Classroom Applications

 

As a future educator, I think it’s crucial after an experience such as this one to look back and reflect on my time spent in Ecuador and how the lessons I learned will be pertinent to my future students and in my classroom. As a Secondary English Education major, there are several lessons I found valuable to myself and my future students.

1.      The importance of reflection

As an English education major, the development of children’s writing abilities will be my job. After being required to daily reflect on what I saw and how I felt in Ecuador, I realized the significance of this. Although all students are not able to have this incredible opportunity to travel and reflect, even taking the time to reflect on one’s daily activities and life helps one to see things from a new and broadened perspective. I will be using this tactic in my classroom to develop students’ abilities to think critically, reflect, and analyze their thoughts and feelings.

 

2.      The necessity of stepping outside of one’s comfort zone & seeing things from another’s perspective

Many of us are afraid of things that are “different” to us or seem “other”. But, you can never truly grow to your fullest potential if you fail to step out of your comfort zone and have experiences that are different than your own. I will be encouraging my students to view things from another’s perspective, especially in regards to literature. While reading a book, I plan to give my student’s a great deal of background knowledge on the character’s culture and environment. This will allow them to better understand the character’s thoughts and actions. Similar to my own experience; after being immersed in the Ecuadorian culture, I better understand the people of Latin America.

3.      Inspiration, allowing my student’s to acknowledge that there is more than what they experience daily

After spending time in Latin America, I realized that there is so much more than my small town and college. Showing my student’s how travel changes you and broadens one’s perspective, might be an inspiration to them , and encourage them to travel and see the world one day for themselves. I know that my professors personally motivated and inspired me to travel and see more of the world, and perhaps I can do the same for my students. I plan to encourage them and show them how stepping out of one’s comfort zone will help them learn about themselves and develop a newfound appreciation for many things that they might have previously taken for granted.

4.      Nature writing, the importance of environmental literature

 After seeing the natural beauty of Ecuador, I plan to develop a lesson plan utilizing environmental literature. I truly believe that some of the best literature has been written about nature. Poets such as Mary Oliver, Robert Frost, and naturalist writers such as Emerson and Thoreau prove this by their thought provoking writing. I plan to expose my students to these essayists and writers, and encourage them to write about their own experiences with nature. Although it may be challenging to have them write about a landscape of a different continent as I am able to do after experiencing Ecuador, I can still encourage them to write about their experiences with their own surroundings, to encourage a love and appreciation of nature and literature. (Perhaps someday plan a field trip hike where we can read environmental literature & poetry, and then students’ can develop their own poems and essays  )

5.       The usefulness of multimedia approaches to writing

 After blogging about my experience, I plan to encourage my own students to utilize technological resources to share their writing with others. Blogging is easy to navigate and use, and students may find the new approach to writing engaging.