Global Teacher Prize Trip Report – Dubai - Day 1

With the long flight and the time change, I’m not quite sure where yesterday ended and today began, so I’ll pick up where I left off with yesterday’s post.

The flight was great. All of the things that I had heard about Emirates being a great airline were true.  Good service, decent food, comfy seats. It helped that the back of the plane was empty and Melissa and I both had our own rows to stretch out and sleep. I got about 6 decent hours of sleep, watched Bridge of Spies (really good movie), and felt pretty good when we landed around 2. It was cool to wake up, look out the window and see the desert mountains of Iran.

We got through passport control, baggage claim, and customs rather quickly, I hit the cashpoint/ATM to draw out some UAE Dirhams, and we hopped a cab to the Hilton Garden Inn at the Mall of the Emirates where I am staying for one night before moving to Atlantis the Palm.

It was exciting to see the Burj Khalifa off in the distance as we drove past.  Melissa and I both looked eagerly out the window to take in as much as we could on the drive.

As soon as we dropped off our bags, we headed out to explore.  First, we walked across the street to the Mall of the Emirates.  We went to Ski Dubai to see what it was all about, and noticed that there was a penguin encounter available. We bought tickets and got into our loaned jackets, pants, and boots. Our ticket was for 5PM, but the nice penguin guide allowed us to join the 4:30 group.  There were two short films, followed by a meeting with a Gentoo Penguin.  She was still in training, so we got to take pictures with her, but not touch her. There was also a cool window into the area with a pool and the other penguins that we could view from this first room.

From there we moved into a section where Wally, the King Penguin was waiting to meet us. After learning a bit about king penguins, each of us got to touch the different types of feathers on Wally, feel the oil from his preening gland that allows him to stay waterproof, and take some pictures.  

After that, we hopped in a taxi to the Dubai Mall.  By the time we arrived, we were both hungry, so we found a Middle Eastern restaurant that looked cool and ordered a few small plates.  The falafels were amazing, and the other food was very good.

From there, we went to check out the giant aquarium in the mall, which was 4 stories high and filled with sharks, stingrays, and all kinds of other fish.

Then, we went outside to catch the water fountain show outside the mall and at the base of the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building.  The show was short, but very cool.  The Burj was massive and so much more impressive up close than it was at a distance.  The fact that it stands somewhat alone makes it look even bigger.

After the show we walked around the outside of the Burj to explore a bit and then took a cab back to the Hilton so that Melissa could pick up her bags.  Being a gentleman, I was happy to ride with her to see her safely to the Atlantis (which looks amazing!) 

As I’m writing this post I got to talk to Lori for a few minutes before bed, and I did a live Skype call with Tanya Cunningham’s 5^th grade class back home to share some pictures and answer some of their questions. I had sent pictures and messages to several classes via Skype during the day. 

The wifi here at the Garden Inn has been wonky, so yesterday’s post and this post will have to go live tomorrow.

Tomorrow, I’m heading over to Atlantis to check in when I wake up.  I’m really looking forward to meeting some of the other Varkey Teacher Ambassadors, and spending some time learning and exploring with them. 

Skype in the Classroom Lessons Inspire Global Citizens

After two years of working as a curriculum coach, helping teachers and students find really incredible learning experiences, I have switched roles this year.  For the first time in my 19 year career I am teaching 3rd-5th grade science.  In many ways this is a dream job for me. My philosophy that learners should be encouraged to wonder, experiment, learn from failure, and connect with others around the world fit perfectly in an elementary science lab.  Since I am in the same school, I have the added benefit of working with students who have learned with me for the past two years.  They know the power of using their learning to do good for others, and they feel empowered that they can make a positive change in this world through their actions.  They know they don't have to wait until they are adults to make a difference.

It is this culture of service and student empowerment that led to the post I am writing today. Two recent Skype in the Classroom lessons were such powerful learning experiences that they inspired my students to take action to make the world better. I am so proud of my students, and so convinced that these type of global videoconferences with passionate experts are vital to 21st Century learning environments that I had to share. 

Earlier this year I was searching on Skype in the Classroom for lessons that fit our state science standards.  I saw that SANCCOB, a sea bird rehabilitation facility in South Africa, offered a lesson that showed students the effects of plastic pollution on penguins with a live penguin on the Skype call. I booked this virtual field trip to help my 4th graders learn about the way animals interact with their environment. I also came across a lesson from the North Carolina Aquarium at Fort Fisher that showed students the effects of ocean acidification on sea creatures.  This fit right along with our 5th grade studies of human impact on the environment and wildlife.

Both calls were amazing experiences for my students. Student engagement was off the charts, and the kids learned the exact concepts that I was hoping they'd learn. The aquarium actually did demonstrations with sea shells and vinegar to show how acid affects ocean animals, and showed live echinoderms and shelled mollusks on a document camera so kids could learn about them.

 Tamyln from SANCCOB was equally amazing and along with Princess, a live penguin who helped out, she shared pictures and examples of sea birds who have been harmed by plastics in the ocean.

As incredible as those calls were, it was my students' reaction to the learning that made me happiest. After students have a Skype experience, I always ask them to share their learning in some way with other classes who didn't get the same opportunity. My 5th grade students decided to create posters for my science classroom sharing ways to reduce factory production of carbon dioxide, which leads to ocean acidification. As they were making their posters, they started talking about ways to reuse materials in school. 

At the same time, my 4th graders were so inspired by their call with SANCCOB that they were seeking ways to solve the plastic pollution problem outside of science class. In between our Skype call and their next science class, several of the students got together and requested a meeting with my principal to demand we start a school recycling program. He told them that we would start a program if they planned it and agreed to run it.

When those 4th grade students came to their next class, they saw the posters from our 5th graders and saw that a "reusing" program would do even more good than a "recycling" program.  Together, the two classes began collecting water bottles at home and at school, and they began to look at ways that the bottles could be reused instead of discarded or recycled. 

The 5th graders are in the process of using many of those bottles to build a walk-in cell museum for their parents during parent-teacher conferences in an empty classroom.  Most of the organelles are being built by students out of materials that otherwise would have been thrown away. The 4th graders have begun planning ways to use bottles as planters and to build a drip irrigation system for the vegetable plants that will be planted in our school gardens in the spring as part of the Global Garden Project. 

One of the concerns I had when I switched roles this year was that the culture of student empowerment and service that I had helped develop in our school during my time as a curriculum coach would start to fade. I'm so proud of my students for showing me that my fears were baseless, and that they are continuing to look for ways to take action to make the world a better place.