Tuesday, July 11, 2017

Ya Know, I Just Got Back . . . Off To Ethiopia

Part of the gig on trying to implement more global education into the classroom involves traveling with students.  It forever changes them.  There is nothing more glorious than watching them explore new areas of the globe.  Teacher travel with students is full of a lot of fun, and involves an incredible amount of work and problem solving.  Our students just returned from a trip that took them by planes, trains, automobiles and ferries to France, England, Wales, and Ireland.  It was the best of times and the worst of times but at the end of it all, it was totally worth it.

 

So after a 5 day "rest," I find myself again traveling, this time for global professional development as part of a Fulbright Hays Curriculum Development Project in Ethiopia studying indigenous wisdom and culture with a team from the University of Pittsburgh.

 
Addis Ababa                                                            Sodo


Check out the project if you are interested:  Ethiopia:  Indigenous Wisdom & Culture

For my teaching peers, bookmark this map of Fulbright Hays Projects from this year.  It can provide information for projects and organizations that fund global professional development.  Fulbright-Hays programs provide grants to individuals to participate in cultural exchanges abroad.  Projects focus on curriculum development and research abroad.    Map:  IFLE Grantee Institutions




I am going to try my best to update this blog as much as possible during the trip.  My goal is to complete an ethnographic study that I can then use to design curriculum for Maine students.

Ethnography is a broad research approach/style.  It includes collecting data about culture and history using a variety of methods such as participatory observation, semi-structured interviews, and video diaries that will be combined to bring insight into Ethiopia.



Ethnography aims to get under the skin of human behavior, to better understand the world and the specifics of the cultures we live in.  I will bring back what I learn about values, attitudes and norms, motivations, and human behavior and share them with teachers and students in hopes of creating learning opportunities that examine the same in Maine, USA.

I am going to try to avoid giving you long winded discussion about what I think about this culture because frankly, it doesn't matter what I think.  What matters more is what you think about what are are seeing and what you learn.

So goodbye my friends.  We board in a few minutes from Washington DC to depart on our great adventure.

I am super tired, the jet lag I . . . . .

Who cares about jet lag really.  I can sleep when I am dead.












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