TGC National Symposium - Washington, DC

February 15 - 20, 2017

iRex Teachers for Global Classrooms Symposium

Last weekend, I spent 5 days in Washington, DC meeting my fellow TGC educators. It was surreal to put faces to the names I have worked with virtually for months. February is perhaps the worst month for me to travel, personally. My two sons were both born in February. Luke's birthday is February 12 and Mark's birthday is February. Not only individual birthdays - but also throw in there a joint birthday party, a huge speedway racing weekend for the Gumball Rally, Valentine's Day and their school Open House - and February isn't a time to be away from home.

Like always, life seems to work itself out. I was able to be home for both boys birthdays, Valentine's Day and Gumball Rally weekend. I did have to move the boys birthday party to March, and I did end up missing their Open House my first night in Washington. It was hard to be away - but very worthwhile. In all of their years - it was the first Open House that I have ever missed.

Thursday we flew into DC and went straight to our hotel. The Fairmont is such a BEAUTIFUL hotel and the weather was perfect. Even though it was February in DC, the weather held at an unseasonably 65-70 the entire time we were there. It was amazing. Our Facebook group was very active with people wanting to meet up, and get to know each other over the course of our days in DC. When I checked in, I was told my roommate would be Nan (who I honestly only had brief interactions with during the program), and who had yet to arrive in DC. I got settled in my room and went downstairs to check in and get my iRex TGC materials. We got a very cool black embossed notebook, along with our Fellow badges and a folder of materials.

Thursday night, we had an optional mixer downstairs at the hotel. I still hadn't met my roommate, although it was getting quite late. I decided to head down to the mixer and found beautifully decorated tables with flags from the 6 areas of our TGC travels. I went straight to the Senegal flag and met up with some others who were also traveling to Senegal. I love that our name tags had the country of travel - so we could easily find each other! I was also thrilled to meet Deanne, who was my advisor for the online class portion of TGC. She was such a well-organized, attentive and knowledgeable advisor - I just HAD to meet her in person.

I loved the Senegal and USA flag centerpiece that I ordered myself one off Ebay for my desk at work! We also all got to keep a Teachers For Global Classrooms stress relief squeeze ball - which I also have on my desk at work. I love that there were also big flags that decorated the room - and we had the flags with us in our meetings throughout the weekend.

Throughout our time in DC, we were busy, busy, busy. Friday and Saturday were full of meetings, networking opportunities and time to spend learning about our countries and ways to integrate global education back in our home schools. We were fortunate enough to have former TGC teachers who had been to Senegal work with our group and tell us about their travel. We also met a teacher from Senegal who shared about Senegalese culture, foods, customs, traditions and the educational system with us.




























One of my favorite moments was taking a walk during our lunch break and seeing the Senegal Embassy right around the corner from the Fairmont Hotel. At first, it looked closed - lights off, door shut. We happened to see a car drive up, and two men got out and walked towards the door. Of course, I'm sure I looked super touristy to take a selfie with the Senegal Embassy behind me - but it started a great conversation with the two men. I found out that one of them was the Ambassador and the other was his driver. The Ambassador welcomed me in (in true Senegalese "Teranga" form) - and gave me a book called "The Doors of Senegal." I can't wait to have students in Senegal sign the inside cover of the book for me to keep forever as a reminder of my time in Senegal.

Another amazing part of my trip was spending time getting to know my roommate, Nan. TGC assigns roommates - we didn't have a choice in who our roommate would be. I am so grateful for those days in Washington because I was able to get to know Nan even better. As fate would have it, Nan was also from California. She lives in Davis. As fate would also have it, Nan is an elementary educator focusing on STEAM. Participants in the TGC program were from all areas of education - from elementary to high school. I felt lucky to be roomies with a fellow elementary educator. As fate would ALSO have it, Nan was one of the 10 teachers traveling to Senegal! I was thrilled to get to know her and learn more about her STEAM practices in Northern CA.

About a month after we left DC, the Senegal fellows found out who their traveling partner would be. The Senegal cohort all travels to Dakar together, but we break into pairs to travel to a rural area for a week. To me, it was so important to travel with someone you could relate to, get along with, be close with and enjoy the travel experience with. Again, as with our roommate situation - we were not able to choose our traveling partner. Although I must admit, we have the best cohort of educators going to Senegal, I was elated to find out that my traveling partner would be Nan! We already got to know each other well in Washington - and now we would be traveling partners in Nioro Du Rip, Senegal. Knowing I am pairing up with Nan makes me even MORE excited about our travel!