Teaching History is Enhanced through Student Tours that Parallel the Classroom Course Content
How To Pick Foreign Student Tours
Selecting the Right Tour Fulfills Educational Goals
- Nov 11, 2008
- Michael Streich
Teachers agree to lead student foreign tours for many reasons. Foreign tours are educational and enhance classroom instruction. Trips are a fun experience during breaks and present opportunities to see the world for free if you are a teacher group leader or chaperon. Sponsoring companies offer a variety of perks that include cash stipends, reward points that can be redeemed for everything from luggage to laptop computers, and free airline tickets and vacation packages. Whatever the reasons a teacher may have for leading a tour, the first crucial question must be the ultimate destination.
Every Trip to Europe Should Include Paris
An administrator at a high school that sponsors several yearly foreign trips once quipped that every student traveling to Europe should experience Paris. Many student travel companies include Paris as the first or last stop in a European tour. Teachers that lead foreign student tours need to assess how the destination and itinerary will impact the overall motives for the trip:
- Enhancing classroom curriculum
- Including well known cities like London, Paris, and Rome
- Enriching an AP course of study
- Offering a tour that touches on a variety of countries
Students are attracted to itineraries that span several countries. Although they no longer receive passport stamps when moving from one European country to another, student travelers enrolling on a European smorgasbord tour that stops in a number of capitals will experience a variety of different cultures. Teachers that select tours reflecting more esoteric goals may experience lower enrollments. Sadly, a tour that includes Budapest, Prague, or Warsaw is simply not as popular as one that includes Paris, Amsterdam, or Barcelona
Soliciting Student Interest
The best way to start is to host a trip meeting that offers three tour alternatives. Students and parents can give input on which destination and itinerary is most appealing. An "In-Depth Italy" tour may result in far higher enrollment numbers than Austria with a Budapest stay-behind extension. Interest in the tour may be motivated by family background and a desire to see the countries represented by immigrant roots. This makes Italy and Ireland very popular when coupled with interesting stay behind excursions.
The teacher may be interested in Scandinavia or North Africa, but these destinations may not translate into trip enrollments. Some destinations, such as Israel or Egypt, are deemed unsafe by parents. After 9/11, Australia destinations were seen as very desirable and parents considered Australia safer than the United States. In the end result, what the teacher or group leader finds appealing may not reflect what students are willing to pay to see.
Other Trip Planning Factors
The value of the US dollar must be considered. Touring the British Isles can be far more costly in terms of out of pocket expenses than Mediterranean Europe. Asian destinations offer a better dollar value than Switzerland or Scandinavia.
Selecting a foreign tour must take in account many factors. If the overall goal is to enroll a high number of participants, a generic tour of Europe is the best alternative. Aligning tours with curricular goals may limit enrollments but result in a group more receptive to fringe destinations. Teachers planning foreign student tours must know their clientele and act accordingly. A good tour itinerary can fill two buses; poor choices result in a handful of enrollments. The key to success is to include or start at major cities such as Paris, and then move on to the cities and sites most travelers have never heard of.
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