Teachers Without Borders

Were those gunshots or fireworks?  We occasionally ask ourselves this question.  We, you see, are teachers in Latin America’s largest favela.  I serve as their curriculum director and mentor. Prior to their arrival in Rio de Janeiro, I am often asked if it is safe to work and live here.  My answer is always yes. I’ve never felt unsafe, unwelcome, or in danger.  These words are the truth. The community is a vibrant hive of family-oriented activity and commerce.  I’ve walked the streets and alleyways many a day and might with no problem, no trepidation.  I follow the standard rules all travelers follow when abroad. These are the words I tell the volunteers and I stick by them, despite the events of June 17, 2015. Despite continuing to teach preschool classes that day to the sounds of machine guns and then grenades. 

Click the Globo TV link above to see and hear footage of the conflict.

While Rocinha was pacified by military force several years ago, occasional conflict still erupts. The complicated political relationship between the UPPs (Units of Police Pacification) and existing drug traffickers is complex.  Some locals will persuade you that they do not trust the police and life is worse under their iron-fisted, quick-to-fire rule.  Others will exclaim that the traffickers made it difficult to walk safely about in the favelas.  In this hillside community of narrow, labyrinthine passageways populated by an estimated 300,000, there are as many opinions as there are streets with no name.

Worldwide, the number of children going to school or attempting to go to school in “conflict zones” is staggering.  Adolescents in conflict-impacted countries are two-thirds more likely to be out of school than their counterparts in non-conflict impacted countries.  On June 17, school was already in session when the violence erupted.  Luckily, the conflict only lasted four hours.  

Teachers are often coached how to keep students engaged.  In 24 years of teaching, the vast majority of which have taken place in high-poverty high schools in the USA, I can’t ever remember learning a strategy for how to keep the learning process afloat with the sound of machine gun fire and grenades in the air.  All I know is we kept going.  

Thus it is imperative that the educational challenges, not only of the students but also of their teachers, in conflict zones be addressed.  At the Education for Development summit in Oslo, Norway held a few weeks ago, it was reported few developing countries have achieved the Millennium Development Goal of universal primary schooling.  Even if millions more children are in school now than in 2000 when the MDGs were adopted, up to 250 million children still don't make it to Grade 4 or haven’t learned the basics of reading and simple math by the time they reach grade 4.  The lack of professional development in these conflict zones must be addressed.  

After being asked to serve as Curriculum Director for Project Favela, I became obsessed with marrying my two passions: the work I did in Rio de Janeiro during the summer of 2013 and the National Geographic Grosvenor Teacher Fellowship I was honored to accept in 2014.  How will I incorporate geo-literacy this summer when I return to Rio?

Rocinha is one of the largest and most notorious favelas in Latin America. Over a quarter of a million residents live in this hillside slum.  While there are some major avenues that go “through” the favela, most of the passageways are alleys. These narrow labyrinthine passageways are expertly navigated by children daily.  But the houses have no numbers and many ‘streets’ have no names (to quote from the U2 song).  

Here is a map showing some of the more obvious streets.

Even Google Maps will only go so far.  

Enter National Geographic educational materials!  I love the activity in which students map their favorite spaces in their neighborhoods. Good stuff!

But will the children of Rocina recognize themselves and their lives in this representation? 

This is a neighborhood where the streets ‘do’ have names and don’t look like a crazy plate of spaghetti.  Where are the units of police pacification standing with assault rifles at the ready?  Where are the open sewers running alongside the ‘sidewalk’ ? 

My grandmother was a seamstress and she taught me that with a little modification, a little nip and tuck, any dress can fit any body beautifully.  Don’t we as teachers have the same gift?  

Presenting today at the 5th Annual GlobalEdCon International Conference. The interactive features to the Infographic I presented can be found by following this link:

While on board the National Geographic Explorer as a Grosvenor Teacher Fellow, I started every day around 5 a.m. The arctic sun would already be shining gauzily through the ever-present morning fog, and the bow was the perfect sacred space to begin the day.  While I was not outwardly meditating or completing a yoga sequence, I was awakening to the day, to the possibilities, to the magnificence that is to wake up and have the world’s most pure oxygen fill my lungs.   

I was usually alone until the call for breakfast stirred my fellow travelers from their cabins.  But on July 14 , while we were cruising into Isafjordur, the captain replaced the morning breakfast bell with an announcement that humpback whales had been spotted in the 2 o’clock position.  On this crisp morning, I joyfully shared my sacred space with fellow travelers and the humpbacks which were feeding and diving below the surface.

Throughout this hour long float alongside the humpbacks, those with me on the bow stood in almost perfect silence; few seemed to breathe.  The silence broke when the surface broke; the click of a dozen camera shutters punctuated the arctic silence like soft artillery fire.  Once the photographic firestorm ceased, I could hear this army of whale watchers exhale in concert.  Though I could see giddiness in their eyes, there would be no noisy silliness to interrupt this arctic stillness, this shared “presence.” 

Later, small groups boarded Zodiacs and we criss-crossed the waters of the fjord just off Vigur Island hoping for a closer look.  The conversations were few; to distract yourself with talk was to risk a missed sighting.  And to experience a sighting, one had to be completely present:  one not only had to keep eyes, mind, and camera focused on the water, but also on fellow travelers’ who might be first to spot a vertical burst of air blown from a whale’s spout.

As we stepped onto Vigur Island, the morning stillness was replaced by the activity of eider ducks and their chicks, puffins, and arctic terns which nest there by the thousands. 

Our presence was quite the disturbance; the terns defensively dive-bombed us as we walked near their nesting grounds.  In order to protect ourselves from an Alfred Hitchcock movie re-enactment, we carried sticks above our heads and held our breaths for fear of getting pecked.  Once outside the nesting grounds, we exhaled delightedly.  Off in the distance, I could see a whale’s puff of air in sync with our own exhales, still punctuating this remarkable day.

There are many rules for responsible travel, especially in Arctic regions.  Let's take a brief look at a few well known rules and a few lesser known rules.  

Number One:  Never get into a staring contest with Icelandic sheep.  You will lose.  The sheep are plentiful and yes, mesmerizing.  It is best to keep exploring.  

Number Two:  Make sure your global footprint leaves less of a mark on the Arctic than the Arctic leaves on you.

Number Three:  Never explore prohibited areas, even if it is July 15th and you just missed the admittance period by one day.

Number Four:  Observe endangered and/or potentially dangerous species from a distance, whether polar bear, humpback whale, puffin, or the elusive arctic fox.

Number Five:  Observe local customs.  In Iceland, there are monk costumes for rent.  The elves are invisible, making number six on this list I found posted in a shop on Flatey Island easy to obey.  

Number Six:  Always ask permission before photographing or posing with the locals.  The Icelandic people do, in fact, believe in the existence of the Huldufolk--elves, trolls, fairies and other magical beings.  The trolls are especially troublesome and I will address the hazards of traveling in troll country in a future blog.

My first assignment from the book How to be an Explorer of the World, was to create a sound map by sitting and observing sounds.  Our first disembarkation from the National Geographic Explorer would be on Flatey Island, and I chose this spot as my observatory.

A mustard colored lighthouse and gaily colored homes came into view as the National Geographic Explorer cruised up to the small and ever so charming Flatey Island.  

Former home of Scandinavian pioneers and a 12th century Augustinian monastary, except for sheep and a few families with tow-haired children, today it is mostly deserted.

It is the home to one of the greatest treasures in Iceland, the “Book of Flatey,” a manuscript dating back to the 1300s which is the source for many of the Norse sagas.  A  Lutheran church and cemetery, a tiny library (the smallest and oldest in Iceland), dot one end of the island while a harbor and shop anchor another.  

My first assignment from the book How to be an Explorer of the World, was to create a sound map by sitting and observing sounds.  The first and only real obstacle to solitude on Flatey Island were my companions on board the National Geographic Explorer.  I needed to perch myself somewhere for an extended period of time in order to complete the task; therefore, I disembarked with the naturalist staff and had the island almost to myself for an hour.

The silence on the island was singular:  from my spot on the trail the silence broke in high-definition bleats, caws, and crunch.  As a mother and son ambled toward me, their conversation amplified and the polysyllabic music that is the Icelandic language filled my space.

There is maybe no more magnificent observatory in the world than Iceland.  The sights and sounds and sensations are a symphony.

Click here to see my interactive map.

To create my sound map, I used Thinglink.  Thinglink is a free and user friendly digital tool that provides users with the ability to turn any image into an interactive graphic. Users create multiple “hot spots” on specific parts of an image and turn that image into a multimedia launcher.  These include video, record audio or provide a link to any website with the click of a button. Students and teachers can easily embed an interactive ThingLink graphic into any blog or website. ThingLink is a truly amazing and easy to use tool that allows users to pack a lot of content into a small space. 

During the Grosvenor Teacher Fellowship spring workshop, Amy Berquist of Lindblad Expeditions put me in touch with this amazing young man.  Juan Martinez is someone with whom my students can connect. Now he is an Emerging Explorer with National Geographic!

Upcoming blog posts from my National Geographic and Lindblad Expeditions Grosvenor Fellowship in Iceland will be based on ideas for becoming an explorer.  I will be using the book How to Be an Explorer of the World. My students live within the inner-city and have so few experiences outside the city limits.  This insularity restricts their ability to appreciate, understand, and connect with the world.  Thus my travels are my way of bringing the world into the classroom.  But I also want them to explore the world in which they now live with new eyes. While in Iceland, I will attempt the same assignments I will propose to my students.  Then we will explore our own geographies with similar assignments.  

A follow-up book that I will include in my course this year is 

   I am so excited to be going to Iceland but, no worries, I don't plan to get as excited as this guy!  However, if I run across any of Iceland's legendary hidden folk, elves who build their homes inside rocks and on craggy hillsides, and they seem to favor lava formations, I might never return!  This article on Slate may help you find me:

Elf Detection 101

Okay, I'll be serious.  During my expedition to Iceland, here are a few of my goals:

1.  As I refine my Advanced Placement curriculum, I hope to broaden my already quite expansive unit on nature (in which we analyze the writings of John Muir, Wendell Berry, Rachel Carson, Jon Krakauer, Joan Didion, among others) to include a study of sustainability.  I am fascinated with Iceland's use of natural resources and geo-thermal energy to promote successful communities. Of course, from an engineering point of view this is much easier in Iceland because of the sheer number of active volcanos.

Thus I want to focus on how communities (local and global) make wise use of our natural resources while still preserving and honoring the environment.  I hope to have multiple opportunities to discuss sustainability with researchers and locals while in Iceland in order to come to terms with the paradox that is Iceland:  it is the land of fire and ice; it is lauded for its natural beauty and wise use of natural resources and simultaneously criticized for whaling and viewing climate change as a potential positive change for Icelandic community. http://news.yahoo.com/icelands-prime-minister-says-climate-change-great-iceland-212556000.html.

2.  I am adding excerpts from texts to my overall syllabi including a few titles such as Barry Lopez' Arctic Dreams, Halldor Laxness' Nobel Prize winning novel Independent People, and Gyrdir Eliasson's short stories.  I've spent the summer immersing myself in the written word of others who have traveled and lived in the region such as the chapter on Iceland from

It is important for me to internalize how experiences in unfamiliar environments translate into prose and poetry.

3.  Iceland consistently is crowned as one of the happiest places on the planet.  Interestingly, the city in which I teach has very recently been given the dubious honor of being the 3rd most miserable city in the United States.