Snow Shoeing

My school does a unique type of PE for their middle schoolers. Instead of having a PE class they get PE days where they go and do different season related activities. In the fall, they went hiking every Friday for the whole day. Then in the beginning of the cold season they worked on the basics of a PE class, running, stretching, wall sit, push-ups, sit-ups, etc. Then once we got snow they began snow shoeing and have two ski days. In the spring, they are thinking of doing self-defense. For a lot of these trips they need supervision. When they do snow shoeing, the students leave by classes and go for half of the day. This divides up who is available and makes each grade responsible for having one parent come to help out. Well this last week the eighth graders at my school didn't have a parent volunteer....which means they couldn't go. I had told a couple teachers that I enjoyed snow shoeing and if I could get someone to cover my one class of the day I could help out. So on Wednesday last week they asked if I was serious. I told them I was and we began to look for a way that I could help out the eighth graders. After much planning and prepping, I figured out a way and was ready to go.
Friday came and that morning while finishing up a few things, I got told a parent came to school that day to volunteer. I was bummed. I had worked super hard to get things together so that someone else could teach my class and I could go enjoy the snow and my students. I figured I would be staying but then all the teachers who were helping me with my one class and who I have helped out told me that I should still go. Luckily, they did still need someone to drive, so I got to go.

It was so pretty. But it was also super warm. I definitely got my workout in. We were split into groups of 4 students and the teacher. My group started out on a nice, packed down trail that felt like nothing and then decided to work our way back to the Vehicles off the trail and up the side of the mountain some. This is where we worked up our sweat. I started off this off trail adventure with my four students and two from another group we had met up with. Only  a little into the trail and one of the girls I was with couldn't get her snow shoe to stay in the right place, so she kept falling down.....which wasn't very good being on the side of a hill. She fell one time and started to slide down. So I suggested she go down and join the other group on the main trail. She agreed and I was down to 5 students with me. We had been walking this crazy path for about 15 minutes and took a much needed water break. This is where two more of my girls said we are heading back to the trail. We are tired. Then I was down to 3. The rest of us kept going for another 15 minutes, then due to my lack of knowledge of the trail decided to head back to the main trail since we were close to the beginning and it looped a little weird.
I only stopped to snap two pictures but I had a lot of fun and really enjoyed being able to spend time with the students I teach in another atmosphere. It was fun to see who was willing to accept my challenge and who wasn't when we decided to go off the normal path. I know that everyone who was with me had a lot of fun though. Plus they now know what it means to really snow shoe.