Traveling Reflections
"Wherever you go, there you are"
Jon Kabat-Zinn
The best place to start is at the beginning. Hard to guess where that is though. I have traveled my whole life, and traveled with teachers for 30 years, but never documented those experiences...but no time like the present to start. In a few months I will be traveling to Indonesia, a big.... 17,000 islands, diverse....700 languages, place I have never been. I have begun to read and learn more than I knew from my world history text and the occasional news story. As always though, it will be different than I expect.
My journey starts with curiosity; a desire to see and better understand the world, so I can bring that back to my students. However, this journey has connected me to a movement of like-minded, passionate educators building a structure to improve education and understanding globally. I can't wait to dig in and share the amazing path so far and what lies ahead in the days to come........ |
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Japan Fulbright ESD |
Trip to Japan
The first of two teacher groups traveling this summer (2018) was the Fulbright Japan Environmental Sustainability Development (ESD) group. Ten Japanese educators and ten American educators toured the two countries respectively and met in both to develop strategies and networks to connect students to the critical issue of environmental sustainability. Like global competencies, ESD uses the UN sustainable development goals as a guiding principle and necessarily has elements of cultural networking/ understanding and Human Rights.
I am very lucky to have been chosen for these experiences, and hope to make the most of them! My three goals in Japan are to develop a deeper understanding of Japanese culture; create lasting networks with professionals here so that we can connect our classrooms, collaborate and become more globally competent; Use the insight gained to help students be more aware of their place in the larger global context.
The first of two teacher groups traveling this summer (2018) was the Fulbright Japan Environmental Sustainability Development (ESD) group. Ten Japanese educators and ten American educators toured the two countries respectively and met in both to develop strategies and networks to connect students to the critical issue of environmental sustainability. Like global competencies, ESD uses the UN sustainable development goals as a guiding principle and necessarily has elements of cultural networking/ understanding and Human Rights.
I am very lucky to have been chosen for these experiences, and hope to make the most of them! My three goals in Japan are to develop a deeper understanding of Japanese culture; create lasting networks with professionals here so that we can connect our classrooms, collaborate and become more globally competent; Use the insight gained to help students be more aware of their place in the larger global context.