I've been home for a couple weeks now, but thoughts of South Africa, questions lingering, and the significance of all I've learned and experienced are never far from the forefront of my mind. I'm in the midst of sorting through my photos and will share some here (hopefully) soon! I'm also working on my post
But....it's not over yet! After making the final tally of my receipts from South Africa, I had a rather large sum of money remaining from my original grant. I submitted a secondary proposal to Fund for Teachers to use the remaining money to explore a trip within the US that mirrored the education and social justice experiences I had in South Africa. So...I am excited to share that in August, I will be extending this trip and my learning with a visit to the Southern US! I'll be spending seven days between Memphis, Birmingham, Montgomery, and Atlanta. I have a route planned through many of the US civil rights sights, and am working to make connections with educators and community members along the way. I hope to see how communities in the US significantly impacted by segregation and injustice are working to engage and educate students, and compare it what what I learned in South Africa, and what I have seen through my own experiences in a diverse school. I'm extremely excited to compare my learnings in South Africa with those in the South, and bring all of these new experiences and learnings back to my classroom in Minnesota.
Tonight I started re-watching the PBS documentary "Eyes on the Prize" - doing a little refreshing of my own knowledge of the civil rights movement in the US. It's incredibly powerful, and also haunting, to see a world so similar to what I saw in South Africa, and realize really how close we still are to this troubled past. I hope to have finished the majority of the series before I head South, and am excited to have that foundation on which to build knowledge and share in conversations.
I plan to continue daily blogging during this extension of my trip, so check back in August to see what I'm up to then! I can't wait!
More to come....
~emily~
But....it's not over yet! After making the final tally of my receipts from South Africa, I had a rather large sum of money remaining from my original grant. I submitted a secondary proposal to Fund for Teachers to use the remaining money to explore a trip within the US that mirrored the education and social justice experiences I had in South Africa. So...I am excited to share that in August, I will be extending this trip and my learning with a visit to the Southern US! I'll be spending seven days between Memphis, Birmingham, Montgomery, and Atlanta. I have a route planned through many of the US civil rights sights, and am working to make connections with educators and community members along the way. I hope to see how communities in the US significantly impacted by segregation and injustice are working to engage and educate students, and compare it what what I learned in South Africa, and what I have seen through my own experiences in a diverse school. I'm extremely excited to compare my learnings in South Africa with those in the South, and bring all of these new experiences and learnings back to my classroom in Minnesota.
Tonight I started re-watching the PBS documentary "Eyes on the Prize" - doing a little refreshing of my own knowledge of the civil rights movement in the US. It's incredibly powerful, and also haunting, to see a world so similar to what I saw in South Africa, and realize really how close we still are to this troubled past. I hope to have finished the majority of the series before I head South, and am excited to have that foundation on which to build knowledge and share in conversations.
I plan to continue daily blogging during this extension of my trip, so check back in August to see what I'm up to then! I can't wait!
More to come....
~emily~
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