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 three-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

Open Houses (Choose one for more information on the course):
Wednesday, December 10, 5 - 8 pm
Friday, December 12, 5 - 8 pm
(Applications will be available at the open house. RSVP to studyabroad@bankstreet.edu or 212/875-4707.)

Course Dates (Tentative):
NY Orientation (participants must attend) Tuesday, July 7 - Thursday, July 9, 2009
Departure for Uganda, Saturday, July 11, 2009
Return to NYC, Sunday, July 26, 2009

Tentative course cost:
No credit: $6,000
2 credits* $6,400
3 credits* $7,100
(Includes: instruction in NYC and Uganda; round-trip flight from NYC to
Uganda; hotel, most meals, and local transportation in Uganda.)

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.

Susan Wu is an environmental educator in the Tiorati Workshop for Environmental Learning at Bank Street College. She uses a science inquiry-based approach on field trips for children in grades K-7 to various nature sites. Susan has a background in biology and has worked in the education department of the Tech Museum of Innovation, an interactive science museum in San Jose, CA.

Open House: Friday, February 27, 5 pm.
610 West 112th Street, Room 706.
RSVP to studyabroad@bankstreet.edu or 212/875-4707.

Course Dates: August 1 - 16, 2009
No credit or 8 CEU, travel, lodging, and most meals $4,250
2 credits, travel, lodging, and most meals $4,750
3 credits, travel, lodging, and most meals $5,625
Space is limited.

For more information, call Joy Ellebbane at 212/875-4707 or
email studyabroad@bankstreet.edu.

"Click here to download the 2009 Study Abroad application >>"