The Cardinal

David McDonie, French Teacher, Chillicothe City Schools

Over the past three summers, I have had the privilege of attending Organic World Language (OWL) summer boot camps, both as a participant and as a facilitator. This summer I joined a group of curious and motivated educators from across the country in Alexandria, MN to spend a week learning how to become better teachers and how to make our students the center of our classroom..

The theme of the week was ROOAR, which stood for Roots, Open, Overcome, Authentic, and Risk-taking. We spent two days with the Roots theme, because the foundation of our practice is two-fold. First we build relationships with our students. We have fun, we love on them, and we create a community. The first day of the Boot Camp aims to create an Continue reading →

Becky Searls, Instructional Coach & Educational Consultant, Elevating Educators; Former Spanish Teacher at Upper Arlington City Schools

I recently left my job as a Spanish teacher! It was a bittersweet decision, because I absolutely love sharing languages, Spanish-speaking cultures, and my own travel abroad experiences with my students. The constraints that go along with a career in K-12 classroom teaching, however, were preventing me from finding long-term happiness in my work.

You may be wondering if I tried anything before throwing in the towel, and I can assure you I did! The year before last, during the 2016–2017 academic year, I took a self-designed traveling sabbatical and got to visit schools all over the world, making it to 13 countries in 12 months to learn about a variety of education systems and helping teachers facilitate meaningful global connections for their students! While it was an invigorating break from typical classroom routine to see what teachers around the world were doing, I found that my sabbatical did not re-invigorate me. Continue reading →