For the first few months of the year, our school had a lot of problems coordinating the bussing between our two campuses and making sure that each student was on the right bus. At one point in November, one of the school’s office assistants frantically ran into the classroom a few minutes early and boomed, “Everyone on Mr. G Willie’s bus please stand up and head downstairs to your bus. You need to hurry or else the bus is going to leave with out you.” What happened next was pure pandemonium. All 30 of my 3rd grade students sprinted to the closets to grab their jackets and clear their mailboxes. As I tried to calm them down and restore some sort of order in the midst of the confusion, it quickly became apparent that no one knew whether they were on Mr. Willie’s bus or not. In fact, no one in my entire class knew who their bus driver was.
The next day in class, I asked my students: “Does anyone know the name of their bus driver?” As I stared at the rows of blank stares, I realized that this was one of the first times that not a single hand was raised. Later during lunch I discussed this phenomenon with another teacher, and we both realized that neither of us remembered the name of our childhood bus drivers either. And I think I can say with a fair amount of confidence that today in schools across the U.S. very few students know anything about the people who are charged with the safety of their transportation. It strikes me as incredibly disheartening that such critical members of our school communities too often go unnoticed and unappreciated.
This month at VOICE our 3rd grade is learning about the eight bus drivers who drop them off at school and take them back home each day. They are interviewing their bus drivers and making “all about” posters for each bus driver. Our students are also creating pamphlets on bus safety to distribute to the rest of the school. The project is ending with a lunch event our students are organizing where they will present their posters, sing a few songs centered on school community and eat lunch with the bus drivers.
Through this class project our students are learning that Mr. Marc has been driving school buses for over 20 years, that Mr. Anthony’s favorite type of food is Cuban food and that Mr. G Willie has had this very same funny nickname since 3rd grade. More importantly, they are learning to look beyond the classroom and recognize the community around them. In the process they are building a sincere appreciation for the army of support that provides them with a healthy and safe learning environment.
