We asked some of our Teacher to Teacher mentors for their best tips on staying connected with travelers outside the classroom. Use these suggestions to keep your students excited about their educational journey as we count down the days until we can travel again.
Email and Group Messaging
Don’t underestimate one of the easiest ways to keep connected to your group. Start an email thread with trivia about your destination and unique facts about the places that will be visited on tour, or share our country-specific at-home learning resources. Since some students don’t have reliable internet, another option is to start a group message thread on an app like Remind 101 or GroupMe. Send out updates, stories from previous trips, pictures of where you’re going, and more.
Social Media
Another great way to foster engagement from students is by creating a social media page for your trip and inviting students and families to join it. Create an Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook group page with pictures and information about the destinations that you’ll visit on tour. You can also post destination trivia or unique facts about the places you’ll see. One of our teachers said they post recipes of the country’s cuisine or photos of food from that destination to inspire their students!
Maintaining an active social media presence is the best (and most efficient) way to stay connected with your students. Encourage them to engage in group activities and keep in touch regularly to let them know you’re available. This will start to create excitement about the trip and you can post your tour meeting details there to keep families in the loop. Then, you can use the same account to stay connected with enrolled travelers and post pictures while on tour.
Virtual Hangouts
Take a virtual tour with your students using Google Earth Stories or find 360-degree videos of museums and cities online. Try hosting a virtual book or movie club by choosing a piece that takes place in the destination you’ll be visiting. Or, become your own late-night host and create a talk show for your students! It’s been proven that guest speakers and field trips correlate with higher student engagement and retention of materials, so highlight friends and family with amazing travel stories, career advice, or other topics that will help your students in the future.
Structured video chat parties offer another opportunity for students to connect virtually. Give students the chance to share something they discovered that week and transition into a game or interactive activity. Some of our favorites are Instant Show and Tell, where everyone has 60 seconds to find something in their house that meets given criteria, or a virtual potluck with authentic recipes from the countries or cities you’ll be visiting.
Postcards or Pen-Pals
A number of companies exist that make it easy to send stamped, personalized postcards without having to leave your house. Have students pair off as pen-pals, reach out to schools in other countries to start a program, or just drop each of your students a note and urge them to pass it on. Many teachers across the globe are interested in bridging cultural gaps between students. By creating virtual pen-pals, students can learn about the locations where they are traveling to, the customs, and connect to someone their age. Even if we can’t travel right now, our words can!