This trip is open to families with children over 5 years old who want an educational and fun opportunity to come together as a family and with the group of like-minded travelers. This travel program will build upon CPS≠s 6 year history of collaborating with the Monteverde Institute (see course below) and the Summer Camp's experience with their Travel Camps. The focus of the week's activities will be on Culture, Social Studies, Environmental Science, and Community Service.
A Spanish-language immersion option is available.

Group leaders:
Robin Ostenfeld, MA, is a 6th grade environmental science teacher at Fieldston in Riverdale, NY. She was the TA for the study abroad course to Costa Rica in 2008 and 2007 and is exploring the possibility of opening a water conservation museum there in 2011. She earned an MSEd from Bank Street College in Museum Education in May 2008. Her BS is from Fordham University.

Shuber Naranjo is the Spanish teacher for the Lower School and part of the Middle School at Bank Street School for Children. For the past three years, he has taught a Spanish-immersion classroom in the Bank Street Summer Camp. He has a Master Degree in Bilingual Education from Hunter College Graduate School. This is his seventh year teaching.

Two programs are currently available:
December 26, 2010 - January 2, 2011   (Deadline is October 15th)
 or
August 2011 (dates TBD) 
Click here for an application >>>

Applications are reviewed on a first-come, first-served basis. Space is limited.
Click here for a tentative itinerary.

For more information:
Call Cookie or Robert at 212.875.4705 or
email: studyabroad@bankstreet.edu

We invite you to experience the rainforest in a field-based, 16-day course that explores the Costa Rican rainforest. Through hands-on investigations, discover its unique environment and the community and the culture of the people who live there.

Our goal is to learn how to construct a meaningful, unsentimental, and accurate curriculum on rainforest ecology and the issues surrounding rainforest conservation. To this end we will meet with local people, such as conservationists, farmers, hotel owners, artists, and teachers and visit local schools. We will also meet with expert biologists for hands-on experiences with bats, birds, insects, butterflies, monkeys, flowers, and plants.

Most of all, you will learn practical and thoughtful ways of teaching children about nature and social studies through inquiry. You will also learn how to teach children about far-away places, including use of technology, so you can explore and teach about the rainforest through an interdisciplinary perspective in your own classroom or museum setting.

Robin Ostenfeld, MA, currently teaches 6th grade Environmental Science at Fieldston Middle School in Riverdale, NY. Ostenfeld's passion is teaching her students ways they can reduce their impact on the environment by understanding the hidden systems which govern the planet. She has visited Costa Rica on four subsequent occasions, assisting the course for the past three years and surfing the beaches on the Pacific side of Costa Rica. Prior to the course in 2010, she will be exploring the possibility of opening a water conservation museum there in 2011. Ostenfeld worked in the science department at Newark Museum, followed by a fellowship at WCS in the Education department, where she pursued her interest in wildlife conservation and animal handling. She earned a MSEd from Bank Street College in Museum Education and a BS from Fordham University in NYC.

Course Dates: July 30 - August 14, 2010*
Course prices:
No credit or 8 CEU, travel, lodging, and most meals $4,600
2 credits, travel, lodging, and most meals $5,100
3 credits, travel, lodging, and most meals $6,050

*Possible Spanish language homestay/study option available before or after next year's course.
This course fulfils the science requirement (EDUC 551) for matriculated Bank Street College students.

Cick here to download an application form or email studyabroad@bankstreet.edu for more information.
*Two spaces are currently available.*

Quotes from 2009 participants:

• "This course was nothing short of transformative."
• "Susan did a wonderful job facilitating this course- she was a model of how I would like to guide students through science inquiry in my classroom."
• "I learned a tremendous amount in a very short time and had an unforgettable experience."
• "This course did an excellent job of balancing social studies and science. In this context, they are inextricable."

Click here for a slideshow from the Costa Rica 2007 class. >>

To view the Costa Rica 2008 slideshow, click on the image below.

Participants will spend seven days experiencing the culture and languages of Morocco first-hand in Rabat, Fes, and Ifrane. Through visits to elementary and secondary schools in both rural and urban settings, and discussions with prominent authorities in education and culture from Moroccan universities, participants will gain a greater understanding of Arab culture as experienced in Morocco. It is a country whose citizens must acquire facility in more than one language to be able to participate fully in civic life. Among the languages spoken are Amazigh (Berber), Moroccan Arabic, Standard Arabic, Spanish, and French. These linguistic competencies reflect Morocco's indigenous past, its prominence as a crossroads of Arab civilization over many centuries, and its recent legacy as a European colony. A major topic of discussion and reflection will be how Morocco's educational system fosters national unity and pride while encouraging the multilingual competency of its citizens. Finally, participants will explore the role language plays in forming and maintaining cultural identity in both Morocco and America.

Joan Brodsky Schur, MAT, is a curriculum developer, author, and teacher. Her lesson plans appear on the Websites of PBS, the National Archives, and The Islam Project.Org. She has served as a member of the Advisory Group for PBS TeacherSource, the advisory committee for WNET's Access Islam Website, and is a board member of the Middle East Outreach Council. Her books for school libraries include Immigrants in America - The Arab Americans (Lucent Books, 2004) and The Arabs ("Coming to America" series, Greenhaven Press, 2004). An avid traveler who has visited Morocco numerous times, Schur is the Social Studies Coordinator at the Village Community School in New York City, where she has been a teacher for over twenty-five years. Ms. Schur earned her Masters in Arts in Teaching and a BA in English, both from NYU. Learn more about Ms. Schur at www.joanbrodskyschur.com.

Contact studyabroad@bankstreet.edu or 212/875-4707 to be added to the 2011 mailing list.

Course Dates: March 27 - April 4, 2010
Course Fees (Includes travel, lodging, and most meals):
No Credit or 8 CEU $4,280
1* Credit $4,480
2* Credits $5,380

*Participants will complete an assignment by May 2 for 1 credit and by May 23 for an optional second credit.

Click here to view a brief slide show of sites in Morocco >>

This program is designed to give teachers a first-hand experience of free schools in Uganda that often lack even the most basic of resources. Through a collaboration between Bank Street and Positive Planet (see bio below), participants will travel to Uganda and visit in schools whose teachers sometimes have over 100 students on their rosters, in settings that may not have electricity or running water, and have little to no teaching materials besides what is found in the environment. Participants will observe in classrooms as well, and learn from and collaborate with Ugandan teachers on a classroom project to share different approaches to teaching.

In preparation, there is a two-day required orientation in New York City. During orientation, participants will explore how to create meaningful learning experiences, given the many challenges teachers are facing in these schools. Topics such as behavior management, multi-sensory teaching, reinforcement activities, scaffolding, and applying newly learned knowledge are just some of the topics to be addressed. We will compare educational systems, share our own teaching experiences, and develop a richer understanding of Ugandan culture and life. And we will examine how that understanding might impact our lives and teaching back in the States.

Ginny O'Hare, as the Director of Outreach at the Mary McDowell Center for Learning (MMCL), has been a professional developer and consultant for schools in the metropolitan area for over a decade. MMCL has been one of Positive Planet?s sister schools since 2004. (For more information on sister schools visit http://www.positiveplanet.net/what-sister_school.php). In 2007, O'Hare traveled to Uganda with a small group of educators from Positive Planet's sister schools in NY. The shared experiences for all the teachers involved, both Ugandan and American, were so powerful that she has been searching for a way to bring this unbelievable learning adventure to others.

Positive Planet is a charitable organization founded in 2003. Its mission is to partner school communities in the United States and Uganda. By linking the American schools with free government sponsored schools in Uganda they believe we can dramatically improve educational opportunities for Ugandan students while expanding US students' sense of global community and instilling the value of service to others. The approach is to emphasize partnerships and empower all involved.  www.positiveplanet.net

Applications are no longer being accepted.
Contact studyabroad@bankstreet.edu or 212/875-4707 to be added to the 2011 mailing list.

Course Dates:
NY Orientation (participants must attend) Wednesday, June 30 and Thursday July 1, 2010
Departure for Uganda, Saturday, July 3, 2010
Return to NYC, Sunday, July 18, 2010

Course cost for 2010:
No credit: $6,350
2 credits* $6,750
3 credits* $7,650
(Includes: instruction in NYC and Uganda; round-trip flight from NYC to
Uganda; hotel, most meals, and local transportation in Uganda.)