Think Like a Teacher

Many well-meaning and caring adults outside of Educationland want to offer the benefits of their worldwide experiences to kids unable to have such firsthand knowledge.  An adult visits an African country and bemoans how little U.S. students know of the world beyond U.S. borders  (or even beyond own town/state). The adult generously offers to share his/her pictures  with a local school or to come into as a guest speaker. He/she may even organize a way of disseminating pictures and telling the stories of the trip online. I wholeheartedly echo the desire to help kids learn beyond borders and the invisible fences of  socio-economic backyards.

I am sure you can hear the “but…” coming.

Why don’t  worldly, caring adults take the one, most important step of involving Educationland insiders who have expertise in teaching and learning to join in their efforts to share and disseminate? I don’t mean that we educators need to pablumize the experience of the person who has been to Uganda or other world location so our kids can learn about.  We don’t need to dumb it down or “can” it a la filmstrip/tape of the 1980s. We do need to assist caring Educationland visitors in communicating their global experience in a context that students can share and take part in, given the students’ location, connectivity, prior knowledge, developmental stage … and, unfortunately,  time/curriculum restraints. Ask one of us to act as a friendly but flexible tour guide to Educationland, a learning sherpa

The Sherpa’s Role

The Educationland sherpa knows the lay of the land in Educationland. She knows where the crevasses of technology limitations will trap a well-meaning visitor: the filtering, the lack of plug ins, the potential attacks of armed AUPs ready to spear a visitor and toss him off a cliff.

The sherpa guides — but does not lead — the trip. The sherpa plans together with the worldly visitor and acts as a translator with the Educationland natives, making advanced connections with student-natives so the visitor encounters students ready and eager to converse. The sherpa is brutally honest about how the Educationland natives will probably act and how to win them over. The sherpa explains why they behave as they do, how much they probably know already and how to ensure a successful encounter.  The sherpa may even ask “what if” questions aloud during the visit. Then the sherpa steps back, letting the visit happen and new bonds form.

If the visit is an open one, such as an online sharing site, a 24/7 public basecamp for learning, the sherpa can help plan that site so it has the tools  students need to survive and thrive as learners. No one should expect a novice world traveler to know how to build a learning camp inside Educationland. The worldly visitor should realize the value of the Educationland sherpas in making the Educationland basecamp– a website or blog or online community — a community that provides the right sustenance for learning. (Here is an example I serendipitously found: a blog created by a teacher-sherpa from her visit to Uganda. Note the language and support that make the experience accessible to the students.)

The sherpa carries the extra weight of logistics, the backpack full of provisions and maps for alternate routes when some Educationland natives refuse to associate with the visitor or cannot understand him/her. The sherpa brings experience.

If you are planning to visit Educationland or even to invite natives from Educationland to join in your global journey, seek out the sherpa who can make the encounter a success for the students.  And sherpas, think carefully about ways you can add to your global backpack and continue to allow the visits to play out successfully once you have provided wise guidance.