The Wheels on the bus...

 Today I was one of the happy few who got the dubious privilege of being a supervising teacher of the Year 11s as they went to Careers Expo in Wellington. Generally I consider any day where I get paid to do something other than teaching is a blessing but there were moments when I would have rather been back in the classroom.

However, the traffic was backed up and the bus trip was exceeding slow and took a long time. The students kept in good spirits though, thanks to an exceptionally tolerant bus driver who let them chose the radio station. They sang along enthusiastically with the radio and were pretty good. I must be out of touch because I was shocked when the radio station promotion advertised itself as "the radio station to masturbate to."

What I didn't realise was the lengths that many a Kapiti teenager will go to to escape a Careers Expo and roam about in Wellington. I guess some of them may not get down to the city all that often and the temptation to wander around town was just too great. The staff had anticipated some students choosing to leave the Expo early for the enticements of the city and as such had organised a 'guard the exit' roster. However, none of us counted on the students being quite so determined to escape their Careers Expo. I guess teachers guarding the exit just presented itself as a cool 'mission impossible' challenge.

Upon arrival the students headed into the Expo with enthusiasm and energy. I naively thought that they were both relieved to be off the bus and actually interested in seeing the Careers Expo. However, it seemed that they planned a system of casing the two floors for the stands that gave away free stuff and they ran around mooching all the free goodies with surprising efficiency and alacrity. Within 15 minutes, they were back down at the entrance loaded down with armfuls of bags filled with swag and asking to leave. When told they weren't allowed to leave and that they should go to a seminar and try to find out about careers, they grumbled but returned. Some of them passed on tactics on how to get the free stuff*.

Their thoughts then turned on how best to escape the Queens Wharf Event centre. At first they weren't that cunning. One or two tried to hide their uniforms by borrowing jackets from students from other schools but were recognised and sent back inside.

Then a couple of girls managed to convince one of the careers mascots (a guy wearing a bright yellow Teddy Bear suit) to go and group hug the teachers by the main entrance. They thought this would be a distraction. They were right. Very distracting. However, another teacher was coming back from a café and sent them back in. Foiled again.

I don't know if any students managed to escape. Several were missing when it was time to leave but appeared as the buses starting pulling out of the carpark. We got back to school with all the students and most of them on the correct bus. Unfortunately there was still one lesson left in the day as both students and teachers were tired. Students had seemed remarkably energetic and noisy on the bus but it seemed their energy deflated as they entered school again. It seems that schools magically drain vigour from students which is just as well as I don't think I could teach them if they were always that hyper.

I don't think I'll volunteer to supervise any trips again. I'm exhausted.

* Apparently the Accountants had worked out the students were just taking the flash key rings and chains without talking to anyone or taking brochures. They started a system whereby students had to ask an accounting question before they could take a key ring or chain. The accounting students quickly told the others how to pretend to be an accounting student.