The world truly is our best classroom and travel is the ultimate teacher.

For many students (and many of us) our world is small. I don't know about you, but not a lot of people in my small community grew up backpacking the Alps or spending summers in Europe. Not only are those things luxuries that aren't in most family budgets, but they also require getting out of our comfort zone. Most kids won't get to see the world....unless we create the opportunity. And why should we?? Well...

As educators, our hope for students is that they leave school with not just academics, but with some social-emotional intelligence, with soft skills, communication skills, understanding of diversity, tolerance & inclusion, with confidence, with the courage to take risks, to try new things and to always be growing and learning. Sure. We can do classroom lessons on those topics.

But....how about this? What if in a safe & supported way, we have a group of students who don't know each other meet up at the airport for the first time, to fly for their first time, to navigate an airport in an unfamiliar place with people who look different than them and speak a different language than them? To eat foods they've never seen before. To be responsible for their belongings for a week. To manage their money and spending for a week and in a foreign currency. To learn situational awareness. To sleep in accommodations that may be much different than they are used to. To have to ask questions, to need a stranger's help. To be humble enough to say I don't know.

Those lessons can be taught in a classroom, but not in the way they can be taught in the world. And when our eyes are opened, we are changed. And when we are changed, the way that we engage with the world is changed. And when we learn that OUR way, is not THE way, but just A way, we impact the community around us. And a ripple effect happens that makes us all a little better. A little braver. A little more tolerant. A little more wise.

And it applies to any subject matter. One teacher/travel leader who teaches Social Studies shared "it's one thing to teach kids about WWII. It's another to stand with students on the beaches of Normandy." Gulp. Right?? It reminded me of my own experience. Senora Davis teaching about Goya & Velazquez. 28 years later and I thought of my favorite Spanish teacher and that she would be proud that I was standing in front of a Goya at the Prado in Madrid.

As humans, every trip we take we come back just a little braver. And always more inspired. We had the honor of taking a group of students to Costa Rica this year. In March, we take a group to Belize where they will get to hike Mayan ruins, canoe the Macal river, snorkel in the Cayes. The following year we are headed to Greece. And the next to London. We cannot wait to show these kids the world and then watch them come back and change theirs.

Get your passport. Travel on purpose. And never stop learning. Here's to more adventures! -Mrs. Hickson & Mrs. Woodard