The International Baccalaureate's mission includes lofty goals, but the two that resonate most with me are promoting a more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and creating life-long learners who understand that "others might be right." I started to read with a different perspective, and I often learned as much from my students as they learned from me. When I had the privilege of teaching Theory of Knowledge, I knew that I had found an education that was not only exciting, but one that can make a real difference to the students, and perhaps to the future.
From IB teacher to IB coordinator to Advanced Academic Programs Specialist, where I had the opportunity to supervise the IB and AP programs for the district's 25 high schools, I never lost site of my wanderlust and what I believe travel can offer students. A frustrating spring break trip to Italy which didn't fulfill my expectations and a very successful two-day New York experience that did, were always in the back of my mind as I made the transition to a career as a tour director. I talked about the possibility of IB trips to every student tour operator with whom I spoke; a few international student tour operators offered one or two IB trips, but none of the domestic operators did, at least to my knowledge. Finally, after I was called the "tour director from hell," I considered perhaps creating educational tours for IB students might be a better way to use my expertise, and I was thrilled that the same privately-owned company that suffered my inability to find the bus parking lot at Newark was not only willing for me to develop such tours, but was anxious to have me do so!
I can be a nerd. I love to learn, and once I started reading -- Monument Wars, Memorial Mania, and numerous other books and articles -- my interest and excitement just continued to grow. I started with an IB New York Experience, writing an introduction, itinerary, and teacher resource guide. The owner of the student tour company asked me to create an "answer guide," or at least a guide for teachers and tour escorts to help moderate student discussions. That work took me twice as long as creating the tour. Since I had already agreed upon an amount to be paid for developing the tours, I was torn between that agreement and what I thought would be appropriate financial remuneration for my work. After sharing what I had done, I was confident to ask for additional payment for future work, and that was accepted.
Creating the IB Washington, D.C. experience was even more fun than New York. I discovered a strong theme -- public monuments and memorials -- and created what, if I can be immodest, is quite a comprehensive and thoughtful educational tour for IB students that not only takes the students on an exploration of the public monument as a form of art, culture, and politics, but also makes connections to other areas of knowledge. I shared the tours with the IB coordinators from Fairfax, and they all agreed (including the one AP coordinator who hung around for the presentation) that the trips would be an excellent complement to an IB education.
The IB coordinators asked if I could develop a one-day program for local schools in DC; it was easy to take the concentration on memorials and monuments and turn it into a one-day tour. A presentation I attended given by Maya Lin on public memorials only heightened my interest. I understood how as a country we moved from the hero monument to the victim's memorial to the therapeutic memorial. I learned small details that all students would find fascinating -- Maya Lin, who had written her purpose in her design for the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial before she actually designed it, discovered it in her dinner of mashed potatoes one evening. Now I had another story to add to the one that student's love about her getting a "B" on the project as a junior in college. Lin believes that memorials should stay with the "bare-boned facts so that the viewer brings the self to the piece." This is a perspective that we can bring to any discussion of memorials and monuments. I highly recommend that you take a look at her fifth and final memorial, one to the 6th extinction -- What is Missing? Her last memorial is actually a website in addition to some strategically placed screens showing the videos -- http://www.whatismissing.net/.
In addition to the traditional sites on any student trip, although with a different slant on perspective and the addition of thoughtful discussion, I also added other sites off the traditional itineray, including a visit to Lincoln Park to see the Mary McLeod Bethune and Emancipation Proclamation statues, and the National Japanese-American Memorial, dedicated in 2000 with the contrasting purposes of apologizing for the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II and honoring those who were killed in action fighting for their adopted country.
I continue to learn and hope to be able to add and adapt the study guides with time and experience. When I woke up to the Post article on the lack of statues of women in DC you might have thought I had won the lottery; I had a similar reaction to the recent article considering whether the decline of the African-American population would mean the loss of the Black influence on culture in the district. To my tour guide friends out there -- read the articles! To my student tourists, I hope I don't overwhelm you with my excitment, having so much I want to share with you!
www.washingtonpost.com/local/pondering-the-meaning-of-changing-dc-demographics/2011.03/30/AF02nCDH_story
I look forward to the sale (and maybe leading) my first IB tour. Next step -- develop one for Chicago and Los Angeles.
No comments:
Post a Comment