Vicki Davis: Today's show is sponsored by EF Educational Tours and their Career Readiness Tours. To show your students what careers look like up close and in action, go to eftours.com/ready and stay tuned at the end of the show to learn more.

Our guest today, Donnie Piercey, is about to set the record for being on my show the most. I ran into Donnie Piercey again at FETC. We were both featured speakers in the teacher track, and he is the 2021 Kentucky Teacher of the Year. He teaches fourth grade in Lexington, Kentucky, and is in his 20th year. We're going to talk about vibe coding. How do you simply explain what this vibe coding thing is? And is it something that a normal teacher can do?

Donnie Piercey: Well, a hundred percent. Vibe coding almost sounds like — gosh, is this a new computer language? Is this a new thing that I have to pretend like I know what I'm talking about, but I can just throw the jargon phrase around and people think I'm smart? In a nutshell, what it is, is you use an AI tool — whether that's Google Gemini, ChatGPT, or Base44.

Basically you just go into one of those tools, pick your preferred one, tell it that you want to write code that does blank, and sometimes it might ask you some follow-up questions, but it'll write the code for you. And that's nothing new — that's existed in AI really since ChatGPT launched. But what's different now is you can do the follow-up. Now you can say, “I have this code, I have no idea what I'm doing, can you tell me what I'm supposed to do with this? Where does it go?” And the AI tool will walk you through it.

Vicki Davis: So, Donnie, I was struggling to teach my eighth graders last semester. I used all the regular tools that we subscribe to and I was not happy — I had to retest and retest. Well, this semester I took all that content and uploaded it to my favorite AI tool of choice. It was really, really cold recently, and we're the Eagles. I wanted it to be about keeping the eagle from freezing on the nest — the more questions you got right, the more it warmed the nest up and saved the eagle. But here's the thing that happened: I had no retest. The kids made five points higher on average than last semester. It was once and done, and they loved it and they had fun. I was sitting there watching them play it and I could see the results right there. It was like — this is something that is a game changer.

Donnie Piercey: We probably all have that one friend who just knows coding, and every now and then we might text them or send them a screenshot like, “Hey, I'm trying to get this HTML code to work.” They'd write back, “Just fix this part,” or make some snarky Nick Burns “your company computer guy” comment. But now, with AI, we don't have to pester that person anymore. What's wild is — vibe coding's not perfect. Believe it or not, AI makes mistakes. Sometimes the code it writes won't run, and it'll display an error message. It still kind of breaks my brain sometimes. But then I realized — why don't I just screenshot the error message and copy and paste it into Gemini or ChatGPT and say, “Hey, the code you wrote, it ain't working. It's giving me this message. Can you fix your code?”

But here's the thing — I like to learn how to do stuff. So anytime I do that, I'm always trying to read through what it says, because eventually I'd like to get to the point where I don't always have to copy and paste everything. Nowadays I'm a lot better than I was two and a half years ago when I first started. I'll say, “Hey, it's giving me this error message — make sure you tell me why, what's wrong, so that if I see this again I know how to fix it in the future.” Because sometimes it's just a bracket in the wrong place. It's really fun, super cool to play around with.

Vicki Davis: Okay, so give us some examples of things that have impacted your day in your classroom using vibe coding.

Donnie Piercey: My first advice for teachers is to ask yourself: what is one small thing — an app or a tool — that if you could make a Google Doc do this, or a Google Slide do that, it would make your day a thousand times easier? Identify that small problem, jump into Gemini, and say, “Hey, I need this to happen. Here's the problem. Can you write some code for me?” When I was first starting out, I'd always put a little addendum on the end — “and I have no idea what I'm doing, so please don't use any technical jargon, just tell me where to copy and paste this.”

So, a simple example. I'm a full-time fourth grade teacher. I do whole-group reading, whole-group math, then small-group reading and small-group math. If I'm not meeting with a small group, the other 20-plus students always want to know what they're supposed to be doing. In the past I'd have a slideshow broken down by groups and times. I took a screenshot of just one of my task lists — and I removed student names because I refused to train the model — and said, “I want a printable to-do list for my students every day based off of this.” It said, “Sure — make a sheet, make a slide template,” and it actually formatted the Google Sheet for me, which was wild. And then it said, “Now you're going to make some Google Apps Script,” which still makes me laugh because it abbreviates to GAS. It walked me through it step by step.

Now, at the start of every day, before I leave, I open the spreadsheet, type in the assignments I want my students to do, click a little button, and it creates these printable task lists for me. I put about an hour's worth of work into it, but it has saved me countless hours of printing task lists — and parents love that these things get sent home every day, too.

Maybe you've got your weekly classroom newsletter in Google Slides. There's no native translate tool in Google Slides, but there is Google Apps Script you can add. In my classroom this year I've got five different languages — some not even easily in Google Translate. Ask it to create Google Apps Script for your newsletter — “I want it where, when I click this button, it takes what's on slide one, translates it into those five languages, and then I can print it all off or email it in one fell swoop.” I've been playing around with vibe coding now for over two years. I know a thousand times more now than when I asked it to write a simple Frogger game in HTML with emojis. Now you can actually make stuff, and it's fun.

Vicki Davis: A lot of these things you can publish to HTML and then put the link in — or publish to all different types of things so it could be a game a kid could play. I uploaded all my stats from my podcast and made an HTML dashboard, and had it tag every single one based on topic. I can pull up the top five in this topic, top five in that topic — it makes it really easy to figure out, “Hey, this might be a great one to add to a radio show I'm doing.” It's just so powerful. It's stuff I've never had access to before, whether I'm at school or at home. Are there other ideas you've seen teachers do?

Donnie Piercey: You can ask Gemini to write HTML code for you. Maybe you're a high school teacher and you want your students to balance equations — ask it to write script or HTML code you can copy and paste or embed onto a Google Site, and then send that site to your students. I like to be silly sometimes — that's how you learn how this works. My first website that I wrote and published from start to finish — go to GIFdebate.com. That's G-I-F-debate.com. It's a site I put together that finally answers the question of how to pronounce that word correctly.

Vicki Davis: I use Claude Cowork and have created some skills. I dictate voice memos on the way to school. I used to do a transcript and then try to do something with it, but now I just throw it in a folder, and I have a custom skill I run every morning that turns it into multiple things for me. It's just so powerful, whatever tool you want to use. I'd say start easy. Starting with HTML is a good way to start for teachers, or for whoever. And honestly, I just upload the HTML file in Google Classroom and it works just fine.

Donnie Piercey: You can just open it up in Chrome and it works exactly like it's supposed to. For your listeners, if they're thinking “that sounds way too complicated,” go to whatever tool you use —

Vicki Davis: You can go to Canva Code, even. It works.

Donnie Piercey: Yeah. You just say, “Write me a simple game that checks to see if my students know their multiplication facts.” It'll write the code, and you're probably like, “I have no idea what to do with this.” So your follow-up should be, “I have no idea what to do with this. I want my students to be able to play this game now — what do I do?” And it'll walk you through it step by step. It's really wild how scarily easy it is. It'll also teach you a little more about the creative process that goes into coding. At first you'll feel like the AI is doing everything, but eventually — “I don't need to ask it to change this number, I can just do this here, I can hop in the code myself.”

Vicki Davis: It's great for our students to be able to understand how to create the apps and tools they need for their lives. When they get to the level I teach — high school — I teach AP CSP, and I want my students to be able to describe the programs they want. I really think AP CSP is one of the most valuable courses because — and I'm biased, of course — it enables powerful vibe coding when you understand just a little bit. So, Donnie Piercey, so many things we could go into. You're one of my favorite teachers to see present at conferences, and it was great connecting with you at FETC. Thanks for the show again — I'll have to get you a t-shirt or something.

Donnie Piercey: Just look up the Saturday Night Live five-timers club — you need a little card or a smoking jacket. Awesome. I appreciate it. Thank you, Vicki.

Vicki Davis: Thanks for coming on the show, Donnie.

Teachers, show your students what a career actually looks like — not in a textbook, but in the real world. On an EF Career Readiness Tour, your students will connect with entrepreneurs at the London School of Economics, or go behind the scenes at Toyota's manufacturing plant in Japan, or tour a French culinary school to see future chefs in action. EF Career Readiness Tours can take your students around the world for hands-on industry experience you can't replicate in the classroom. Browse EF Career Readiness Tours at eftours.com/ready. That's eftours.com/ready — and make careers come alive through travel.

Vicki Davis: Today's show is sponsored by EF Educational Tours and their Career Readiness Tours. To show your students what careers look like up close and in action, go to eftours.com/ready and stay tuned at the end of the show to learn more.

Vicki Davis: Our guest today, Dr. Sarah Thomas, is a trailblazer in education. She is the Regional Technology Coordinator for Prince George's County Public Schools in Maryland and founder of EduMatch, a global network where educators connect and collaborate. She's also won the ISTE Making It Happen Award. At ISTE 2025, she's spotlighting the intersection of AI and education. Thank you for coming on the show, Sarah.

Sarah Thomas, PhD: Thank you so much for having me, Vicki.

Vicki Davis: You're really passionate about using AI in the right ways, and you believe AI is a creativity amplifier. That's so different from what a lot of people believe. Why do you believe that?

Sarah Thomas, PhD: I've been wrestling with my own use of AI, and I've been thinking about this intently for the last couple of weeks. One thing that someone said on Facebook when I threw it out to the community: that AI, if you use it for productivity, actually frees up your time so that you're able to shine and devote your own space and creativity to your zone of genius. And I really, really love that. It resonated with me because it definitely helps me automate a lot of things and gives me back more time in my day.

Vicki Davis: So what kind of things do you automate with AI?

Sarah Thomas, PhD: A lot of organization. I was giving a keynote — I created the slides and the content myself, but I did a run-through of how I was going to present it. I spoke to the AI and said, if you could just give me this back in bullet-point format so I could plug it into my speaker notes. If I were to do that myself, it probably would have taken me way longer. That's one thing it really helped me with.

Vicki Davis: A lot of people say students can't use AI, we don't want them to use AI, with all the debates going on. As you advise your district, what are some of the good uses of AI you really like to see students have?

Sarah Thomas, PhD: Just as with anything else, AI is nuanced. There are some big rocks you have to make sure are in place — for example, COPPA and FERPA protections. Making sure that PII is not uploaded, and really reading the privacy policies and terms of service to figure out what kind of information they're collecting on students. I speak with a lot of districts about their plans for rolling out AI, and one pivotal point: as educators, we really need to understand how these tools work. If we're not in those spaces, it opens up Pandora's box. We definitely need to model for our students how to use it ethically and how to maximize their output — not just run it through and copy and paste whatever the output is. That reminds me of when I was first teaching and students got a hold of Wikipedia and would just copy the page and paste it. Really teaching them to use AI in a way that helps them brainstorm and maximize their creativity — that's what we need to encourage.

Vicki Davis: Tell me a story. Have you seen a student recently use AI in a really cool way where you thought, yes, that's what I want to talk about?

Sarah Thomas, PhD: The district I work most closely with has been doing a lot of piloting with artificial intelligence, and I've been looking at it with an eagle-eye view — students using it as a writing tutor, to give them feedback, to help poke holes in their work. Teaching our students to use it in a way that makes them better — I think that's where all the magic is lying.

Vicki Davis: I want them to know how to use AI to give them formative feedback before I grade. It's kind of like spell check to me — I won't take it if they haven't spell checked. And now I don't even want to take it unless they've gotten that initial AI feedback. Why should I be the one getting the feedback and sitting there going through it?

Vicki Davis: How do we help educators move from fear to using AI in the classroom? Because there's a lot of fear.

Sarah Thomas, PhD: That's understandable with a lot of new things — that fear. AI has its pros and its cons. When I first started learning about it, I was just like, yes, AI! But the more I use it and learn, there are things we need to keep in mind. The key is making sure everyone is well-informed of the good and the bad. I think it was Carnegie who said, if you're afraid of something, think of the worst possible outcome and then prepare against that.

Vicki Davis: Yeah — Dale Carnegie. I feel like fear is paralyzing kids, adults, so many people, especially as it relates to AI. There are some AI views that I think are over the top — okay, we're going to marry AI and all that. That's not healthy. I'm pro-human, you know? So let me ask you this: is there one piece of advice for teachers just starting to integrate AI, and what would it be?

Sarah Thomas, PhD: We want to keep our students safe. When using AI, be sure not to enter personally identifiable information — keep that secure. Thankfully I don't have a horror story, but I can give you a hypothetical. If that's input into an AI system without safeguards, it could help train the model, and all of a sudden the model knows that little Jimmy goes to such-and-such school. We really don't want to give that information about our students. On the flip side, also evaluate the output. I spoke to the Wikipedia example with our students, and it's so easy to fall into that trap ourselves — we want to verify whatever AI gives us. I heard someone mention the 80/20 rule: even if it does 80% of the work, that 20% — eyeballs on it, tweaking it — that's something we need to do. I have a quick story about that: a lawyer used AI to look up case history and actually tried to use the output in a courtroom, but most of those were hallucinations. You always have to go back and verify.

Vicki Davis: Ugh. Because we're ultimately responsible. Tools like Perplexity — that's why I'm kind of liking it, because it can be more accurate. I like to play “find the lie in AI” with my students. We use different models on something we know. The way they do it is, who's the greatest basketball player who ever lived, or what's the best movie ever — something they know about, so they can see, hey, this might be debatable. Because they think there's just “the answer.” So, as we finish up — we're recording this before ISTE, and this will air after ISTE 2025 — if you could pick one thing you want everybody who goes to your session to understand, what is that one thing?

Sarah Thomas, PhD: What I'd want everyone who comes to my session to understand is the power that we have as educators, the power our students have, and that when we collaborate among ourselves and with each other, we can truly change the world. That would be my one takeaway.

Vicki Davis: What do you say to people who say AI can help with a teacher shortage?

Sarah Thomas, PhD: It can maybe help brainstorm some solutions, but AI is not going to take the place of a teacher. It can help with instructional practice, but there's nothing like a human being. Like you said, you're human first — human-centric. I agree with that. A robot is not going to take the place of a teacher.

Vicki Davis: We would never think a robot could be a doctor. It's insulting to the professionalism of teachers. We've got such a teaching crisis now. Everybody I ask — these questions are about relationship — and I always say you have to relate to educate. So Sarah, Dr. Sarah Thomas, where are the places people can go to connect with you?

Sarah Thomas, PhD: I would love your listeners to connect with me — I love to talk shop. You can find me on the socials, Sarah the teacher: S-A-R-A-H-D-A-T-E-E-C-H-U-R. And you can find my organization, EduMatch, at edumatch.org. Definitely reach out, click on that “Work With Us” page, and see how we can support you.

Vicki Davis: Thank you, Sarah. I appreciate you for coming on the show.

Sarah Thomas, PhD: Thank you so much, Vicki. I appreciate you.

Vicki Davis: Teachers, show your students what a career actually looks like — not in a textbook, but in the real world. On an EF Career Readiness Tour, your students will connect with entrepreneurs at the London School of Economics, go behind the scenes at Toyota's manufacturing plant in Japan, or tour a French culinary school to see future chefs in action. EF Career Readiness Tours can take your students around the world for hands-on industry experience you can't replicate in the classroom. Browse EF Career Readiness Tours at eftours.com/ready. That's eftours.com/ready — and make careers come alive through travel.

Miranda Grabowski (00:04): I get to sit back and watch my students learn how science happens in the real world.

They’re actually doing the science on their own, not just sitting back and letting someone talk.

Angela Cannava (00:15): Ms. Cannava, everything you taught me is actually what they do in the real lab. This is so cool.

Vicki Davis (00:21): Today’s show is sponsored by EF Explore America and the STEM Tours. To show your students how STEM impacts the world up close and in action, go to efexploreamerica.com/STEM. And stay tuned at the end of the show to learn more.

Vicki Davis (00:41): Welcome to the 10 Minute Teacher Podcast. I’m Vicki Davis, the Cool Cat Teacher. And today we’re talking about something that changes students forever — teaching STEM when you travel with your students. Here’s what I’ve learned after more than two decades in the classroom: STEM stops being abstract the moment a student does real science in a real place.

A biology class in Panama plants mangroves. A biomed class in the UK runs a live DNA fingerprinting lab. A middle schooler walks the MIT campus. Today you’ll meet four teachers who did exactly that. Let’s go.

Miranda Grabowski (01:18): Recently I got back from our Panama trip. Forty of our 11th graders — our students — were in Panama to help conserve their wetlands.

I get to sit back and watch my students learn in real time how science happens in the real world.

They’re actually doing the science on their own, not just sitting back and letting someone talk to them. Out there in the boots, picking up the mangroves, getting on a boat, getting sunburned, going to plant these mangroves to help conserve that natural environment of the country. It’s great to see the students not just pretend to like the thing, but actually do the thing.

Which is one reason I love traveling with kids — is to see them actually get their hands into whatever it is, whether it’s mangroves or paint restoration or whatever the activity is focused on that day. That’s why I like traveling — is to see the kids actually experience things as opposed to just read about them.

Vicki Davis (02:14): Miranda Grabowski in Panama. But what happens when a high school CTE biomed teacher takes her class across the ocean and her students suddenly realize the experiment they’re doing is the exact same one working scientists do for a living? Angela Cannava, Denver, Colorado.

Angela Cannava (02:33): I remember one student that necessarily wasn’t the most excited to be in class sometimes — I just remember him coming up to me after doing the whole forensics workshop and saying, “Ms. Cannava, everything you taught me is actually what they do in the real lab. This is so cool.”

We did everything from health science related things — anatomical museums and seeing anatomical artifacts that were collected from years ago, a lot of the old paintings that were done of anatomy, some of the first anatomical paintings that were done. We had to go see all of those. That hooked really nicely also into the anatomy class that I teach, because I also teach an anatomy class. Lots of classroom connections with what we were actually doing and seeing. But then you also have all the really fun stuff beyond the learning part of the EF Tours. We went on the London Eye and it was like sunset and beautiful. And I have this picture of these students just looking out across the skyline — all smiles — and I’ve never seen such happy kids in my life. It was a really good mix of getting to see really good sites plus the learning.

A key for any teacher wanting to take students on a trip is just — number one — knowing that you can definitely do it. If you build strong relationships with students, they will want to travel with you.

Vicki Davis (03:57): DNA in the UK. Next stop, Boston, where a principal took seventh graders to MIT, Harvard, and the FIRST Robotics regionals — because you can’t want the future if you’ve never seen it. Karen Spencer, Parkview Baptist, Baton Rouge.

Karen Spencer (04:13): We went to MIT and Harvard — got a glimpse at Harvard, an Ivy League, more liberal arts school, and then MIT, a more STEM school — to show them options. But it starts now, building that résumé and getting your scores up, your transcripts ready, so that you have options when you get there.

We did a tour of Fenway Park, went to MASS Robotics, and just got to experiment there. And we, of course, turned it into a competition and they were all in. Did you know that Boston has a Museum of Ice Cream? We found that one on this trip and it was so fun. We did the Fine Arts Museum, the Museum of Science, we did Lexington and Concord, the Boston Tea Party, the USS Constitution. We did the Freedom Trail. We walked up Beacon Hill. You name it — I think we did it. I have to tell you, Boston this time of year was stunningly beautiful with all the trees in bloom and the tulips and the daffodils.

Vicki Davis (05:11): Yes. And we’re recording this in April 2026. If you’re saying, “Hey, I want to go when it looks like that” — so you’ve been using EF Tours for a while. Why do you keep coming back to them?

Karen Spencer (05:21): Well, they have proven time and time again that they’re willing to listen. They’re willing to help me. I will tell you — on this last trip, the Museum of Ice Cream was an absolute spur-of-the-moment thing. One of the parents mentioned it in passing at lunch. And I said, “Wait, what?” I looked at my tour guide and said, “We have to make this happen.” And he was like, “Let me see if we can squeeze it in.” He and I start looking at our schedule — how can we squeeze it in? I call EF. I said, “How can we make this work?” And they were like, “We’re on it.” They jumped on it with us and it was amazing. Three hours later we were there.

And that’s one of the reasons I like EF so much — they want to work with me. They want to make it a great experience. And I trust them. They’ve been in business a long time. They send security guards to help at night, that sort of thing. It just gives me a peace of mind.

Vicki Davis (06:15): We’ve been talking with Karen Spencer, principal at Parkview Baptist School from Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Vicki Davis (06:21): Ivy League in seventh grade plants the seed. But what happens when a social studies teacher takes eighth graders to hands-on science museums in Washington, DC? Edith Cortez, Laredo.

Edith Cortez (06:34): Everyone thinks Washington — monuments and memorials. But the museums that we went to were hands-on and my kids loved it. The museums — they are so competitive. They had so many scenarios to gravitate from and moving around in every single one. And then they had to beat each other through the activities to get to the end game.

We went to several different museums that we were able to visit during our Washington STEM trip and that was very interesting for us.

Four boys that traveled with me were my students that year. And they were so excited to travel — “we’re gonna do this and we’re gonna do that.” And I kept saying, “It’s a STEM trip. It’s a STEM trip, we’re gonna do this.” And they all loved the idea of it, but they didn’t understand or internalize what it really meant.

Once they got there, they were like, “Hey, Miss Cortez — yo, this is really cool. I didn’t think we were gonna get to do all these things.” I’m like, “What did you think it meant?” They’re like, “I don’t know — we had no idea we were going to actually build on things or try to navigate through all of these activities or scenarios.”

There was one that showed about terminology and then they gave them scenarios and they had to build on a story. And my boys were so extravagantly engaged with it that they just ran with it. So many details, they added so much to it. They had the crowd going. I have a massive group thread with all the parents and I’m sending them pictures of everything. The parents are like, “My — we should have signed on to this trip.”

But it’s not easy. Hardships happen and life happens. Sometimes they don’t have that opportunity, and I totally understand — because my parents would have never, probably, been able. I always tell my students: if and when you have the opportunity in life, take advantage of it. Because there’s a whole world outside of Laredo, Texas.

Vicki Davis (08:07): Yeah.

Edith Cortez (08:25): We need to take advantage of seeing—

Vicki Davis (08:28): Four teachers. Four different subjects. One shared truth: once a kid has done it, they start asking, “Could I do this for a living?” That’s the magic. And that’s why EF Tours, our sponsor, exists — to help teachers like you and me take STEM off the page and into the world. This is Vicki Davis.

Vicki Davis (08:48): If you’re a STEM teacher like me, you want your students to see how STEM impacts the real world — not just read about it. On an EF Explore America STEM tour, they might code robots with MASS Robotics at MIT, explore marine ecosystems in Florida’s coral reefs, or even sit down with a former spy in Washington DC to discover how STEM thinking shows up where you least expect it. Every itinerary is designed by experts to amplify what you teach through hands-on experiences that can’t be replicated in the classroom. Visit efexploreamerica.com/STEM and see what an EF Explore America STEM tour can do for your students. Some of the greatest things I’ve ever done with my students have been tours. They make it all easy for you. So again, check out efexploreamerica.com/STEM.

Vicki Davis: I'm so excited today for us to be talking with Jean-Claude Brizard. He's a prominent education leader and reformer, and he's currently serving as President and CEO of Digital Promise — a global nonprofit focused on advancing innovation and equity in education. He was born in Haiti, and his early life was shaped by his family's flight from political persecution, which deeply informs his commitment to educational opportunity for all of our students. Jean-Claude, you began your career teaching incarcerated youth at Rikers Island. That's quite a beginning to a teaching career. What do you want to share about that beginning experience?

Jean-Claude Brizard: Vicki, first of all, thank you for having me on your show. How I got to Rikers was interesting — and many teachers I know in New York City understand this. I had a job at a high school in Queens, and I was bumped. I was excessed or displaced. They sent me to Rikers to go teach. So I didn't choose to go there. I was sent there. At the same time, it was a formative experience for me to really understand what happens if we don't do well by young people in our communities. I was sent to Rikers. I was barely 21, 22 years of age, and the young people who were there were up to age 19, maybe even 20. So they were basically my age. I had to grow a beard and put a tie on so I wouldn't be mistaken for an inmate. The experience I had, which has been sort of foundational, was meeting a young man who looked just like me — and he couldn't do basic math. He had stopped going to school in the fourth grade. In one semester I was there, we were doing algebra work. Brilliant young man. I really believe we lost a mathematician. We lost a brilliant contributor to our society. I don't know what he did, but he brought joy to my life and really made me go back and say, okay, I'm going to stay in this profession longer and see what I can do to support young people on the other side, before they get incarcerated. That was 38 years ago.

Vicki Davis: You still remember — because I think sometimes the best educators are those who can picture in their minds that student that we have to reach. We have to be passionate about reaching them. Do people ever say to you, you can't reach all of the children, so why do you even try?

Jean-Claude Brizard: I've heard that. That's what I hear about the average pass rate, the average graduation rate. I always tell people that I have children — and if they're not in the average, if they're the ones who are failing, then I really, really get angry as a parent. So I developed this attitude, this philosophy, that every child is a work of art. Our job is to create masterpieces. Not a single one should be left behind, because that individual child is really important to that parent, to that family. So we have to do everything possible to make sure that we're reaching every single one of our children. One person can't do that — clear about that. It takes a community of adults to really support this push: that every child matters.

Vicki Davis: Jean-Claude, you're speaking my language. My listeners will know that the name of my classroom is Masterpiece Theater, because I believe that every child is a masterpiece. So we are totally connected here. As you work to bridge gaps — reading is a fundamental entryway into every other subject. What's going on with Digital Promise in reading that can impact classrooms across the country?

Jean-Claude Brizard: We work at the intersection of learning science, research, technology, innovation, and practice. We center practice in everything we do. So one example of how we're thinking about reading and technology and learning science is an amazing project that was funded by the U.S. government called the You Gain Reading Center. We're taking a science-of-reading platform, Amira Learning, with a bunch of teachers and principals in seven school systems right now, working with MDRC, Penn Graduate School of Education — and of course, we're leading the effort, with folks who are experts in multilingual learning. So we're taking an existing platform and, through a co-creation construct — meaning teachers are involved with technology developers — we're extending the platform to serve multilingual learners. You think about intonation, you think about dialects, you think about what we face in so many parts of our country around kids who are coming from different places that perhaps the science-based platform was not designed to serve. Right now we've got districts in Texas, in Maryland, Washington, D.C., who are involved in this co-creation project, taking a platform and extending it — using what we know about multilingual learners, what we know about the science of reading, and what we know about AI. All that comes together in a beautiful salad that will serve so many, many young people across this country.

Vicki Davis: So it sounds like you've got your beta testers. When will this be available to a wider group? Because you're going to have a lot of teachers who listen to this and say, Jean-Claude, I need this now.

Jean-Claude Brizard: It's going to be available immediately to those who are using that particular platform — who are part of it. But ultimately, what we do is we codify the knowledge and we disseminate it. It's going to happen over time, meaning that you'll see reports come out in a year, then in two years, in three years. So I believe within three years we'll have this whole thing actually completed. But you'll see iterative development of this. We've already published articles on this. So I would tell your viewers: look at our website, keep track of what's happening, because we produce a lot of information. Ultimately, our goal is to make sure this shows up in every tech platform, in every science-of-reading platform that serves not just our nation, but the world.

Vicki Davis: This is a good use of artificial intelligence — because I know that so many people are critical of AI. But if you look at some of the greatest promises that AI holds, it's for bridging multiple languages, isn't it?

Jean-Claude Brizard: Yes, that's one. There are language platforms doing an amazing job of human and technology together, serving us around global languages, multilingual learners, et cetera. But I am really bullish around Gen AI and what it can do for curriculum, for instruction, for pedagogical practice. I just presented to the Pennsylvania Tech Conference, to about 1,200 educators who are interested in Gen AI and curriculum. We talked about math, real examples in mathematics, real examples in biology, in American history, in reading — where Gen AI has the real potential to revolutionize, to uplift what we do in pedagogy. Let me be clear though: technology is not going to revolutionize education. People will. Teachers will. Principals will. The technology is going to be an enabler. But what we're seeing already in Gen AI and curriculum is that it can bring things to life and make it real. I'll give you an example. In American history, I saw a project at ASU — at Arizona State University — where they are shifting your mental model of American history by actually having a conversation with real Americans who were part of the Revolutionary War. One example was a housewife in Georgia who captured seven British soldiers by herself. And you can engage her in conversation about who she was. So it's not about the founding fathers, but about the average American. And so many of us who teach history, who learn history, don't often get the perspective of the average person on the Hill in World War II. The average person fighting the Revolutionary War. Now we have the potential through Gen AI to have that kind of conversation about figures in history — but yes, also about the average person in history.

Vicki Davis: Yes — and you kind of hit on something that's an opportunity but also a concern. Because there are a lot of folks who say, well, AI makes mistakes, and how do we know that they're authentically representing people, because AI is biased. Do you have a concern of the bias that could come in — that they may be speaking as that person, but what if they aren't truly representing that person well?

Jean-Claude Brizard: That's a great point. We talk about mitigating bias. We can't eliminate it because technology is created by humans, and humans have all kinds of implicit biases. But one of the things we push — You Gain is an example of co-creation. Where you have teachers and principals who are involved in the building and designing, you mitigate the kinds of issues and worries that we have about this. We do a lot of work on AI literacy — for teachers, for administrators, for students, and for parents. We often tell teachers, please be crew and not passengers in this effort. AI is here. It's going to sharpen every tech product you're using, whether you like it or not. We are pushing for transparency, so folks know it's in there and what it's doing. We push very well in our acceptable use policy that we created with the federal government, that if you want the AI to be removed, you have a right to have it removed. But you have to know it's there. You have to be an informed consumer, an informed user. You have to be crew, not passengers. So yes, there are real issues of bias. But fundamentally, if we have systems where learning science exists and the educators are part of the design process, you can mitigate a lot of the challenges and issues that we have in AI right now.

Vicki Davis: What you're saying is so important — that educators are part of the process. We just got on the other side of ISTE when we're recording this, and there's, you know, let's create this or let's create that. I always try to dig and find out — were there educators involved in this process? Because there's so much about teaching that someone who's not a teacher just does not know. Someone who hasn't had that student across the table like you've had, or like I've had — they just don't understand. As we move forward, that's just so important. As we finish up, are there any other challenges that you want to just say to the classroom teacher, to the IT coach, to the principal, who's moving forward with artificial intelligence but just has a little bit of anxiety in the pit of their stomach? “Oh no, this does things that I don't understand.”

Jean-Claude Brizard: We are pushing very hard, and ISTE is a partner in this effort, that everybody needs a coherent instructional system. It is about that particular system. The best relationship in education is between students, teachers, parents, and content. That is the work of education. Technology can accelerate, can enhance, but the technology comes after the fact. It does not design the instructional program. The technology supports. So what I tell people is: make sure you know what you want to teach first. Then bring the tech. And second, make sure the tech is certified. Safe, equitable, done in a way that is research-based. All of that is part of certifications that we produce at Digital Promise. ISTE produces them. CoSN — a lot of us do this kind of work. It's called the Tech Index at ISTE; we all use it. So we tell educators: make sure that what you're using is certified, because then you have a really good chance of this thing doing what it's promising to do. Because there's a lot of fluff, there's a lot of shiny objects, a lot of magical thinking that exists in the tech world. But let's make sure that it exists to serve the children who are in front of you. And the best way to do that is to make sure it is a certified product.

Vicki Davis: Excellent. Jean-Claude Brizard, President and CEO of Digital Promise. Thank you for coming on the show, and thank you for advocating for the way forward — because AI is here. It's not going anywhere. There are wise uses of AI. There are inappropriate uses of AI. As we all have these conversations moving forward, that's what needs to happen. We need to be partners together. So thanks for leading the way for us, Jean-Claude. And thanks for coming on the show.

Vicki Davis (00:00): Some of the greatest memories of my life have been watching a student's whole world open up. The moment they step off a plane in a place they never dreamed they'd stand. That's what today is about. Five teachers who decided their students deserve to see the world and what happened when they did. Today's show is brought to you by EF Educational Tours and their STEM and Career Education Travel opportunities. Welcome back, educator. This is Cool Cat Teacher Talk and I'm Vicki Davis. Today we're talking about changing a student's world through travel.

Announcer (00:38): Ever wondered how remarkable teaching happens? Find out right now Cool Cat Teacher Talk with award winning teacher Vicki Davis. Get insights from top educators, tips and inspiration to elevate your teaching.

Vicki Davis (00:51): Over the past 20 years, I've taken students literally all over the world. Qatar, India, China, Dubai, Hawaii, and even just up the road to Atlanta, Georgia. Today we're going to hear from five educators who have done this too. A middle school social studies teacher in Laredo who is taking economically disadvantaged students to Washington, D.C. A high school science teacher in Denver whose quiet student came home transformed. A rural ag teacher in Colorado who stood in an Irish pasture with 10 FFA kids. A biology teacher from Austin planting mangroves in Panama and a principal in Baton Rouge who's been doing this for years and knows what to look for. By the end of this hour, if you've ever thought I could never take my students on a trip, I hope you'll be thinking differently with some ideas and some practical tips that help all of us be able to travel with students. So first, let's talk about why I travel with students. When I was in eighth grade and my grandmother took me on a trip, I was one of the only grandchildren who got to go before she couldn't travel anymore. She took me to Alaska and we stayed awake late at night. My grandmother told me stories. The thing that she told me that I carried forward was Vicki. You live in a small town, but it's in a big world and you need to have a big mind. You need to know that there are people all over the world who are different from you, and you need to think about life with the whole world in mind. That trip planted a seed, and years later, a school trip to Washington, D.C. led me to jump at a chance to intern for a U.S. Senator. When I was in college, I enjoyed the richness of serving in our nation's capital. Is a teacher. Took me there first, and I'll never forget a boy who wanted to go to Dubai with me. More than anything, he raised every single dollar himself so he could make the trip. And when he finally stood on that beach, as we dipped our toes in the Arabian Gulf, he stretched out his arms and shouted to the sky, Dubai! I'll be back! I knew right there in that moment, his whole life was forever changed. I saw it in the way he walked through the Dubai Mall. I saw it in the way he engaged the conference where he was a co-speaker with me at that moment on the beach. Arms wide and face full of possibility. That's the moment that reminds me why student travel and working with students matters. Not every child has a grandmother or parent who can take them places, but I hope every child has a teacher who can give them that kind of eye-opening experience. And that's why when I heard about my first guest today, an eighth grade social studies teacher in Laredo, Texas, she's been doing this for her students.

Vicki Davis (03:43): Our next guest is Edith Cortez, an eighth grade social studies teacher in Laredo, Texas. She's in her 14th year of teaching and just finished her master's in educational administration. She's passionate about connecting and traveling with her students, something we have in common. Tell us a little bit about the classroom culture that you try to create.

Edith Cortez (04:04): My classroom culture is based on the foundation of communication.

Vicki Davis (04:08): I always say we have to relate, to educate, build those relationships. So Edith, one thing you and I have in common is we both love to travel with our students. What are some of the places that you've taken your students?

Edith Cortez (04:21): My first trip was Washington and New York, so they all had so much fun. Washington and New York for them was just remarkable. I went to San Francisco and LA the following year. After that we went to Boston and New York. Then last year we just had the first STEM trip to Washington, so that was really exciting.

Vicki Davis (04:39): What are some of the things that your students do when they're on the trip?

Edith Cortez (04:42): Specifically in our STEM trip, it was very interactive. Everyone thinks Washington, like monuments and memorials, but the museums that we went to were so hands on and my kids loved it, working together but also competing with one another. They had so many scenarios to gravitate from. It was really neat to go through them. I kept saying like, oh, it's a STEM trip, it's a STEM trip. We're going to do this. They all loved the idea of it, but they didn't really internalize what it really meant. Once they got there: Hey Miss Cortez, this is really cool. I didn't think we were going to get to do all these things. I had no idea we were going to actually build on things or try and navigate through all of these activities or scenarios. There was one that they showed them. It was about terminology, and then they gave them scenarios and they had to build on a story. My boys were so curious, so engaged with it that they had the crowd going. We all recorded it. I have it on video and I sent it to all the parents. I'm that group leader. I have a massive group thread with all the parents, and I'm sending them videos of everything, and the parents are like, we should have signed on to this trip. EF really takes their time finding the right things that student travelers will enjoy. It's well thought out. That's what families are investing in. Their money is definitely well spent.

Vicki Davis (06:42): When I've taken my students all over the world, I always have students who know they're going to have to do fundraising. I'll never forget I had one boy that I took to Dubai and he got his whole family. They did three barbecues. That's what we do in South Georgia. They did three barbecues, raised all this money. I'll never forget him standing there looking at the ocean and saying, I'll be back. It just transformed his whole life because of the process, even the raising of the money, because he had the dream. So how do you help all your students be able to go? Because it's not something that everybody can write a check for.

Edith Cortez (07:15): One of my teacher friends has a club on campus and they fundraise. I tell my students, hey, here are some ideas. There are families that do raffles and any type of activities to raise funds because it's not easy and sometimes they don't have that opportunity. I totally understand. My parents would never have been able to. I always tell my students, if and when you have the opportunity in life, take advantage of it, because there's a whole world outside of Laredo, Texas, and we need to take advantage of seeing it. We really need to see what's out there and the opportunities that the world has for us.

Vicki Davis (08:01): Traveling with kids is not easy. What are some of the tips that you have for teachers who want to travel with students?

Edith Cortez (08:09): Communication is key. Just like in the classroom, expectations have to be set from the very beginning. Even at the meeting that you have with the parents when you pass out the backpacks, the parents need to hear it as well. This is the way that the trip is going to be handled. I express those expectations in front of the parents. Everyone's representing the campus. Even if it's not a district trip, you're a district employee and these are district students, your minors traveling under me, and my expectations are very high. I'm a different mode. My expectation is respect and punctuality, so they know there will be a wake up call and a knock on the door either way, and rooms have to be tidied. Everything goes with trust and respect. Communication goes a long way. It's basically just keeping up with that, being consistent.

Vicki Davis (09:04): One of the things I always tell my students is that I do look for punctuality. If you can't get to school on time when you're tired after a long game, how are you going to show up if we're going out on a desert barbecue or wherever on time? So I also look for punctuality and respect. And if you don't behave in my classroom, I'm not going to take you anywhere, right? In many ways, it's transformative to students to understand that punctuality matters. Cleanliness of your room matters. Staying on track matters. It opens up a world of fun. But there's also a responsibility and accountability that you have personally to be able to have fun. Do you see kids change as you travel with them?

Edith Cortez (09:52): Definitely. Some years back I had a group of kids travel with me. The first two trips, the parents would tell me they came back super different. Miss Cortez, they had never gone away and she was so shy, and I would do everything for him. Now they pick up after themselves. They had to handle their own money. They had to set their own alarms. It's exposure and accountability. I love that for them. When I have a repeated student traveler, it's nice to see them so grown up that second time. They take someone under their wing: I got this, come on, I'll show you. I see they're growing up.

Vicki Davis (10:30): So Edith, as teachers are listening to you saying, this sounds like some work, can I do this? What's your pep talk for teachers about why they should want to travel?

Edith Cortez (10:40): EF handles most of the work. To be honest. All I have to do is handle meetings. Even the simplicity of sending out the emails. My consultant, bless her heart, sends me a template of what to send to parents. I receive everything from email templates, things for social media, posters, campus handouts. They do the itinerary. I can give suggestions or what I plan or would like to do. Everyone's so great and everyone's focused on the student travelers and the group leaders. There's nothing difficult about it other than time. Sometimes as teachers, we feel like there's no time. But we can definitely give an hour to set up a meeting and talk to parents. With willing parents, parents will show up. Sometimes you can just do it through a Google meet and it'll be as easy as that.

Vicki Davis (11:45): I'm a little jealous. I planned my trips myself, and it was a lot of hard work and a lot of stress. If I had been able to outsource that, it still would have been a great experience but easier on me. Our next guest is rural, not urban. Ranching, not social studies. He took 10 FFA kids from Rush, Colorado to a dairy farm in Ireland.

Vicki Davis (12:17): Today we're talking with Nolan Payne. He's an agriculture education teacher and FFA advisor at Miami-Yoder School in rural Rush, Colorado, where he's starting his 15th year of teaching. Nolan and his wife Marissa are raising their two daughters as a fifth generation on their family ranch. This past summer, Nolan took 10 FFA students and his family on a 10-day Agriculture in Ireland trip. Today we're talking about why he did it, what changed, and what it meant to his students. Nolan, when did this idea of taking students out of Colorado and onto a farm in Ireland first enter your head?

Nolan Payne (13:04): We've done things at the local level, district, state and national. We've gone to the National FFA Convention there in Indianapolis. It's been a dream of mine to have kids experience agriculture overseas in an entirely different atmosphere. I started looking, and at one of my professional development workshops that the Colorado ag teachers put on, they had a booth set up. Two young ladies from EF Tours. I started talking to them, and they explained what they do. I took a pamphlet home and shared it with my family, and it just kind of evolved from there. The first thing we did was propose it to my school district. We had an informational parent meeting to see if the kids were even interested. Before long, we started the planning. Not only did we get to do that for our rural community, we also got to travel with a group from California and a group from Utah for ten days.

Nolan Payne (14:14): The first two days we flew into Dublin, Ireland, and we got to do a walking tour of Grafton Street and the Temple Bar District. We got to see St. Patrick's Cathedral and the EPIC Immigration Museum, which was really neat. I found out that I have some Irish descent, so that was kind of neat for me and my family. After Dublin, we did Kilkenny. We got to see a lot of castles. Every day was jam packed with farms, and our kids really enjoyed talking to the farmers. We got to do some sightseeing in Dublin, but the truth is, the most fun that our kids had and experienced was talking with the farmers. One of the farms we visited was a fruit farm where they had greenhouses and apple orchards. Another farm was a dairy farm that also grew potatoes. Our kids got to go on the milking floor and the farmers let the kids hook up all the milking machinery. Then they drank fresh milk. That was an experience in itself. We also got to see an oyster farm where we learned about that and got to see all the marketing and the business side of it. At the end they got to try a fresh oyster. Really neat experiences. Each day was planned by EF Tours. Everything inclusive, from hotel rooms to the food. The hospitality was outstanding.

Nolan Payne (16:17): They put agriculture in perspective. To be totally honest, I don't think it's really still sat in. Even as school's still going on, they bring up different experiences and talk about it. I think the food, they really noticed the food and the culture. Some of the kids wanted to get back to McDonald's and their habits and way of life. The one thing that stood out was how green it is in Ireland. In rural Colorado where I teach, we are a very dry climate, rarely green. Seeing that was really neat. Also, the similarities of the relationships in Ireland to Colorado. It's actually not that different from what a farmer experiences. Putting your heart and soul into agriculture and the legacy that the Irish leave with their family. A lot of the younger fourth and fifth generation kids are running the farms in Ireland, which I thought was really neat.

Nolan Payne (17:26): Yes, definitely. My overall goal is to have this kind of as a legacy project for my ag kids. International travel is huge. Everything from going through an airport, passports, all the little things that a teacher doesn't think of until they actually experience it. I'd like to make this a legacy project, so probably every 3 or 4 years. I'm in the process right now of looking at another destination. I've looked at maybe Belgium, maybe Switzerland or the Alps. I'm working with EF Tours now to see what their plans look like for us.

Nolan Payne (18:23): FFA is one of the largest, if not the largest student-led organization in the world. There's a lot of misconceptions out there from parents to kids that you have to be a farmer or a rancher to be an FFA member. That is not the case at all. I enjoy the leadership, the public speaking, the camaraderie, the networking, the problem solving, the hands-on learning. It's not until 6 or 7 years down the road, when kids go through the program and are in college or in their jobs, that it actually sinks in. As an ag teacher, I really feel lucky and blessed to be able to help kids in a rural school. The kids need more hands-on learning and those experiences. I really can't say enough about FFA.

Vicki Davis (19:39): A fifth generation rancher watching his FFA kids milk a cow in Ireland. The legacy he lives on his own ranch is beautiful. Before I bring on my next guest, let me share a few things I wish somebody had told me before my first trip with students. First: not every student is ready for a trip. If a student doesn't mind me in the classroom, I'm not taking them across the world. 98% of kids will do exactly what you ask them to do, and they will thrive, but you have to be willing to say no until a child can prove their maturity. I once had a parent tell me her daughter was terrified of flying, but it was okay because she was going to give her a sedative and by the time she got to Hawaii it would have worn off. I said no, ma'am. If your daughter is afraid of flying, she needs to be on a trip with you, not with me. That wasn't popular, but it was the right call. Second: talk about the awkward stuff before you go. Talk about the bathrooms. I had a student going to India who refused to use the airplane restroom for the entire flight, and when we landed in Mumbai, the women's restroom was a hole in the ground. 16 hours is dangerous. Prepare your kids ahead of time. Talk about the food. Real Chinese food often has bones in it. Talk about how toilets work in different parts of the world. In the Middle East, you don't put toilet paper in the toilet, you put it in a trash can. These are things you don't think about if you haven't traveled. That's what preparation is for. Third: I always pack cereal bars and granola bars, enough for three people every trip. No matter how you prepare, you'll have a student who just won't eat the food. I had a girl in China who basically lived on those granola bars for two weeks. Teach your kids to pack smart. Two roommates should swap half their suitcases before you leave. So if one bag gets lost, they each still have something. That saved us in China when a student suitcase went missing. And fourth, watch the food and watch the water and have a good local guide. I had a boy in India order some chicken and it didn't look right to me. He said no, it looks great. He didn't get to go anywhere for the next day and a half because of that decision. That's why I always travel with multiple adults, and I love to have parents on the trips. A good local guide can read a situation that you can't. Once with my students, it appeared a protest was forming near a government building. My tour guide sized up the situation and we immediately diverted. That's the kind of insight you only get from someone who really knows the area. Now our next guest is a high school teacher in Denver whose students have been to Great Britain and Belize. She's going to tell you about a student who almost never spoke until he did. Let's talk to Angela.

Vicki Davis (22:52): Today we're talking with Angela Cannava. She's a high school science and CTE teacher in Denver, in her 19th year. She established the CTE Biomedical Sciences Pathway and serves as advisor for HOSA Future Health Professionals. In the last five years, she's been taking her students beyond the classroom walls and leading international tours, including a Health Sciences trip to Great Britain and a Ridge to Reef expedition in Belize. Angela, why don't you start with your first trip?

Angela Cannava (23:34): Thank you so much for having me on. I had my first travel experience with students with EF Tours in Great Britain. The reason I decided to take kids to travel in the first place is because I had actually gone on a tour with EF with one of my friends, Brian Jenkins, the year before. When I was on that tour with him, I saw how much students' eyes were opened and how you could build different relationships with them. So that's what sparked me to lead the Health Sciences in Great Britain tour. I was very nervous leading my first trip. I can't believe I'm taking kids all the way overseas. But EF did a great job easing my anxiety. I had chaperones, I had support, I had a tour director that met us right at the airport. Some of the kids had never left Denver before. The trip was aligned to the curriculum I'm teaching. One of the highlights was a forensics lab where we did real DNA fingerprinting. I remember a student that wasn't always the most excited to be in class coming up to me after the workshop and saying, oh my gosh, Ms. Cannava, everything you taught me is actually what they do in the real lab. We did anatomical museums, anatomical artifacts, brains that were preserved, the old paintings of anatomy that hooked into the anatomy class I teach. We went on the London Eye at sunset. I have a picture of these students just looking out across the skyline, all smiles. I've never seen such happy kids in my life. If you build strong relationships with students, they will want to travel with you.

Angela Cannava (28:37): A lot of the students I had in my class the next year would talk about connections from the trip. For example, when we were starting our anatomy unit looking at some of these historical pieces of anatomy, one of the kids said, oh my gosh, we saw that in Great Britain. I got so many more students in HOSA because of that trip. They saw that traveling beyond and being part of something bigger than your normal school day enriches your life and your learning. We're an IB school as well, so having that international component is really helpful. Building those relationships, kids wanting to come in and eat lunch with me and go back through the pictures from the trip. I was teaching three levels at that time, so it was the third year I had this student who had never said maybe ten words to me. After we went on that trip, he just hit it off with me and told me about his weekends, his baseball games, how he wants to travel the world now and how I inspired him. Moments like that were so incredible and so touching. It's worth it all.

Angela Cannava (31:34): Belize Ridge to Reef was so different. EF offers a very diverse menu of trips, and I wanted to do a STEM trip centered around conservation. I knew most of the kids that were on this tour. I had had most of them in class before, mostly upperclassmen, so I had a strong relationship with them. We landed and our tour director, this Belizean, just full of energy, picks up our group and says, okay, we're going to the zoo right now. Different kind of zoo than what we have here. It's all about saving animals and restoring them in natural habitats. Belize was the ridge part. Three days were in the mountains and four days were in the ocean. One of my favorite memories was a bat workshop in the middle of the night where this NGO showed us how they do studies on bats and untangle these nets. We were ten feet away from it. They explained all of the anatomy about the bats. Zip lining through the rainforest was really cool. Some advice I'd give to teachers thinking of traveling: make sure kids know what they're getting into. The kids kept asking, when are we going to the ocean? It's from Ridge to Reef. Setting students up with the expectation for the trip is super important. And one of my favorite things, one of the students that went on that trip is actually going to work at the NGO this summer that we did the bat workshop. He just told me that last week. So not just classroom connections, but connections beyond that for life.

Angela Cannava (37:37): Yes. My biggest piece of advice is to make sure you go with some sort of travel company. EF is our flagship for our school. Definitely have somebody that can help with the organization and the planning, because we're so busy as teachers. EF makes it so easy. They make my fliers, they make my PowerPoints, they make everything for me. Then it's just ready to go for my promotion nights. They give you deadlines, a website to help kids raise money. Having a tour director with knowledge of the destination, having all the hotels ready, having all the meals ready, suggesting restaurants. Making it doable for the teacher with our workload, I will say that it can be done. I was very nervous at first, but now I am not. I'm not going to stop.

Vicki Davis (39:32): A quiet student who came home from a trip and finally found his voice. A kid who's going to work at the NGO where he did the bat workshop. Travel changed his career path. Our next guest has done 11 trips with her high schoolers, including Panama, Thailand, Italy, San Francisco, and Boston. Today we're talking with Miranda Grabowski. She's been in education for 8 years after graduating from the University of Texas at Austin with her degree in biology and English. Most of her career, she has worked in Austin, Texas as a biology teacher and instructional coach focusing on experiential learning.

Miranda Grabowski (40:32): We do 11 trips a year with our students through the school itself, not on spring break or summer, but during school. It has to do with our experiential learning model. Each year I probably go on 3 or 4 trips with different grade levels. Our students can travel 2 to 3 times over their four years.

Miranda Grabowski (41:13): Most recently I got back from our Panama trip with about 40 of our 11th graders. Our students work with local NGOs in Panama to actually help conserve their wetlands. I get to sit back and watch my students learn in real time how science happens in the real world. They're actually doing the science on their own. Boots on the ground, picking up the mangroves, getting on a boat, getting sunburned, going to plant the mangroves to help conserve that natural environment for the country. It's really great to actually see the students not just pretend to like the thing, but actually do the thing.

Miranda Grabowski (42:16): In Thailand, we work with the same elementary school the whole time. We help build a garden the kids can work in, revitalize their classrooms, and build a relationship between our students and these international students. Italy: last year was the first time the kids did “learn how to be a gladiator,” minus the slavery aspect. Foam blood, replicas of armor and weapons. They went to gladiator school for a day. Italy is a lot of eating great food, taking in art and ancient culture. San Francisco and Boston were both STEM trips. My favorite experience in San Francisco was the hike in Muir Woods National Monument. The first time most of our students get to see trees that large. The first year I went, it was also salmon spawn season. We got to see the salmon swimming upstream in the river that runs through the monument.

Miranda Grabowski (45:03): I travel with high schoolers, so this advice is for high school teachers. Even if they're complaining, they're actually enjoying what they're doing. They're complaining about being tired, they're complaining about their curfew. They're complaining, but they're actually having fun and making memories and learning about something. It's okay for them to complain off in their corner. They're teenagers. That's what they do. You don't have to take it personally when they don't like something.

Miranda Grabowski (45:53): First of all, bring other adults with you that you trust. Even if you're the group lead, it is not all on you. I haven't had a bad experience with another adult that I've taken with me. Also, things like make sure you have extra copies of, say if you're on an international trip, the kid's passport. We had to give them to the hotel. I didn't even know I was going to give those to the hotel. A list of the hotel rooms. We carry a med kit. Being overly prepared is one way to help yourself not be stressed. I carry lists of kids' allergies and their hotel rooms. I have their parents' phone numbers. Anything you could think of to prepare yourself means one less thing to freak out about when you're actually on tour.

Miranda Grabowski (47:17): We always call them ten minutes before we actually want them, so that way we can go get the kids who are still asleep 15 minutes after we called them.

Vicki Davis (47:57): What happens when the decision-maker at the top of a school says travel is part of who we are? Today we're talking with Karen Spencer. She's principal of Parkview Baptist School in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Karen is a lifelong educator who's worked in both public and private schools across elementary and middle school grades. For many years, she's partnered with EF Tours.

Karen Spencer (48:46): This is a pre-K through 12 school. We have about 1,100 students from varying socioeconomic levels. We are associated with the Baptists. We are a very mission-minded school. There's so much learning that can happen outside the walls of the classroom. Several years ago, one of my teachers and I decided we wanted to bring more STEM to the school. We reached out to EF and said, we want to see what we can do to offer some type of a STEM component to travel. We had just the previous two years before started a Washington, D.C. trip with our eighth graders, and it was such a great success. So we said let's bring in a STEM component. Boston just hit us. What I love about EF is that over time, this has evolved from just a STEM trip to a STEM, history and fun trip. It's so much fun to watch the students grow and gain independence. We just got back yesterday from our Boston trip. Watching my seventh graders navigate security at a busy, bustling Boston airport, I was a little nervous, but they did a fantastic job.

Karen Spencer (50:26): We went to MIT and Harvard. Got a glimpse at Harvard, a more liberal arts Ivy League school, then MIT, a more STEM school, to show them options. There are options out there. But it starts now: building that resume, getting your scores up, your transcripts ready so you have options when you graduate. We did a duck boat tour to see all of Boston. We went to FIRST Robotics and MassRobotics and got to experiment with the robotics, turned it into a competition and they were all in. Did you know Boston has a Museum of Ice Cream? We found that one on this trip and it was so fun. We did the Fine Arts Museum, the Museum of Science. We did Lexington and Concord, the Boston Tea Party, the USS Constitution, the Freedom Trail. We walked up Beacon Hill. You name it, we did it. Boston this time of year was stunningly beautiful.

Karen Spencer (51:35): Just one quick overnight marine biology trip on our own. Then in seventh grade we start with EF and do our Boston STEM and history trip. In eighth grade we do Washington, D.C. In high school we add in international trips. We have gone to Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Greece, France, all of Italy. This past summer we did London, Paris and Edinburgh, Scotland. I'm a fan of Scotland. The whole trip was fabulous, but I really love Scotland.

Karen Spencer (53:05): It is amazing. It is so much fun. My favorite thing is getting to know the students on a different level and getting to see them and having them see me in a different way. We do allow parents to come on our trips, and I have built some amazing relationships with parents and students because they get to see my heart and see me in a different light. I came back this morning, and one of our students. I saw this child who sometimes gets in trouble in such a different light. I saw him come to life in a different way. I had such a new love and respect for him. It's a lot of work, but it is so worth it. There's going to be problems to solve. You have to be flexible. You have to go with the flow and you want to bring the fun.

Karen Spencer (54:17): EF has proven time and time again that they're willing to listen. The Museum of Ice Cream was a spur-of-the-moment thing. I looked at my tour guide and said, we have to make this happen. I called EF, how can we make this work? They were like, we're on it. Three hours later, we were there. That's one of the reasons I like EF so much. They want to work with me. One year we had a terrible plane delay. The next year they solved it. They sent security guards to help at night. It just gives me peace of mind.

Vicki Davis (55:21): Edith showed us that when the teacher in an economically disadvantaged border town decides there's a whole world outside of Laredo, Texas, and we need to take advantage of seeing it, students rise to the occasion. Nolan Payne showed us that rural kids who've never left Colorado can stand in an Irish pasture and see themselves in a fifth generation farmer half a world away. Agriculture has a legacy in every country, and as a farmer's daughter, I really feel that one. Angela reminded us that the quiet student who barely spoke ten words in three years is waiting, and sometimes that trip is the key that opens the door. Miranda Grabowski shows us that you can be in the boots with students actually doing the science, and even when they complain they're making memories they'll carry the rest of their lives. Karen Spencer reminds us that when a principal commits to travel as a school value, everyone sees each other in a new light, including the kids who sometimes get in trouble. I'll close with this. I took a group of students to a street school in Mumbai, India. The children there were each given one small pencil and a tiny two-by-four-inch notebook, and that was what they used for the entire year. My students were speechless in that moment. They understood something about the world and their world that no textbook could ever teach them. Travel changes students. It changes lives. So can you travel with students? You do not have to plan it yourself. And I'll be the first one to tell you, I did it the hard way. For too many years, I booked my own flights, I put hotels on my own credit card and waited for parents to reimburse me. Do not do that. Let a good company handle the logistics so you can focus on teaching. But first we have to decide. Decide your kids are worth it. Start small if you need to. A trip down the road, a service project, a single day of field learning locally. But travel with students changes their life. You become closer to the kids and they become your legacy. You'll be so glad that you did. Today's show is brought to you by EF Educational Tours and their STEM and career travel opportunities. You can see the show notes at coolcatteacher.com/travel. This is Vicki Davis. Thank you for listening to Cool Cat Teacher Talk. See you later, educator.

(This transcript was generated using AI and has been reviewed by humans for accuracy. Minor errors or artifacts may remain.)