CRLS Student Travel With Profesora Ortiz

     ¡Hola! My name is Eydie Garcia Ortiz and I have been teaching Spanish in Cambridge since 2003. I started doing student travel at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School (CRLS) in 2016 when I took my first group of 33 students to Spain during April vacation. We traveled to Madrid, Sevilla and Córdoba. I have worked with Education First Tours (EF) because I feel confident traveling with them with students. EF has everything all planned out for the trip and also has several locations world wide, 24 hour emergency contact, insurance and just peace of mind while traveling with a large group. EF plans student tours with education first in mind. They teach the students about the history, culture and geography of the countries on tour. 

     Last year I chaperoned a trip to Peru where we traveled with 28 students to Lima, Cuzco, Machu Picchu and Lake Titicaca. Traveling with students is an amazing experience as an educator. For me, as a Spanish teacher, it allows the students to experience the culture and language outside of the classroom and on a global scale. We see the students form life long friendships with school mates that they may not have met otherwise. For many students, traveling abroad opens many doors. Many of the students have decided to study abroad during college after having traveled during high school. These experiences are life changing and allow students to grow into more global citizens and global learners. I look forward to taking more trips abroad and expanding my Spanish language classroom. In 2018 we traveled to Costa Rica as a language immersion trip. We not only toured Costa Rica, we will also took part in daily Spanish lessons and interact with locals. We will cooked with locals, shopped, zip lined and learned about the biodiversity that Costa Rica has to offer. 

To travel to Portugal and Spain February 2020 (Spanish Immersion Trip):

• Students MUST have had some Spanish language classes either in middle school or high school or already know Spanish. 

• Once students are signed up for the trip, they MUST attend regular meetings. These meetings are extremely important for safety reasons while traveling abroad. We, as the chaperones, need to get to know the students we are bringing abroad and we also must go over a lot of important travel details. 

• There are also mandatory forms that students and parents/guardians will need to submit in order for the final trip approval from the school. We will cover all of this at the meetings.