Teaching is one of the hardest jobs there are. Not only is there the Monday to Friday teaching time, but there’s also the grading, the planning, the professional development…and the worrying. Will you have enough time to cover the material? How can you reach the struggling students? What new methods are worth a try? How do you challenge the advanced students? How will your students perform on testing?
With all that stress, it may seem that planning a student trip would only add to your to-do list—and the last time you checked, a day still only has 24 hours.
But as teachers who have traveled will almost unanimously tell you—as well as those of us who have the super fun and rewarding job of making these educational tours happen—traveling with your students is actually one of the perks of being a teacher. How so? Read our Top 10 list of reasons you should travel with your students.
It breathes life back into your curriculum. Nothing gets your students more excited about coming to school every day than the prospect of a new adventure. Call it the light at the end of the tunnel, if you will; students who are looking forward to an extra special event will reflect that enthusiasm in all that they do.
It gives your students an opportunity to come together and work toward a goal. When you plan a student trip, you give all members of your group something they hold in common. You can encourage group cohesiveness by planning fundraisers and working on projects that are specifically related to your trip.
Educational travel is so much easier than you might think before you’ve embarked on one of these adventures with your students. Choose the right student tour company, and you’ll be happily surprised by the level of customer service. Prométour tour consultants make it their duty to pull out all the stops when planning your student trip. They build your itinerary based on your requests, make all travel arrangements and work behind the scenes to get everything ready for your group. On tour, your tour director takes care of every detail to make sure your tour unfolds flawlessly.
An experienced custom tour provider, like Prométour, knows how to make your student travel worth the time and effort by designing an itinerary full of meaningful travel experiences for you and your students. If you’ve heard of a disappointing student travel experience, it’s likely that the group chose a cookie-cutter or over-touristy student travel company. The right tour company will take care of all the details and special requests to offer you a tour you’re confident in promoting.
You get to be present for the practical application of all the important lessons you’ve taught them in your classroom. There are some things that can only be done on site and others that are so much more memorable because you were there.
Travel has a way of reaching all students, making it easy to give concrete lessons that all of your students will not only remember but will also be inspired by.
You’ll be the teacher they remember, the one who made a big impact on their lives, and the one who took the time and made the effort to offer your students something more.
Your student trip may be the only opportunity your students get to travel. While not all families would think of taking a summer trip to Europe, many would consider sending their child on an educational tour organized by the school. By offering your students a safe and fun travel experience, you may be giving them the only opportunity they’ll have to experience another culture.
There are so many other lessons inherent to travel, besides the actual sites you’ll be visiting and hands-on experiences you’ll be participating in. This is a chance for your students to travel with their peers, to get to know themselves better, to grow as people and to become more worldly. Thanks to you.
Renew their enthusiasm for classroom lessons—and for your program in particular—upon their return. Travel is something that stays with students. Long after your tour is over, they will remember what they saw, heard, learned and experienced. It will change everything they do moving forward. Perhaps something on tour will inspire them and guide their choices of learning path and future career.
Travel makes a difference. At Prométour, we’re lucky that we get to see this in action and hear stories every single day about how Prométour student trips change lives. And we thank our traveling teachers for being the ones who make that happen.
