Tara Cloutier's Professional Portfolio

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  1. Reflection
Home > Un Viaje a Espana > Reflection

Reflection


Un Viaje a España

DESCRIPTION
During my career as a teacher, I have led two student trips to Spain.  I am currently in the process of planning my third student trip to Spain for this coming April.   I’ve chosen this artifact because it represents a very real learning experience for foreign language students.  
In 1997 I brought my first group of students to Spain.  I was teaching at Smith Academy in Hatfield, MA where I taught Spanish 1-4 to high school students for 1 year.  The Spanish 4 class had 11 senior girls and early in the year we began planning the trip.  We had countless meetings with parents and administrators.  Once the trip was approved we went about fund raising.  We made Christmas ornaments and sold them at the local craft fair, we sold candy, we had a car wash and a can and bottle drive.  I was the organizer of all of the fundraising for this trip.  We were able to raise some money, but in reality the students still paid the majority of the cost.
As part of our pre-trip plans, I included some culture lessons for the students in the class.  I did a lesson on the art history of Spain, a class I had taken while studying in Spain.  The students had to choose a Spanish artist and a work by that artist to complete a project.  We spent days in the library and took a field trip to the UMASS library to research the artists.   They had to write a paper in Spanish about their artist and present it to the class.  
The trip took place during February vacation.  I arranged for a van to pick us up at school to bring us to the airport.  We departed from Logan and the flights were long but without problems.  When you travel with a student tour company it is rarely a direct flight.  We had to fly to Kennedy to change planes and again in Amsterdam before arriving in Spain.  While there we visited many exciting places like the Prado Museum, El Palacio Real (the royal palace), La Reina Sofia, a modern art museum and a sword factory in Toledo.  They were very excited to see the works in person by the artists we had studied.  We traveled through 5 cities in Spain.  The girls did excellent with their communication skills and were thrilled to get their point across in Spanish.  We saw a flamenco show on a riverboat in Seville and had  dance lessons on the roof of our hotel from our tour director Miguel the next night.  
The second student trip was two years later in 1999 with students from Greenfield High School.  I was teaching at the middle school in Greenfield at the time and the group was made up of students I had taught when they were in 8th grade in the 1995/1996 school year.  To begin the planning for this trip I had to go before the school committee with the High School Principal to get their approval before continuing.  This was an involved process because there hadn’t been a trip overseas in a few years. The committee was reluctant and had many questions but eventually they approved the trip.  
On this trip as well, money was an object.  I offered the students individual fundraising opportunities.  I had a t-shirt type fundraising catalogue available for students to use to raise money for their individual trips.  A couple of students took advantage of this and raised enough for spending money on the trip.
The trip was again planned for February vacation. Our first flight departed from Boston.  We had a number of flights before we eventually arrived in Spain.  The airline lost two boys’ luggage so the first few days of the tour I was on the phone constantly trying to locate the bags.  We did get them back on about the fourth day.  Our journey began in Madrid.  We spent two days eating tapas, visiting the Prado and touring the city.  Next, we traveled from to Cordoba where we visited a Jewish Mosque, a very interesting history lesson for the students and myself as well.  Spain has a rich history of religion, for hundreds of years the Catholics, Jews and Muslims lived in harmony and there is architectural evidence throughout the country.  We traveled south to Sevilla where we visited one of the largest cathedrals in the world.  From there we went to the Costa del Sol where we spent a day at the beach and took a ferry ride to Morocco.  We spent a day shopping, eating and learning a little about Moroccan culture.  A rug salesman offered to send a camel to the father of one of my blonde female students in exchange for her staying with him there.  He was joking, kind of.  We returned on the ferry (all of us) and traveled the next day to Granada.  There we saw the tombs of Ferdinand and Isabella.  We also visited La Alhambra, a Moorish castle perched on a hill above the city.  The students were impressed by the fountains in every room of the ancient castle still powered today by the water melting from the nearby snow-capped mountains.  We traveled by overnight train back to Madrid where we spent our last two days of the journey.  
I am currently planning my next student trip to Spain.  We have had one meeting with students and parents and have chosen a trip that will include Madrid, Barcelona and Mallorca.  The students and I are very excited to begin this process and prepare for our journey.
ANALYZE:
When I was a junior in high school my Spanish teacher announced that she was leading a tour to Spain.  I didn’t know if my family could afford it but I knew I really wanted to go.  My parents and I went to a meeting with other interested families.  Soon after my parents told me that they would come up with the money and that I could go.  I was thrilled and a little nervous.  I was excited to try to really communicate using my Spanish.  I had been studying Spanish for three years and it came rather easily to me but up until then it wasn’t very important to me.  I remember so much about that trip even today.  I can still picture myself standing in the Prado, Mrs. Keating (my teacher) had her arm around my shoulders and she was explaining a piece of art to me.  This was a moment early in my own journey that changed me.  I fell in love with Spain.  I loved the people, the music, the art, and the language, just everything!  When I went to college I had an opportunity to study in Spain for a summer.  I lived with a family and took classes.  This experience like my first confirmed the love I had for Spain…Oh what a place to go!
As a Spanish teacher I feel both lucky and obliged to offer this opportunity to my students.  The chance to use their language skills in another country is irreplaceable.  They will never learn culture from any book that they will learn in one week by visiting the country and experiencing the culture first hand.   I often think of Ms. Keating and how she changed my life.  I’m not so bold as to think I will change all of their lives but I remember the reactions of my own students and know the merit of these journeys.  To quote one student…”Ms. Phelps, this is the best thing I’ve ever done in my whole life!"



APPRAISE:
As a whole, I am proud of these trips as a representation of my work and my educational philosophy.  There are things I did well on each trip and things I would change about each.  I do feel that travel offers irreplaceable opportunities for students.   This artifact represents a quality of language instruction that cannot be achieved in the classroom.  This artifact demonstrates an effective and positive teaching and learning situation for a foreign language teacher and student.  The planning and execution of the trip can be labor intensive and at times trying work.  I handled this part of the process well.  
Traveling to Europe is an expensive endeavor that is not feasible to all students.  I hate the fact that it isn’t an opportunity available to all students.  While I offered some fundraising opportunities it is a lot of money to try to raise.  It is something I still struggle with.  When I was taking the students from Smith there was one girl who wasn’t able to go.  She had studied with these girls for the past three years in Spanish but because of scheduling was not in Spanish 4 with them.  I had said that she could still come even though she wasn’t in the class.  Unfortunately, She could not afford to go on the trip.  I felt sad for her but she accepted the facts and no one really spoke of it.  
When we returned from the second trip with Greenfield, I received a not-so-nice letter from a mother whose son was not able to go.  I felt horrible but was unsure what to do about it.  I discussed it with my principal who helped me to be able to call the mother and try to explain the circumstances.   I don’t think the conversation made either of us feel better about the whole thing.


TRANSFORM:
As I am in the process of planning my third trip now, this part of the reflection takes on true meaning.  The trips are still happening which shows I still see the merit of them.  I am still struggling with the cost.  This trip will cost over eighteen hundred dollars.  At our first meeting I offered 2 fundraising packets for individuals to help defray the cost of their own trip.  Even still, this trip will be financially unavailable for some students.  I hope the fundraising will help some families be able to make this happen but I have to accept that if I continue to do these trips they will continue to be exclusive, much to my dismay.  
I believe strongly in the positive outcomes of these trips.  I will plan my next trip and travel to Spain in April next year.  Hopefully these trips will be a part of my teaching for years to come.  I anxiously await the time when I can bring my own son on one of these student trips.
Author: Tara Cloutier
Last modified: 12/9/2003 6:00 PM (EST)