Great Meeting Last Week!

Hey East Coasters,
Thank you all for coming to our pre-departure meeting last week.  It is great to see how excited the kids are becoming as we get closer to our trip.  I wanted to go over a couple of quick items that I mentioned at the meeting, but may not have explained as well as I would have liked.

Medication Authorization foldable:
This is the sheet that you picked up at the meeting that gives me or a chaperone the permission to administer some basic medications (Advil, Pepto-Bismol, etc.) as well as specialty medications that you wish to provide. This sheet should be folded and put into a quart sized Ziploc bag along with any daily supplements, or medications that your child takes on a regular basis.  Bring the baggie on the day we depart and I will assign it to your child's chaperone.  Please pack only enough meds for the trip, not the whole bottle.  The chaperones have to carry these medications, so the smaller, the better.  Your child can get their medications from their assigned chaperone as needed (usually at meal times).  As always, any life saving medications (epi-pen, inhaler etc.) should be kept by your child for emergencies.  If your child is not bringing any medications or supplements with them, just fill out and sign the foldable for your child to have permission to get the basic medications I will have with me, and give it to me before our departure (some students can't swallow medications...if you wish to provide chewable versions of medications for your child, just include them on the specialty side of the foldable and place them in your Ziploc).


The Flights:
I did talk about this, but really want to hammer home this point.  It is a red-eye flight, and it is very important that the kids try their best to get some sleep/rest on the plane.  We will be touring all day when we arrive, so please let the kids know that they will regret not getting a little sleep when they have the chance.  Additionally, we want to be considerate to the other passengers on the plane who are trying to sleep as well.


Departure Day:
We are leaving from the Rio Norte Campus on Saturday, March 30th.  Please wear your Nations Classroom t-shirt on this day and arrive by 6:15pm.  Parents should park in the lot, and keep the bus loop open.  We will weigh your check-in bag and it must be 45 lbs. or less.  We will organize them by which bus is assigned to the student.

Paperwork:
Nation's Classroom and I are going over all the paperwork to make sure that all travelers have the necessary documents from both Nation's Classroom, and me.  If your child is missing any papers, I will call in those students to see me, and send the documents home with them.  Obviously, time is of the essence, so please fill out and return the documents as quickly as possible.


And finally, I want to have a quick student meeting at lunch on Tuesday, March 26th in room G-2.  At this meeting, I will collect student ID cards in the event TSA needs them, I'll remind students of which bus they are on, who their chaperone is, and I will go over the rules of the trip and signed student agreement in detail one final time.  Thank you again for allowing your child to have this experience.  I will likely be sending a couple more e-mails before we leave, but as always, please feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns.