It is amazing how quickly our ten days in Peru for our International Field Experience went. There was so much packed within our time that I would have so much to process once I got home. I addition to those three school visits I just described, here is a little more of what went on during our last couple of days in Lima.
International Alumni Engagement: Building Networks and Understanding Through Teacher Collaboration
One of the many goals of this Fulbright Teachers for Global Education program is to build networks between teachers in the United States and teachers in other countries. Towards the end of the program an Alumni engagement event was organized. Some of these teachers/administrators work at the schools that we visited. Others were either too far for us to go visit or the visits got cancelled. There were three main objectives for this alumni engagement session:
- To debrief experiences and observations
- To begin action planning
- To discuss continued collaboration
One of the topics that was discussed were concerns that the Peruvians shared regarding their educational system. One of the significant concerns mentioned was the hidden discourse inherent in their society. While there is a lot of diversity in Peru (including international and indigenous communities) they are often not incorporated into the curriculum. Images transmit messages, even if it isn’t intended. Ignoring the contributions, histories, and existences of different groups can be damaging to students wellbeing as well as the societal stability. Students within the country are able to identify more international celebrities than Peruvian ones. One possible reason for this is that companies with money influence the writing of textbooks.
During our morning session there was time to continue to build our connections. I spoke with one teacher about some of the programming at her school which has embraced project-based learning. Students are leaders and have to produce something that will benefit the school or community in some way. They are currently working on learning about Peruvian inventors and they are taking an interdisciplinary approach. This aligns with many of my educational philosophies so we were excited to talk. Unfortunately there was not nearly enough time but we do want to see if we can find a way to partner our schools up for virtual collaboration. We’d like to choose a project that would benefit both of our communities. We shall see what happens!
Debrief of the International Field Experience
With just two days remaining we got together to debrief and discuss our thoughts on our time together. It felt like we had just been in the conference room at the hotel for an introduction to our field experience. Our objectives for this morning session were:
- To reflect upon your travel experience
- To synthesize and evaluate professional and personal impact
- To practice and plan for telling the story of your travel experience
The first part of the session was to really think deep, reflect, and consider the impact it had on us. From there we were asked to consider what our next steps might be. To be honest, I’ve felt pretty discouraged with education after the last two years of uncertainty with covid and everything else. I left this program reinvigorated and excited. To work with so many innovative educators that continue to strive towards excellence really was what I needed.
The rest of the session was spent discussing Fulbright Alumni resources, grants, and opportunities. Now that I have finished my Fulbright Teachers for Global Classrooms programs I am eligible for numerous other programs and grants. These grants are specifically for incorporating global education into my classroom. There are virtual platforms that bring alumni together from all over the world to support each other and to work with. There are Fulbright Distinguished Awards in Teaching Short-Term Programs and one I was very interested in until I realized that I missed the application deadline. That program will have a teacher spending 6-8 weeks in Cusco working with schools to develop environmental education curriculums. This mirrors a lot of the work that I have done leading professional development within my school and community.
Taste of Peru Cooking Class
On our last day, right before our farewell dinner, we went to Sirena Restobar which is a restaurant along the coast for a cooking class. Prior to that we went on a tour of a Peruvian market and got to learn about (and taste) some Peruvian fruit. The first dish we made was causa rellena which is a popular appetizer made of mashed potatoes, avocado, and chicken. It also contains some aji amarillo (yellow hot pepper) which made it even better.
After we got to enjoy what we just made we were moving onto the main course, ceviche. I’m not a fan of ceviche but I went along with it anyways. For those note familiar with it, it is raw fish that it “cooked” in citrus juice. The acid replaces heat in the denaturation of it so it is safe to eat but it still isn’t really for me. When the head chef who was leading the course tried mine she was impressed and gave me two thumbs up though. At the end when asked whose was the best she pointed to me and to one other educator. Still not for me.
Once we ate our ceviche we moved on to the last thing we would make, pisco sour. This is a drink that Peru is well known for. When those were finished we moved on to our farewell dinner. At the dinner all of the participants were given certificates that were personalized for something that made them stand out.
Why was I named the most adventurous? You will have to wait and see. While my International Field Experience has now come to an end, I stayed in Peru an additional two weeks to do some traveling on my own. Stay tuned! The most exciting stuff is yet to come!