It’s Happening!!!!

Last week, we got our official itinerary for the remaining portion of the trip, and I have started my anti-malarial pills. This journey is a GO! I repeat, this is not a drill!

I am off to Senegal on Saturday. The journey to this point has been long and, at times a steep climb. There was a 10-week course on global education that started the week I got off of the NOAA ship last fall, and ended a week after I got back from Antarctica. That was an intense time, as I had so much to do for the other experiences, and wanted to make sure I did those justice for the student experiences to follow.

I found out my placement in Senegal right before Christmas, but not where in Senegal I would be (that came in January). We traveled to Washington DC for our Fulbright Global Education Symposium , and met the other people traveling to Senegal with me. There were 15 of us, and every one of the teachers in my cohort inspire me! They are great people!!!

Fast forward to the anxiety of watching budget cuts at the federal level to the US State Department, Department of Education, and the US Embassies around the world (all of which are involved in the Fulbright programs). There was a Moroccan cohort that was supposed to depart before us (on April 4). They found out on March 21 that they would not be able to go due to their funds being frozen. At that point, I was pretty sure I would not be going to Senegal.

However, we ended up adding 5 of the Moroccan cohort members to our Senegal crew. Our hotels are booked, flights paid for, and it looks like We. Are. Going!

Once you have convinced yourself that you are not doing something, it’s a little hard to wrap your brain around the fact that you are indeed going to get there. I didn’t want to get excited, so that way I couldn’t feel disappointed. I kept telling myself that if I didn’t go then I would be able to be with my family for Easter. I would be able to accept a really incredible alumni award at my university. There were perks to staying home, for certain. But now it is time to get excited for the adventure.

Stay tuned for how this journey goes – it should prove to be another fascinating voyage. I am hoping to find examples of music being used as a means of cultural identity and storytelling, and I want to find examples of similarities between Senegalese students and the students at my school. I know there will be differences, but I think the students will be fascinated to find that they have things in common with students across the globe. I can’t wait to see what their schools are like! Bring on the adventure!!!!

One full suitcase of donations from my school! There’s more in my other suitcase, too! My host teacher is going to be so excited!!!!
Every day at 4 pm our time I’ll be taking this pill- 2 days before the trip, during the trip, and for a full week after. The state department video we were required to watch on malaria was terrifying!
Here I go! See you on the other side! This time tomorrow I’ll be in Dakar, Senegal! 🇸🇳
Watching the sunrise since I was at MKE at 5:30 am

Lisa Werner2 Comments

Preparations Are Underway…..

For those of you who have never traveled out of the country, depending on where you go, you may need additional vaccinations. As it turns out, we didn’t NEED any additional vaccines (there had been a law that ended in December of last year that required all visitors to have a yellow fever vaccine before entering the country), but there are a mess of vaccines encouraged. I went to a travel clinic in Brookfield, as my doctor recommended going there for one-stop shop of all of the vaccines. Travel clinics don’t take insurance, though, and most travel vaccines are not covered by regular insurance anyway. The travel clinic that I went to was nice enough to let me know which vaccines I should get that my insurance would cover, and encouraged me to go to Walgreens or CVS to get those. I was very appreciative to them for that hint.

Yeah, I just casually had typhoid in my fridge for a few weeks. I had the choice of oral or injected typhoid. The oral lasted 3 years longer and cost $20 less, so I went with that. This also allowed me to take it home, keep it in my fridge, and take it anytime up to 2 weeks before I leave. I finished the doses last week, which was nice because I could wait a week after I had the yellow fever vaccine to start on typhoid (and wait until the musical I was playing in was over)!
Last day- thank goodness! That was the roughest as far as side effects went – YUCK.

Today I went and got the final vaccines from Walgreens – Meningitis, MMR booster, and a combo Hepatitis A & B. I have to go back right before I leave to get the 2nd dose of the Hep A/B, and then I’ll go when I get back to finish the 3-dose regiment, but then I’ll be immune for life. That’s the nice thing about the yellow fever vaccine, as well – it’s for life.

Even more shots!

Now, in addition to shots, our school is working on collecting donations for the Senegalese school I will be visiting and teaching at. My host teacher has asked for supplies to help students learn English – books, flash cards, and games. So far, everyone is so excited to help.

Additionally, the students are designing a sticker for me to give to the Senegalese students I meet that will symbolize the friendship we hope to develop with them. I’m so excited to see these made and to hand them out to everyone I meet!

Just a sample of the stickers the students are designing…there are so many great artists in our school! One elementary design and one middle school design will be made through an online sticker company for me to hand out in Senegal!

The students I teach are going to write postcards to the students in Wolof (the cultural language of Senegal), French (the formal language of Senegal), and English. I will then hand them out to the students, and maybe they’ll write back!

Finally, I am collecting questions from the students about what they want to know about students and schooling in Senegal – I love encouraging them to be curious explorers of our world, so the more questions, the better!!! I always learn the most interesting things when I take student questions along with me! The world is an incredible place, but looking at it through the eyes of young students makes it even more amazing!

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Fulbright Teachers for Global Classrooms Symposium

I am so excited to share that I was accepted into the Fulbright Teachers for Global Classrooms program – I found out in August of 2024 (while I was out in Boston accepting an award). Last winter/spring, I applied for NOAA Teacher at Sea, the National Geographic/Lindblad Expeditions Grosvenor Teacher Fellowship, and the Fulbright Teachers for Global Classrooms (TGC) program. I thought if I was lucky, I would get one of them. Imagine my surprise when I got all 3! I am so grateful that I have an incredibly supportive principal, who instead of grimacing about the idea of her music teacher being gone during the school year for THREE programs, she was excited and congratulatory.

The Fulbright program is the final of those programs that I am so grateful to get to participate in this year. I found out in December that I will be traveling to Senegal in April! I was very excited, as I have never been to the African continent, and I know very little about Senegal. I also know that this will be incredible for the students I teach, as there are so many misconceptions about life in Africa – it has been a source of great frustration on the middle school social studies teacher (my friend and colleague) as she has noticed most of the students in our school think of Africa as a country, and make assumptions about the entire continent that just are not accurate.

The first part of this program involved a 10-week online course. Luckily, it started the week I got back from NOAA Teacher at Sea, and ended the week I came back from Antarctica (with a week off for Thanksgiving, which helped me stay on track while I was not able to do work while in the middle of the Drake Passage!). The course was very eye-opening, as I thought I was pretty good at global education. After taking this course, I learned so much more and feel set up to really take my teaching to an entirely new level. I am so excited to continue the work I did in that course as I plan more experiences for the students at my school.

Lessons like these were what we developed during our class. We also were required to partner with a classroom in a different part of the country, which the students of my school LOVED. They had the opportunity to write video game music for students in Kentucky who made their own video games! I used 1st-3rd graders since the teacher I was partnered with had 2nd and 3rd graders.

The next phase of the Fulbright TGC program is a Global Education Symposium in Washington, DC. I got to go in February, and my principal got to travel with me as part of this program. What a great treat to be able to travel with the woman who has been writing me these incredible letters of recommendation to get to participate in these amazing programs that have brought such wonderful learning lessons to the students of our school!

My principal and I outside the Library of Congress, where we were unsuccessful at acquiring library cards.

My principal and I wanted to travel together (apparently not all of the administrator/teacher duos did, and some administrators didn’t even come!). We arrived late morning on the first day, and navigated our way to the hotel using the metro. Then we walked to the National Museum of African American History & Culture, which is one of the newer Smithsonian museums in Washington, DC. We met a wonderful man who was working at the front desk, and he guided us in how to start our adventure in this incredible museum. I was excited to go to this museum, as I thought it would be the perfect way to ready for Senegal. Senegal actually was one of the deportation sites of slaves bound for America. I learned so much in this museum – a docent in the museum taught us that EVERY country/culture in the world has had slaves at some point. Even neighboring tribes would collect slaves from the tribes that they feuded with. I also learned that countries such as France and the UK sent slaves to America. It was an incredible museum that moved me just as much as the Holocaust Museum did a few years back.

‘Playing’ Charlie Parker’s saxophone at the National Museum of African American History & Culture

We also booked it on over to the National Gallery of Art. Unfortunately, we spent so many hours in the African American museum that we didn’t have much time to visit the National Gallery. However, we managed to find the Impressionists, which I was excited about. I had also never been to the National Gallery, so that was great.

Monet!

By that time, it was time to come back to the hotel to start our symposium with the welcome session.

Some of my fellow Senegal cohort!

The symposium was great – we got to learn so much more about what our field experience would be like. The best part about it was that they divided us into our travel cohorts by country that we will be going to for our field work. It allowed us to get to know the people we would be traveling with from the very first moment of the symposium. We all clicked right away – meeting up and sitting together for all of our meetings, planning our dinners together, and making plans for our travels. We have been collaborating ever since, and sharing every little bit of information we hear. It is so nice to have such a wonderful group of teachers to share this experience with.

Pardon the inaccurate pointing…the globe kept rolling away! 😂

We learned about the country we would be traveling to, and about the expectations for our culminating project. We got to meet members of the US State Department, the International Research & Exchanges Board (IREX), and the Fulbright program organizers. We shared our global education lessons with each other in a gallery walk, which gave me so many ideas for my classroom, and let me get to know the people in my cohort even better! We also got to go to a Global Education Resource Fair, where we met with vendors of curriculum, research organizations, and companies that have resources, materials, opportunities, and experiences to help teachers with global education in their classrooms. It was really fun to find new organizations willing to help build music into global curricula! My fellow Senegal travelers, my principal, and I all went to a West African restaurant to get a taste of what we were going to experience when we go on our field experience.

Yummy food!
Dinner to experience Senegalese food…none of us had any trouble enjoying our orders!

To say that I left inspired feels like it is an understatement. I learned so much in the 10-week course, but I was most excited after leaving this symposium. So many great people have now joined my teaching and collaborating network. I’m traveling with a bunch of teachers who all have been musicians or are incredibly supportive of music education. I made fast friends with STEM teachers in my cohort, obviously. I now also have English and ESL teacher friends from around the country. It feels so good to continue to grow my network of teachers across the world!

Ready to take on the world?!? We’ll see

Next up…..planning for a trip to Senegal in person! Time to get the students excited and curious!

So grateful to this woman for being my mentor, letter of recommendation writer, and greatest cheerleader!

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