
Overnight trips are fun for the students.
However, they are and should be more stressful for you.
You must remain aware of all activities at all times.
You do this through appropriate chaperones.
10.
If you have enough chaperones, you will be able to keep the
problems to a minimum. However,
this does not mean that all your problems will disappear.
You may have problems with the chaperones.
That is a chance you need to take. If
you don't, you will find yourself staying up and in the hall all night or in a
situation where you cannot appropriately supervise your students.
11.
My advice is to stay over night as little as possible.
Drive back and forth when good judgment allows.
This will eliminate several problems.
In addition, you can use the over night stay as a reward or punishment
for bad behavior.
12.
You will always need to make arrangements for over night trips.
In addition, make sure you call and confirm your reservations before you
leave.
13.
Allowing a parent to make reservations will place that parent in a
control situation. This will put
you in a conflict situation sooner or later
14.
You do not have to make the parents reservations.
Give them the information about where you are staying and the number to
make reservations. They can make their own arrangements. You can, however, let chaperones know that you are making
their reservations.
15.
Make sure the students know that if you are responsible for them
or their project, they must stay with you or they don't go.
It doesn't make any difference where their parents stay as long as the
students stay with you. Trust me on this one.
16.
Try not to allow a chaperone to take a group of students separate
from the group you take. Everyone
should always go together and as a team. This
will eliminate jealousy, complaints to you about cliques, and some petty arguing
about someone being left out or your those students are your favorites.
17.
Never take large groups by yourself.
If the group is large and on parents will go, don't go.
18.
Never take only the opposite gender on trips.
This means any trip
19.
When returning students to their homes after a trip, never deliver
the opposite gender last.
20.
Never let a student drive the Ag truck.
21.
Discuss all disciplinary actions to be taken with the principal
before you leave and before you administer any action while on the trip.
For example: You catch a
student drinking beer while on a trip. Step
1 is to call the principal and inform him of what you plan to do.
Step 2 put into action you plan as agreed upon by the principal.
Step 3 address the item once you have returned from the trip.
22.
Plan you trips at the beginning of the year.
Do not add additional trips unless absolutely necessary or for some
unforeseen circumstance.
23.
Your supporters will expect just what you do.
If you are a poor planner or you just go to anything on a whim, that's
what they will expect. In addition, they will be the same way. This will create a program where people will back out on you
at the last minute and criticize you for not going with them on a trip they
planned. So, be organized. Plan
ahead. Don't deviate greatly from
your plans or direction. Be solid
and expect others to be solid too.
24.
When students and/or parents back out of going to a show or
activity, write yourself a note to not invite them next time.
If there is a family emergency you should be respectful of their
decision. This does not mean that
you don't allow them to go if they have backed out of a previous commitment.
However, it does suggest that if you recruit students to go, you should
make the ones who have backed out come to you to ask if they can go.
This will set a trend that says you expect follow through on commitments.
25.
When dealing with people who are unreliable, identify certain
things that you ask of them to ensure that it will be a sacrifice on their part
if they back out. You can ask for a
deposit on rooms, entry fee money before hand and non-refundable, or the total
amount of what they want to spend on a project before you buy it.
This sounds cruel; but believe me when I say that if you don't draw the
line, you will be taking money out of your own pocket to cover the expenses.
Final Word
Sometimes what we do as Ag teachers seems to overlap.
Everything we talk about is related to livestock projects, the ag truck,
dealing with parents about their kids, dealing with principal, or money.
Well, those are the topics most dear to us all…what we like, who's in
charge, our job, our kids, and our money. Ag
deals with all of these at the same time. You
will make some mistakes. Some will
be easy to fix and some will be harder to solve.
However, if you read through this information and remember even a small
portion of it, that will be one or two problems you can avoid.