Teachers urge global education

Just as they shared personal stories and family pictures with Ecuadorians, Beth Howard and Rhonda Gregware will soon share with their students the stories, pictures, souvenirs and cultural knowledge they gathered while in the South American country.

The two Onslow County teachers took part in the Educators of Excellence Institute Teacher Trek with 10 other North Carolina educators as part of collaboration between the N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences and Heifer International.

They explored Ecuadorian ecosystems, from the Bellavista Cloud Forest to La Isla de la Plata for nine days, and taught children there on a variety of subjects.

They assembled teaching boxes for the workshops, composed daily journals and answered questions from students who were following their trek virtually through the museum's Web site.

Gregware, a Silverdale  Elementary School fourth grade teacher, helped teach a group of Ecuadorian students about the value of burrowing owls in an attempt to dissuade the children from harming them.

"We really had to teach the teacher as well," Gregware said. "By the end of the lesson we had convinced the teacher and the children to respect them and not kill them anymore. And we leave them with the lesson materials we used, so they can use them over and over."

Howard, Dixon Elementary   School's visual arts teacher, said her lesson was about butterflies, and her students' eagerness for learning was unforgettable.

"Their enthusiasm for the curriculum just blew me away," Howard said. "They are so eager to learn."

Gregware and Howard said the biggest impact the trip had on them is the sense of how the things we do in North   Carolina impacts the rest of the world, how connected places are and the responsibility to teach this to their students. It's imperative, they said, to make them understand how important preservation, conservation, recycling and environmental awareness is to the entire planet.

Howard and Gregware said they are looking forward to the upcoming year, which starts Tuesday in Onslow  County, and integrating their experiences to the schools' curriculums.

Howard said she's going to work with Peggy Kelly, Dixon Elementary's new principal, to spearhead a global education cottage at the school.

"It's going to be awesome, with the walls covered in the continents and cultural items ... we want to do flags from countries our children represent - and we can get the parents involved by asking them to donate things from trips," Howard said.

Gregware said the trip motivates them to share their experience through the school curriculum.

"Kids love to hear personal reflections and experiences, and love knowing we have lives outside the school," she said. "And it's good for them to see the opportunities we as teachers have to go on these trips ... maybe some of them will want to become educators.

"You're teaching them you can learn something new every day, and you can always learn more, you don't know everything."