People who know me personally, know that I spend each one of my school breaks traveling. In just the past two years, I've been to Greece, Austria, Italy, Netherlands, Germany, and the Czech Republic. I've even been to Mexico a ridiculous seven times. Overall, I've been to 14 countries in the last 10 years.
Now, to people who do "business" for a living, that may seem pathetic, but to a teacher, it is all I've worked for to be able to accomplish that list. Traveling is what I quite literally live for. Teachers, as you know, are one of the most underpaid professions. I'm constantly being asked, "are you sure you're just a teacher?" Then I find myself going through my whole schpeel on how I'm able to afford all of these trips. I will save that for another blog entry.
Anyway, to set a new purpose for this blog: I will be using this from here on out to talk about: my travels, itineraries, planning for trips, and most importantly education-based travel.
My students will be referencing this blog as we plan ahead for our June 14-June 25 Holocaust in Europe trip, led by EF (Education First) tours.
Last April, I took my mother on a trip (during spring break) to "walk in the footsteps of Anne Frank". In 7th grade Language Arts, one of our units is dedicated to the Holocaust and The Diary of Anne Frank. Reading about it is one thing, but seeing the actual locations these horrors took place is another. After a couple of years of teaching it, I knew I wanted to visit the various locations throughout Europe to gain a deeper understanding of World War II and the Holocaust. I will post a full itinerary of that trip in my next post. Basically, our trip went as follows: the Anne Frank Huis in Amsterdam, Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp Memorial (north of Hannover, Germany), Topography of Terror Museum and Memorial to the Murdered Jews in Berlin, and finally spent a couple of non-heavy days in Prague. We had planned to go to Auschwitz-Birkenau outside of Krakow, Poland, but there was an unseasonable snow storm hitting that area of Poland, so it didn't work out.
That trip taught me so much more than a book ever could. Going there, seeing the actual places of terror, it left an imprint on my soul. It's a very humbling experience that only seeing it in person can do. After that trip, I thought to myself I have to take my students here.
So...that is what I am doing. As mentioned above, I will be taking students on an educational tour dedicated to WWII and the Holocaust. We will be visiting:
- Amsterdam, Netherlands
- Berlin, Germany
- Warsaw, Poland
- Krakow, Poland
- Prague, Czech Republic
(I will post a full itinerary of this trip as well.)
All of this being said, welcome to the new blog and I hope you enjoy it! Students...get excited, we're going to Europe!
Keukenhof Gardens, Netherlands
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