OUR EXPERIENTIAL EDUCATORS USE
EXTRAORDINARY TOOLS
With our E&E educators, students make meaningful connections and reach deeper levels of understanding.
EXPEDITION MENTALITY
Expedition Mentality is about empowering the kids to own and seize this opportunity for themselves as a group and as individuals. The adults merely nurture and nudge this along. The kids create it. They own this opportunity. It is a challenge. Help them meet it!
We know that it’s not enough for students to just get to a destination in order for them to experience it deeply or to bring out the best in a student or a group. An educational infrastructure needs to be created for this to happen. We foster an Expedition Mentality and we excel at motivating and empowering our adventurers to be prepared and engaged.
Expedition Mentality is the process of fostering personal growth and creating something truly special for each participant which endures. The creation of the strongest possible intra-group culture formed by the students in that time frame and place is the work of Expedition Mentality. We provide the tools to help this creative process…but it is owned by the kids. Your E&E Expeditions Guide works at catalyzing and empowering ownership of that process by each student. There is a lot to it…but it is so powerful.
EXPEDITION MENTALITY
Expedition Mentality is about empowering the kids to own and seize this opportunity for themselves as a group and as individuals. The adults merely nurture and nudge this along. The kids create it. They own this opportunity. It is a challenge. Help them meet it!
We know that it’s not enough for students to just get to a destination in order for them to experience it deeply or to bring out the best in a student or a group. An educational infrastructure needs to be created for this to happen. We foster an Expedition Mentality and we excel at motivating and empowering our adventurers to be prepared and engaged.
Expedition Mentality is the process of fostering personal growth and creating something truly special for each participant which endures. The creation of the strongest possible intra-group culture formed by the students in that time frame and place is the work of Expedition Mentality. We provide the tools to help this creative process…but it is owned by the kids. Your E&E Expeditions Guide works at catalyzing and empowering ownership of that process by each student. There is a lot to it…but it is so powerful.
STORY APPROACH
Story Approach, one of our distinguishing features, is our combined educational and travel philosophy.
Story Approach is the process of understanding the content of the itinerary and how to best weave the experiences and information into a digestible, coherent whole so the age group can better connect the dots and own the story.
The story approach involves the guide connecting elements – activities, people, places — back to a central theme on a daily basis, during nightly reflections or even during activities. Unique stories about important ecological, social, cultural, and economic issues are told in context, allowing travelers to make meaningful connections and reach deeper levels of understanding. Challenge your students to make these connections as well! The goal is to help kids connect the dots of the different experiences through the lens of some big ideas. This is about being proactive – giving kids a framework for processing all this new stuff they are learning.
Day after day, the inspiring people or ideas will leave a lasting impact on travelers. This is the core of our Story Approach.
STORY APPROACH
Story Approach, one of our distinguishing features, is our combined educational and travel philosophy.
Story Approach is the process of understanding the content of the itinerary and how to best weave the experiences and information into a digestible, coherent whole so the age group can better connect the dots and own the story.
The story approach involves the guide connecting elements – activities, people, places — back to a central theme on a daily basis, during nightly reflections or even during activities. Unique stories about important ecological, social, cultural, and economic issues are told in context, allowing travelers to make meaningful connections and reach deeper levels of understanding. Challenge your students to make these connections as well! The goal is to help kids connect the dots of the different experiences through the lens of some big ideas. This is about being proactive – giving kids a framework for processing all this new stuff they are learning.
Day after day, the inspiring people or ideas will leave a lasting impact on travelers. This is the core of our Story Approach.
We believe the Experiential Educators you travel with really do matter!
EXPANDING YOUR
COMFORT ZONE.
Many talk about “getting out” of your comfort zones, but this implies that you will also go back IN to your comfort zone. We are going for something different – we want to EXPAND our comfort zones.
This doesn’t mean you try new things and then go back to your comfort zone that you had established before the trip. The goal is that you gain the confidence to begin to become comfortable in a new environment with new cultures, new foods, etc.
Expanding your comfort zone will allow you to do so much more in your life, as you will be able to continue pushing that zone of comfort more and more, ultimately allowing for incredible opportunities and adding to your personal growth as a human being – these are the experiences that better help us understand ourselves and our places/roles in the world.
Expand your comfort zone to better understand yourself and your place in the world.
OUR NIGHTLY CIRCLE/REFLECTION TIME
On Expedition, we gather each night to reflect on the day. Guides will empower all the students to expand their comfort zones and participate. To increase student confidence about speaking up, each night our guides provide an idea or question to have them ponder and contemplate during the next day’s activities, which gives them time to prepare a thoughtful reflection for the following night.
Good guides vs Experiential Educators
Good guides typically...
However, our Experiential Educators
Create a bond and a trusting environment between the travelers and themselves
Create a bond and a trusting environment between them, the students, the locals and encourage expanding each student’s comfort zone
Give answers to most of the questions
Give value and empower the students to not only seek answers themselves but, better yet, to ask great questions
Promote a safe physical environment for the tourist to visit a place
Promote a safe group social and emotional, as well as physical, environment through Expedition Mentality
Provide endless amounts of information
Plan brief chats to inspire thoughtful questions and to help students better connect the dots, while providing the most essential age-appropriate information, through The Story Approach