Category Archives for "Teaching"

“Oh, you are a teacher,” my Dominican guide, Yunior, exclaimed with excitement. “There is a school up ahead, let’s pay them a visit!” Imagining how I would feel if a dozen foreign visitors dropped by unannounced in my classroom, I responded that I did not want to interrupt any ongoing lessons. “Nonsense,” Yunior replied, and we were off.

I was attending a Spanish immersion school in Mexico, learning irregular verb tenses and trying to figure out exactly what was meant by the pluperfect when this question came up. I was a bit surprised and at a loss for an immediate answer. Thinking about the many Mexicans I had met, nothing came close to the vitriol and slander so often heard on the airways (and Twittersphere) at home.

The final bell has been rung and school is out for summer. Some teachers take the summer off to catch up on sleep, work on the hobbies they couldn’t find time for during the seemingly endless school year, or work on professional development in order to move up within the school system. Some teachers are looking for something else, something more. A summer teach abroad program could be exactly what you need to gain some worldly knowledge while also helping others.