Travelling as a Teacher

My wife and I are fortunate enough to both be teachers, which allows us the ability to be quite mobile in our life.  Over the last few years we've been able to rack up quite a few stamps on our passports.  In fact, my is dangerously close to being full (I don't want to pay for a new one, because it expires in April).  One of the best parts of travelling is the stories we create and the depth in which we experience a variety of cultures.

I think that being able to travel affords a teacher the opportunity to broaden the scope of their teaching, as well as the connections they create with students in an increasingly multicultural classroom.  I'm often able to get my students to think about topics in the context of other students in different parts of the world, I can provide simple stories to get them interested in a lesson or topic, and I am able to inspire them to see the richness of the world around us.  We are vagabond teachers and I couldn't ask for much more right now.

Every place we go and every culture we visit we enriches our lives, and, as teachers, we are able to enrich the lives of our students.  Great teaching can come from teachers who don't travel, but I do think that travel adds authenticity to many subjects we teach.  Not to mention that travelling forces us to be a global citizen rather than a local one.  Just my two cents, but I couldn't imagine never seeing the places I've seen.  I met my wife in South Korea while we were teaching English, so I might be a bit biased.