family liked to visit the beaches along
the east coast to Ocean City we would go
to Li onyx city we would go to Virginia
Beach and I just loved learning about
the ocean and seeing the sea creatures
who were there and getting to see the
people and it relaxed attitude of the
way that they would go and they were
each bars and I was just really have
always loved that when I was 13 when a
family decided to go on a longer
vacation you’re going to take your
cross-country trip and driving vacation
to Phoenix Arizona a lot with young
preteens in the car of course we got to
go to lots of they really carefully
selected our destinations and we went to
the arch in st. Louis we drove through
Broken Arrow and the peanut and oil of
Texas and we got to see the Cadillac
Ranch and Crater Lake New Mexico and
finally we arrived at the Grand Canyon
which was just truly awe-inspiring to
see what the river could create and so
it was these adventures with my family
that really established the first
chapter in my in my book and when he
joined them for traveling the aterna
when I was a graduate student or when I
was an undergrad
it was an organization during this
golden Chi National Honor Society
I had the opportunity to travel to
Atlanta for some leadership training and
we got to hear world-class speakers and
we also got to stay at the Ritz Carlton
Hotel so I not only loved hearing the
great speakers but also when I went to
my room and turndown service
and that was it worked in my nightstand
has been I think never the traveler
would always be something that I wanted
to do
following that time a conference that
was taking place in window friends and
so I had not traveled to Europe at all
and this gave me the chance to open a
new chapter in my travelogue and journey
to Europe with my colleagues from the
National raining project we this allowed
me to have one of the very best
experiences with my travel attorney and
also one of the worst rent into the same
event we at first whenever we presented
our research in Brno France and that
went right and what I didn’t remember
from all the years I had taken French
which would be four years of high school
and three people hurt in college was the
fact that the first two weeks of August
are always the vacation or the holiday
and I just did not realize the enormity
of how much the country would pretty
much shut down so that everybody could
go on vacation it’s just not a very
American concept so after our
presentation we went to find something
to eat
and literally the only thing available
and open was in the hospital on the
University of Bordeaux TFS
even the hospital dining facilities but
the vending machines and some of my got
very pounding at this point those of you
know America I could imagine and it’s my
friends that we should you take our moto
passes you know find a beach and go to
the beach and get something really
fabulous know so we did journey to the
beach and we had one of the best travel
experiences I’ve ever had to be only got
to relax on the beach for a while we had
an excellent dinner we had something
called three demand which would be a
seafood platter I also had the best
creme brulee have you ever had in my
life I was so happy when I got this
picture of it that you can’t believe so
I really was having just the best day
and you watch the sunset over the ocean
and after the sunset we went back to the
train station to get on the train
to return to Porto which was about 50
miles away to find that my French skills
were not in such great working order
because although we read the Turkana
train timetable very carefully we could
not pay very close attention to the fact
that there was a footnote at the bottom
that said that it would not be working
we think of the vacation so the trains
were shut down for the night after very
expensive cab ride back to Bordeaux
France I realized that on your traffic
occasions you need to be both innovative
and flexible and resilient when things
don’t work out the way you want but it
did not determine me for keeping to
travel after that I had was teaching at
Toulon and as a young teacher here I had
an order teacher from to be in the 582
over the next chapter in my travelogue
and that was to begin chaperoning so
there are some teachers who are like
never interested in doing that but for
me it opened up a really great chapter
and I have just had
such a fabulous experiences with it the
first trip that I chaperoned was to
Washington DC and I had the best time on
this trip locally born it busted us was
about 200 students
the trip was at the high school at that
time and when we did I was able to it
was a priest priest Oh Focusrite so I
packed a bag of all my favorite things
to do books to read magazines magazines
to read crossword puzzles all my teacher
friends were on the bodice because all
the young teachers for chaperoning so
that was really fun the kids seemed to
be fun and just like just excited to be
going somewhere and doing something the
last few weeks of the school year and so
then he arrived at DC and the best thing
happened we got to go to all of the
national monuments and see the
Smithsonian museums so sue Perkins still
inspired me that since that time I have
been on 27 Shepard 27 ships in which 27
years of teaching I took the kids to
trial trip to Columbus once three trips
to DC those of you who know me many of
you have there have been two on the
Boston trip with me so there were 21
years of Boston trips and two fabulous
trips to Europe so a few of those
pictures would be there was Arlington
National Cemetery
from Washington DC you’ll recognize this
from Boston fog Revere and the old
church in the background my husband Mike
and I in Portofino Italy that was a
really awesome place that because
leaders the movies they just want to
establish wealth wealth wealth so it was
good to kind of have a visual event and
then on to the next chapter so later
after I had been teaching for a while I
began teaching AP and many of
students are here so thank you for
coming and as the AP teacher eventually
I got to go and raid the AP tests and my
ap reading was in Daytona Beach Florida
and so my family helped me to turn this
into another trap adventure because I
would go grade essays
and they would come and stay with me and
my cousin beat Chopin egg and then after
the time of the reading was done I would
be able to go and visit Disney just
having eight years of great experiences
at Daytona Beach and didn’t even have to
Tanner was a really really phenomenal
experience then I became an AP
consultant even after being ap reader
and the difference there is that then I
go and present at conferences and have a
chance to tell teachers ideas and
strategies but it worked with many of
you in my class and share those ideas on
that bigger stage so first I was you
know pretty booked or I would go to
Cincinnati get Columbus and Detroit in
Grand Rapids Michigan and maybe Chicago
for a very exciting place and then
eventually I decided I could wrap this
into some of my other interests so as
they send me the schedule for where I
might want to present I would say oh
well I’m not in Kansas before that is my
first choice and so and I’ve been asked
for Kansas and Iowa and I don’t think I
had and every time I try to get them
pushed up against a weekend so that I
could take my own days while I was there
and then visit the sites in those
locations it was a cold winter evening
one minute in that January a few I think
it was probably 2012 and when I opened
my email the headline said mine said
subject line would you like to present
what media about high school teacher you
don’t believe to teach English thinking
that you were going to get to travel the
world so I was like oh my gosh what
these semi details so when I looked at
my math on my iPad at the time there was
a little pin that showed up I google
type Anna and this is choked up I don’t
even think there was the words idea
there was literally the pin of the map
and just a red dot it was like okay it’s
so like both Peter and excited at the
same time but it was just to think of
the opportunity to miss and so I booked
my flight and prepared my presentation
and headed to Saipan and the first thing
I got there I it’s part of the Northern
Marianas Islands this look Island you
small but I got there and like how can
they have an airport and runway and I
got there and it was night and then they
found the hotel we’ll drove there and
everything the next morning I woke up
and excitedly went to the door to see
where I was this was my view so those of
you wondering why I can just like get
four times now or clearly convinced that
it’s a very beautiful place
so not only beautiful with the landscape
as you can see here from this picture I
have another beach picture I had to show
you this one because in my dorm room I
swear I’ve had a picture of these palm
trees and then I put to the beach but it
was like it’s my poster excited
and this actually has been my I had a
factor up the entire time because
they’re just like oh my god but the real
beauty of sight Canon is actually not
the palm trees but the people so I was
truly I just love these teachers they
are so dedicated to what they do these
were some of the students that were in
my class you can tell they treated me
like a queen and I probably didn’t mind
backward my visit either get interviewed
like royalty while I was there several
of these people came back and so in
addition to this I also had the chance
to travel to was just really exciting
and I remember shortly before I went on
that trip what’s to talk to you okay
he wants to go on my trip with me just
like he does it was like our baby food
so my dad with me to both Hong Kong and
then when he attended that trip as well
and we had the chance to go to after
that time through a kind of concurrently
I guess I had been inspired by several
people that I knew there was a teacher
at Solon who had been to 47 of the 50
states and there was an article about
her in courier and I was just kind of
interesting and so then shortly after
that he went to a student’s graduation
and Carolyn ref go hit then they had a
picture in their house of them and they
had been to all 50 states the parents
had decided by the time that they
graduated from high school they wanted
to take the their children to all 50
states and so there was a picture with I
can’t do this with my hands but sign for
50 and they were at the four corners and
so at that point I was truly inspired so
we could do this by the time they
graduated from high school
surely I could accomplish this in my
lifetime so I started booking more and
more of my AP adventures in far-off
lands but every time the email came I
would say ooh Mississippi I haven’t been
to Mississippi yet what states are near
Mississippi and so that would inspire a
lot of my travel adventures too so
through this I was able to do and please
retreat lead from the Civil War
well there was my nap but I came home
and colored in to figure out you see him
getting pretty close this is my actual
map that I used very close my friends to
Bergen people inspired my first
chaperoning activity and also when I’m
on she’s the one who really wanted to go
on with these retreat and we went to all
the various battlegrounds at the Civil
War there you see her and then later he
went under Civil Rights tour when we
went to Mississippi and we had also went
to Arkansas nearby and we went to
Alabama so that’s actually the bus that
was the parks at one we also got to be
in Martin Luther King’s Jo saddle where
he wrote letter from Birmingham jail and
we went on the
Pettus Bridge so if you’ve seen the
movie someone’s with British features
prominently
and so then we drove from there to my
company on the state March that the
protesters would have followed so I love
that I’ve seen this many parts of our
country and just had a chance to
understand these steps and nuances my
more recent exploration of our country
has included a lot of the national parks
for the past two summers and other
teaching front is a little in the summer
and travels with me her name is Tracy
and so we have went to more of the
national parks my famous broker bird
there I went there on a trip back from
Saipan my plane landed in Hawaii and I
knew I should just ride home but did not
force myself to do that so I just spent
oh my mother was just as amused as you
are so this is in Montana Glacier
National Park I presented in Washington
State and then went to Iowa Bernie and
then on to Montana to Glacier National
Park this is hidden lake last summer
Tracy Wilson came enough to do a wild
circuitous route and we went from Des
Moines Iowa
this is in Des Moines in case you didn’t
know what you wanted to see in Hawaii
now you have already there’s a really
cool sculpture garden there we went from
there to Nebraska to South Dakota
through the Badlands to North Dakota the
Teddy Roosevelt National Park and
eventually we wound down and went to
Yellowstone which was really had been on
my list for a long time
enjoy that truth with her and then we
have concluded that the grand tetons
which were just more amazing than I ever
imagined
and I actually kind of fun why did we
see not to the very peak as you right
now so I have two remaining states did
you catch the finger and when you saw me
it brings attention yes Alaska is one
and the other one’s very tiny the first
date what is it a little Delaware yes
I’ve been to Island so you actually own
the boss so Delaware is man that was so
I have two remaining states and two
I have just discovered so much about our
country and other countries people
flavors my travels teaching the skies
out there to know that so at least I
could share that knowledge with you in
class I understand just what a world
city is and how Romeo was able to be
banished from the city I know when I
have the chance to teach romeo giulia
kids would say how was he kicked out of
the city and i really didn’t know until
I visited Assisi in Italy and so are the
big balls with the big rolling door –
how could you block someone out of the
city but now it makes complete sense so
I really love that I’ve had those
experiences that I can share with many
of you in class and truly my wish for
you is that you will get to travel that
you will see bears and turtles in their
natural habitats that you will get to
journey to various cities in Europe and
see the way in the Paris and
and Rome have such a longer history than
the United States which you really
cannot know when to get to visit there
and also that you will get to make great
foods in study I traveled with mrs. Li
for the time and so we went and we
learned how to make gumbo and red leaves
in New Orleans later I took a class on
how to make sushi in Tokyo and so just
get to see the sights and the sounds of
the flavors and all those things and
really just journey into the tallest
building in each city that you did so I
hope that I have inspired you to book
some travel of your own and to write
your own story your adventure [Applause]