Why Is My Teacher Going Global?

Most people likely define a teacher's job as in the classroom working and interacting with students every day.  Although I agree, I would add that outside the classroom professional development opportunities make us better teachers inside our classrooms.  Teachers are not only teachers, we are also students. As long as we desire to learn and grow, we will be the best practitioners for our students.  Since becoming a teacher in 1990, I have spent many hundreds of hours participating in numerous professional development programs that have altered my way of thinking, living, and teaching.  In 2001, I traveled aboard an icebreaker on the Arctic Ocean for several months studying Earth's crust below.  The trip gave me a deep understanding of plate tectonics that guides my in the classroom today.  I participated in workshops where I lived and worked with radio telescopes, x-ray telescopes, and the world's largest nuclear test reactor, and those opportunities gave me core understandings that I share with my students.  I went to NASA where I met a robotics engineer working on rovers going to Mars, and I later started a school robotics club.  I have been inside of coal mines and zinc mines, to Rock Camp and Space Camp.  All of these experiences were professional development opportunities and most took me out of my classroom, but what they had in common was they profoundly affected my teaching knowledge, content, and pedagogy.  It is these enriching experiences that teachers bring back to their students, colleagues, and communities.  I am now embarking on a new opportunity with Teachers for Global Classrooms that will broaden my horizons in global education competencies.  I hope you will join me for the field experience portion of this year-long program as I go global to Taroudant, Morocco!