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Ignite - Traveling with Students
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- 4. “Traveling has givenme the ability to view things with a wider perspective. I am more open-minded and conscientious about other cultures, and traveling introduces these to new cultures to you and allows you to experience them first hand, rather than reading about it in a textbook. Those concepts can then be applied to anywhere you go or anything you do.” – Shelby, London 2014
- 5. “I think themore people travel, the more understanding and tolerant they may become. History, science, religion and geography all come alive and become relevant. We were so happy with her experience, and are now sending our second child on a school trip this year.” – Laurie (parent)
- 6. “I was constantly learningnew things, about myself, the world, other people, and science of course, but it was in an environment where I didn’t really feel like I was learning (like in a classroom), it just felt like I was having fun and at the end o every day I would realize that I actually had learned so much.” – Eugenie, Florida 2014
- 7. “The workshops at Columbia definitely helpedme to forge a career path. Without yearbook or NYC, I don't know if I would have considered journalism as a career.” Lauren, NYC 2012
- 8. "My favourite part about goingon school trip is that you learn real life applications of concepts you've learned in ways you would have never imagined!” – Mannat, Florida 2014
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- 11. “In my opinion,the biggest blessing of student traveling is taking the students out of their comfort zones. It gives us an opportunity to be really hands on and up close and personal with our learning. Traveling kind of forces us to take risks and make connections with people – which I love.” – Kaitlin, Florida 2014
- 12. “The biggest benefitin my opinion would be the sense of responsibility that comes. When you travel with school groups, you are responsible for your own money, spending, and you make decisions that normally your parents would make.” – Harleen, London 2014
- 13. “Being independent and making my own decisions whileon a school trip has made me a much more responsible and orderly person.” – Rashid, California 2014
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- 15. “I think thebiggest benefit for me, was the ability to met and get close with people I never even know, much less have had a conversation with. The trips themselves had crazy influence on my perspective growing as a person, but its meeting new people which I enjoyed the most.” – Anika, California 2014 and Florida 2014
- 16. “Once of themany benefits I find from traveling in a group is team building. I feel that I created such strong relationships with my peers, that we were able to communicate better and also gained skills on how to work together better.” – Jennah, California 2014 and Florida 2014
- 17. “I got tobuild amazing relationships with some pretty rad teachers, and now I have another positive influence in my life that I can go to for advice, support, of just to chat.” – Eugenie, Florida 2014
- 21. Traveling is rewarding…andexhausting
- 22. Discussion Question • Whattravel adventures would you like to share with your students? OR • What do you or can you do outside of the traditional classroom setting to build confidence, capacity and community?
Editor's Notes
- #2 Introduction. My name is Alyssa from Sullivan Heights. I am a traveller. Also photographer and notorious speed-talker. After a teaching, my favourite thing to do is travel. To “Follow a map to its edges” and Change hemispheres (or in the case of my recent trip to London, stand on the board of 2 hemispheres) Travel a concentration of new opportunities. New places, cultures and people. It gives us opportunities to watch, learn, engage and interact. It brings the theory of the classroom into a real life. We have studied history, culture, art, science and leadership. And we have eaten a lot of amazing food – the favourite of which have been Dough Balls and Dole Whip. In talking with my studnets and reflecting on our experiences, there are three major advantages to student travel studies. The first is that traavel builds capacity.
- #3 After a teaching, my favourite thing to do is travel. To “Follow a map to its edges” and Change hemispheres (or in the case of my recent trip to London, stand on the board of 2 hemispheres) Travel a concentration of new opportunities. New places, cultures and people. It gives us opportunities to watch, learn, engage and interact. It brings the theory of the classroom into a real life. We have studied history, culture, art, science and leadership. And we have eaten a lot of amazing food – the favourite of which have been Dough Balls and Dole Whip. In talking with my studnets and reflecting on our experiences, there are three major advantages to student travel studies. The first is that traavel builds capacity.
- #4 Over the past 2.5 years I have had the privilege to lead 4 student travel studies programs. I have spent 32 days in 4 different cities, with 60 different students in grades 8 through 12. We have studied history, culture, art, science and leadership. And we have eaten a lot of amazing food – the favourite of which have been Dough Balls and Dole Whip. In talking with my studnets and reflecting on our experiences, there are three major advantages to student travel studies. The first is that traavel builds capacity.
- #6 There are many things that embody capacity. Firstly there is skill development in a content area. Coming to understand more about Newton’s Laws while studying rollercoasters at the magic kingdom, learning about engineering from NASA and an astronaut, and studying marine biology and conversation while swimming with the manatees are all opportunities to make sense of content that is first introduced in the classroom.
- #7 Our students have studied Shakespeare in Stratford and Journalism at Columbia University. They have interviewed Broadway stars, walked through cavendish labs and seen the original electron microscope, attended a lecture the the Isaac Newton Institute at Cambridge University, and toured Charles Darwin’s Original specimin collection from the Voyage of the Beagle. Each of these opportunities helps to further understand areas of interest and passion.
- #8 Students also build capacity in the areas of critical thinking. Critical thinking dispositions include things such as open-mindness and the ability to see things from anothers point of view. Traveling gives them the opportunity to engage with new cultures and people. It allows them to open their minds to other ways of doing things – learning both from the countires and cities they are visiting as well as from the people they are traveling with. Being open to new opportunities is a thinking disposiiton that transfers back into the classroom, and can be used in all areas of life.
- #10 The last area of capacity that is being built through travel is in the area of life skills. Learning to get directions, navigate a new city, talk to strangers, work with exchange rates, and adapt to new surroundings allows for growth in important ways. These are the areas that are harder to “teach” in the classroom – they must be lived. This brings me to the second benefit of travel – Traveling builds confidence.
- #11 When we were in London we took the tube from the airport to our hotel – a relatively long journey with 20 people and their luggage. My colleaguge, Robert Dewinetz, spent the ride teaching students how to read the relatively complex tube metro map. After the first ride he would then pick on a different studenet each time we would enter a tube station and ask them for directions. By the third day, he didn’t even need to ask – the students would lead the way. Insteaed of us leading the pack, the kids could lead themselves. They started to identify which stations had the best transferes, which route was most direct, and even started to remember where construction was. They learned how to read road maps posted out of each station, and to ask the locals for directions. They could identify landmarks, and orient themselves with ease. And when new opportunities presented themselves, theyw ere more likely to say “yes” and give something a try, than say no, and shy away. They had built confidence!
- #12 When I talked to my students about their experiences they listed building confidence as one of the biggest benefits of their time traveling. Confidence building is a life skills that will benefit them in all future learning at school – and in the years to come.
- #13 Being asked to be responsible for themselves – to take care of things without their parents their as support was an important part of their growth as teenagers. They had to manage their own money, get up on time, make sure they ate healthy – it is a balance between independence and dependence. It calls on students to rise up and be the best versions of themselves – and they have risen to the challenge every time.
- #14 The kind of personal life skills that are built through a travel study are the intangible kind – the things that teachers hope to address, but don’t always know how. Traveling is an opportunity to do just that. Whether 2 weeks galavanting across Europe, 5 days in a leadership conference, or 2 days Camping in Chilliwack – the destination doesn’t matter – confidence can be built in travel studies near or far.
- #15 And the third thing I love about traveling with students is how it builds community. I cannot sing praises loudly enough to the benefit of a shared experience. Those of us who went to London will all singing the praises to the great and glorious “dough ball” – which is exactly how t sounds – a cooked ball of pizza dough. And yet, someone says it, the rest of us salivate and cry a little as to how much we miss them, and then we begin to reminise the rest of our favourite memories.
- #16 There is something about getting up 4 AM to watch the sun “NOT” rise on the spring equinox while standing among the stones of Stonehenge, side by side with the local druids, singing “Three Little Birds” on repeat. Or getting up at 4 AM to catch a swim with the Manatees as the run rises over the crystal river. And by crystal – we mean crystal COLD. But since then every manatee photo that comes across someone’s path gets tweets for the whole group to see.
- #17 And of course, one could not forget, “The Garr” – the infamous dance that was performed by chaperone Sarah Garr before our trip to the theatre one night. And then preformed by students, on the subway, while crossing the street, on the steps of St. Paul’s – and once a week in my Physics class since then. The relationships built between students and students, and students and teachers are the kind that last! Students come in for advice, to share successes, to have a cup of tea, or just to sit on the couch, once we return. And their level of relationship and comfort has become infectious. Other students are more willing to seek out relationships and take risks in my class, because they see the ones I have with those with who I have shared a journey.
- #18 Students come home more willing to engage with each other, with teachers, and with the school community. And that is a gift. I have been refecting this week with my chaperone peers what an honour it is that students have let us into their world. But in turn, teachers need to be transparent when their students. When traveling the typical power imbalance of the classroom disappears. They see us in baseball caps in the freezing wind at 5 in the morning, or drenched from a water ride with no make up and a sunburn. We share breakfast, and dinner. And laughter. So. Much. Laughter. As Eugenie said she “got to build amazing relationships with some pretty rad teachers, and now I have another positive influence in my life that I can go to for avice, support, or just to chat.” Those relationships come back home, into the school community. And mean more to our students than we know. I wish I had time to recount all the stories and memories – but there are too many. Like the photos in this presentation – the hardest thing about getting up there was to narrow down the 6000 photos to just a handful. Each one of them a memory that I have come to cherish – as have my students.
- #21 Traveling is not always easy. It requires MUCH time and effort on the part of the teacher. It requires a willingness to be open and build relationships with students. It requires money. And it requires a great set of colleagues to help share the responsibility and privledge. I have been lucky to travel with teachers with all different backgrounds, skills, passions and aptitudes. Also to travel with colleagues who are morning people. If it wasn’t for Meghann Kenkel, I’m pretty sure our group would have missed half our workshops, given my uncanny abiity to sleep through almost ANY alarm clock.
- #22 It is exhausting – but it is rewarding. VERY rewarding. For my students, and for me. IT is a privledge to share this experience with them, to be let into their lives, and trusted, and to build shared memories that will last a life time.