Teaching outside the concrete room
The world is a big place and learning happens everywhere, not just within the concrete walls of the school building. Students need to learn the skills and tools necessary to navigate in a global society. One of the best ways to broaden a student's experience is to make the world around him the classroom and give him the opportunity to critically think about how each person affects the world and societies, both positively and negatively. I have led many excursions during my tenure as a teaching professional where the classes went beyond the school and onto the land in which we live.
The world is a big place and learning happens everywhere, not just within the concrete walls of the school building. Students need to learn the skills and tools necessary to navigate in a global society. One of the best ways to broaden a student's experience is to make the world around him the classroom and give him the opportunity to critically think about how each person affects the world and societies, both positively and negatively. I have led many excursions during my tenure as a teaching professional where the classes went beyond the school and onto the land in which we live.
ABA 7th Grade students with local students in Lobor Sirret, Tanzania.
Expedition Tanzania: 7th Grade
Muscat, Oman, to Lobor Sirret, Tanzania
Service-learning is a large part of my educational philosophy. While teaching in Muscat, Oman, a fellow teacher and I organized an annual trip to the Maasai lands in Tanzania to help a local school in the village of Lobor Sirret. Throughout the year our students would raise money to buy building materials and school supplies for the school and plan projects that would enable them to connect with the students in Lobor Sirret in fundamental ways. The building materials would arrive at the school in time for students from both schools to work together to build another part of their school.
For the first year, the building project was to put cement floors in the classrooms - a tremendous need as the uneven dirt floors would cause desks and benches to wobble and break in a short period of time.
The next year, the project was to build new toilet facilities, a large undertaking that would need to be done over two years. Coincidently, after the first phase of this project was done, the Tanzanian government inspected the school and determined that the school needed to close as it did not have enough toilets for the 692 students that were enrolled. The board of directors (village elders) explained the program that was ongoing between the two schools and convinced the government to allow the school to remain open until after our students returned to finish the project we had started. The government agreed with the stipulation that an inspection would be done a few days after we left. The job was finished, this inspection was done, and the school was deemed fit to continue serving the children of the region for the next ten years, when the next governmental inspection would be due.
In conjunction with this service-learning project, part of the seventh grade curriculum was studying the grasslands of the world. I tied in this expedition with a 12-day safari to study the habitats of the many animals that call the African savanna home. The students backpacked throughout Tarangiri National Park, Ungorongoro Natural Conservation Area, and the Serengeti.
These were life-changing trips for the students and for myself each year. I learned more about the people of Africa and about myself with each annual trip.
Muscat, Oman, to Lobor Sirret, Tanzania
Service-learning is a large part of my educational philosophy. While teaching in Muscat, Oman, a fellow teacher and I organized an annual trip to the Maasai lands in Tanzania to help a local school in the village of Lobor Sirret. Throughout the year our students would raise money to buy building materials and school supplies for the school and plan projects that would enable them to connect with the students in Lobor Sirret in fundamental ways. The building materials would arrive at the school in time for students from both schools to work together to build another part of their school.
For the first year, the building project was to put cement floors in the classrooms - a tremendous need as the uneven dirt floors would cause desks and benches to wobble and break in a short period of time.
The next year, the project was to build new toilet facilities, a large undertaking that would need to be done over two years. Coincidently, after the first phase of this project was done, the Tanzanian government inspected the school and determined that the school needed to close as it did not have enough toilets for the 692 students that were enrolled. The board of directors (village elders) explained the program that was ongoing between the two schools and convinced the government to allow the school to remain open until after our students returned to finish the project we had started. The government agreed with the stipulation that an inspection would be done a few days after we left. The job was finished, this inspection was done, and the school was deemed fit to continue serving the children of the region for the next ten years, when the next governmental inspection would be due.
In conjunction with this service-learning project, part of the seventh grade curriculum was studying the grasslands of the world. I tied in this expedition with a 12-day safari to study the habitats of the many animals that call the African savanna home. The students backpacked throughout Tarangiri National Park, Ungorongoro Natural Conservation Area, and the Serengeti.
These were life-changing trips for the students and for myself each year. I learned more about the people of Africa and about myself with each annual trip.
7th grade students at Oldupai Gorge learning about early humans.
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Impromptu volleyball with students from both schools.
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Back to the airport after two weeks in the savanna.
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 4th grade students cooking dinner over a winter fire.
Leirskole: 4th Grade
Stavanger, Norway, to Gulligen, Norway Every year, as required by Norwegian law, all fourth through tenth grade students must attend Leirskole, Outdoor School, for one week to learn Norwegian customs and traditional ways of life. Our fourth grade would go to the mountains in Norway and learn about winter camping, some survival skills, and traditional cooking and crafts. The students would take on responsibilities of cleaning their rooms, packing and unpacking their hiking gear, cooking meals, and crafting tools and toys to use when needed. This was a wonderful growing experience for the students, as for many of them, this was their first trip away from their parents. They became resilient and confident, understanding more that they were individuals that had responsibilities not only to themselves, but to others around them. |
Norwegian guide teacher students about winter hiking
Gutting a freshly caught fish
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Adventure Oman: 7th Grade
Muscat, Oman, to Sohar, Oman As part of the International Baccalaureate MYP program, sixth, seventh, and eighth grade classes go on week-long excursions to different parts of Oman to experience more of the local culture and understand what makes Oman a unique place in the world. The seventh grade tied in the social studies curriculum by integrating the marine biome unit and the importance of the marine environment for the local people, through both tourism and fishing. The students and teachers camped out on the beach for the week. snorkeling each day, putting into practice skills they learned in the classroom. They would identify, classify, and collate data on the different species of coral, invertebrates, and fish found in the Arabian Sea. Experts would visit with the students to discuss threats to the reefs locally and around the world, and brainstorm with the students ways to alleviate these threats. At night, local people would talk with the students about their culture and show them various skills and traditions that are still used today, such as fishing net tying, and cooking local cuisine. They would also answer questions the students had about Omani culture. The students learned, not only about the reef and Omani culture, but also about themselves while setting up camp, cooking meals, cleaning gear, and working in teams to complete tasks. |
The first group over the mountain hiking to the beach!
Homes for a week
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Explore City Life - Boston: 6th Grade
Lubec, Maine, USA, to Boston, Massachusetts, USA
The students of Lubec, Maine, the easternmost town in the continental United States, live in a relatively isolated community at the end of a peninsula in the northern Atlantic Ocean. Shopping for school clothes and supplies involves an overnight trip to the "Big City" of Bangor. By the time most students "from away" have reached sixth grade, they have experienced some form of urban experience, whether in a bustling metropolis like New York City, or a smaller venue like Portland, Maine. The children of Lubec don't often have this opportunity; many of the students have never been farther than Bangor, have never ridden in an elevator, and have only read about subways and trams or seen them on television. They have never come across cultures other than their own or interacted with people from a foreign land.
As a remedy to this lack of cultural education, I inspired the students in my sixth grade class to earn money throughout the year to fund a field trip to Boston just to explore the culture of city life. They put on bake sales, car washes, yard sales, pizza nights, and many other activities in order to pay for nights in Boston. The more money they earned, the more nights we could stay in the city. They ended up earning enough for the whole class to spend three nights at a couple places in downtown Boston. The first night was spent in the Museum of Science; the next two nights were spent sleeping with the fishes in the New England Aquarium. We not only took in the learning that these museums had to offer, but we visited many other landmarks to gain appreciation for the history of the United States. We also did many of the mundane activities that urbanites take for granted, such as partaking of the public transportation system, riding an elevator to the top of the Prudential Building to overlook the entire city, and walking the busy streets, grabbing a bite to eat from the local street vendors.
My main goal for this trip was to open the students' eyes to the fact that there is a much bigger world out beyond the village limits of Lubec.. If they could experience this first-hand, maybe it would inspire them to reach beyond their sheltered, welfare lives and reach for an attainable, productive future.
Lubec, Maine, USA, to Boston, Massachusetts, USA
The students of Lubec, Maine, the easternmost town in the continental United States, live in a relatively isolated community at the end of a peninsula in the northern Atlantic Ocean. Shopping for school clothes and supplies involves an overnight trip to the "Big City" of Bangor. By the time most students "from away" have reached sixth grade, they have experienced some form of urban experience, whether in a bustling metropolis like New York City, or a smaller venue like Portland, Maine. The children of Lubec don't often have this opportunity; many of the students have never been farther than Bangor, have never ridden in an elevator, and have only read about subways and trams or seen them on television. They have never come across cultures other than their own or interacted with people from a foreign land.
As a remedy to this lack of cultural education, I inspired the students in my sixth grade class to earn money throughout the year to fund a field trip to Boston just to explore the culture of city life. They put on bake sales, car washes, yard sales, pizza nights, and many other activities in order to pay for nights in Boston. The more money they earned, the more nights we could stay in the city. They ended up earning enough for the whole class to spend three nights at a couple places in downtown Boston. The first night was spent in the Museum of Science; the next two nights were spent sleeping with the fishes in the New England Aquarium. We not only took in the learning that these museums had to offer, but we visited many other landmarks to gain appreciation for the history of the United States. We also did many of the mundane activities that urbanites take for granted, such as partaking of the public transportation system, riding an elevator to the top of the Prudential Building to overlook the entire city, and walking the busy streets, grabbing a bite to eat from the local street vendors.
My main goal for this trip was to open the students' eyes to the fact that there is a much bigger world out beyond the village limits of Lubec.. If they could experience this first-hand, maybe it would inspire them to reach beyond their sheltered, welfare lives and reach for an attainable, productive future.