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| One of my first school visits, Udine International School, Italy. |
I’ve been to 15 different countries and
visited just over that many schools along my route. Before I left, I wasn’t exactly sure how
these visits were going to work. With all the other logistics, I had really
only contacted one school in Milan
Lots of people have asked me how I go about
contacting schools. I’m open to visiting
both local and international schools, but international schools are more
feasible logistically. Their contact
information is readily available, their curriculum is flexible enough to make
time for a visit, and language isn’t a barrier. When I arrive to New Zealand , Australia ,
The States, and Canada
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| Put on your climbing face! |
Unfortunately almost all the international
schools are located in major cities. Usually
I would avoid these cities on my bike because it just isn’t easy to travel into
an urban center, fully loaded, on two wheels!
I can look back and laugh now as I see myself navigating the streets of
some of these cities. After being in
both Hong Kong and Istanbul
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| Sometimes the hardest part of a school visit is just getting there..... |
I’ve had invitations from a handful of
schools that aren’t on my route, which made me realize I could easily take
twice as long to complete this journey and extend my route as far as Africa, Central
Asia, and even South America! Stay tuned, I’m sure there will be a part 2 at
some point in my life!
On a few occasions I’ve had to cancel a few
visits due to the logistics. For
instance, in China , once I
saw how crazy the streets were in Hong Kong, it seemed too overwhelming to
maneuver my way around the Pearl river delta
and the cities that lie within. All the
roads in this area are major highways with overpasses, bridges, and tolls. Bikes are prohibited on these roads. It is a real challenge not to end up on these
roads and find the minor alternative routes that are safe. Therefore, I decided to bypass both Dongguan
and Gaungzhou and take a ferry over to the west side of the river delta. In Istanbul, the schools were locate on the
outskirts of the city, but that meant a good 30 to 40 kilometers away
from the center on opposite sides of the Bosphorous river, which made commuting
between them difficult. Not to mention
the stairs that await me at some schools makes riding 100 kilometers with 40 kg . seem like no big deal
in comparison to carrying 40
kg .!
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| Nova International Schools, ES Assembly "What do you love to do?" |
When I arrive at the schools, I’m
considered a motivational speaker, which is a new title for me. That wasn’t my intended purpose, but I know
teachers are naturally role models for children and this happens to be the role
that I’ve fallen into. I really wanted
my interaction with students to go more in the direction of using the bike as a
topic of conversation. I’ve found a way
to merge the two talking about my passion to be active, ride, and travel, and
ask kids about their passion in life, talking about our dreams, both in the
near future and far off in the future.
Presenting at a large assembly is usually how schools introduce me to the
students. When time permits or I have an
all day visit, I make my way around to individual classrooms. I would love to be able to tailor some
activities to classroom units, but because of the nature of traveling on a bike
it isn’t always possible. However, I’m
happy to have question and answer sessions or do a few more specific follow-up
talks with kids at the teacher’s request. Kids never run out of questions to
ask and are curious to get up close to my bike!
My favorite question so far was by a first grader in Italy
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| Former BFIS students checking out my website back in Barcelona |
Crazy enough I’ve had some job offers
already come from my trip, and teachers contact me as far away as Angola , Namibia ,
and Bangladesh
I never really know which schools out there
are following me and use my resources.
Therefore, when I get emails from former students or random students, I’m
happy! Yesterday morning I woke up to an
email from the current teacher of my students last year and it made me so happy
to know they had spent one of their homeroom periods catching up on my latest
posts and watching the recent videos.
Other teachers at BFIS and the schools I’ve visited have also contacted
to show me how excited their students are to be using my website. I spend a lot of time on my own, but It’s
neat to know that I’ve left my mark at different schools along the way! I guess they really won’t forget that crazy
teacher that came to school bike on her loong
way home!
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| Grade 4, BFIS using a postcard I sent in their morning message |
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| ILG Students in Kosovo with the poster on the wall they created to follow me on my trip |
With the winter holidays approaching, I
know it is going to be hard to continue with the visits during mid-December and
January, but I will try my best to get to a few schools before they close. It might also be an opportunity for me to go
to some local schools that don’t have our western vacation schedule. I guess we’ll just have to see how it works
out!
Thank you to all the schools and kids out
there following me! I enjoy hearing from
you and love the pictures!
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| A drawing my a 6th grade student at a school in Mahon, Menorca. They use my blog in one of their classes. |
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