Travel Blog #1

International Field Experience Cohort Members

We Have Arrived

Jose Luis Ramos

M.Ed.

Fulbright Teachers are on the move once again doing what they do best. Guten Tag, Hello, Hola, Bonjour, Asalaam Alaikum, Konnichiwa. I am one of 24 teachers from across the United States who has made the journey across the Atlantic Ocean to Frankfurt Germany. After nearly a three year wait due to Covid-19 we have descended on Germany to make our presence known and enjoy the hospitality of our hosts in German schools. For some of us this journey began back in 2019-2020 as part of a cohort of teachers learning about Teaching for Global Competence. Our initial experience was intended to have been a visit to India. The arrival of the Global Covid-19 Pandemic put a stop to that.

Since then we have worked diligently to insure our students’ educations have had some level of continuity as we struggled to implement new ways of connecting with them and their families utilizing technology which was new to many across the educational field. If you know anything about teachers it is that we are resilience personified and so here we are completing our international field experience in Germany.

My travels began in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on June 15th, 2022. From there I was flown to Chicago’s O’Hare airport to meet others from our group of teachers and then board our connecting Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt Germany. All of this, mind you, is on the very first day of my summer break from teaching. As I said before “Resilience”.

By June 16th, 2022 we arrived in Frankfurt to begin our 2-week trek through Bonn and Berlin while exploring points in between and visiting schools to experience the German school system first hand.

Immediately after our arrival in Frankfurt we were transported by bus to the Bonn Hilton for the first portion of our stay. Although we were all exhausted from our travels we were also excited to be in Germany and looking forward to this adventure/experience we are about to embark on. Our day convened with a wonderful gathering of educators dining on German fare and the chatter of getting to know one another. This was the beginning of connections that will grow and live on long after our trip. Stay tuned for more installments on our experience.