{"id":33,"date":"2016-05-02T23:58:02","date_gmt":"2016-05-02T23:58:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/teaching-academy\/?p=33"},"modified":"2019-02-01T00:18:37","modified_gmt":"2019-02-01T00:18:37","slug":"explore-dream-discover","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/teaching-academy\/explore-dream-discover\/","title":{"rendered":"Explore, Dream, Discover"},"content":{"rendered":"

During the weeks before summer break, I am prone to contemplating how I will take a breather from the hectic pace of teaching. For me, summer is a time to gather my thoughts, reflect, and experience something new or out of the ordinary. It\u2019s a time to travel and experience the world first hand.<\/p>\n

How will you spend your valuable free time this summer?\u00a0 I encourage you to consider using your break to travel someplace new to you. Whether your journey takes you near or far, to a national park or a bustling city, a domestic destination or someplace foreign, travel has the power to re-energize while informing personal understanding of places and the people who live there.<\/p>\n

\"Beach<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Explore<\/strong><\/p>\n

When traveling, search for the unfamiliar whether it is food, shelter, language, customs, or any number of differences. Evaluate these dissimilarities in relation to your prior knowledge. What is the common ground? Where do you find connections? How can knowing these similarities make a difference in the way you understand the world? How will you bring these ideas back to your students? Having an awareness of the connective nature of humanity brings with it a sense of empathy and acceptance of others.<\/p>\n

\"\/uploadedImages\/Administrative\/Provost\/Faculty_Development\/_Media\/Rooftop<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Dream<\/strong><\/p>\n

Inform yourself about local customs for safeguarding nature. Not all societies and cultures will be the same. For example, in many large cities carbon footprints are minimized with denser, smaller housing, public transportation systems, and state-of-the-art recycling facilities while rural areas typically have more single-family homes, personal transportation, and landfills where all refuse goes. Consider why such broad differences occur. What are the benefits and disadvantages of each approach? How can you encourage students to dream about making a better planet that protects and preserves natural resources and the environment?<\/p>\n

\"\/assets\/0\/115\/6442452479\/6442452498\/6442452584\/aec4ce34-493b-468e-8cdf-8abfd5542f15.jpg\"<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Discover<\/strong><\/p>\n

Discover the uniqueness of other places and people. Diversity suggests the condition of being different or varied while welcoming the uniqueness of others. Exploring the qualities of individuals and communities dissimilar to your own provides opportunities to embrace the unknown. Take advantage of travel to experience local festivals, visit street markets, take in a movie, walk through a city, hike through the countryside, or enjoy a concert. Personal moments in unfamiliar places bring a kind of understanding that cannot be found in any other way.<\/p>\n

A Final Thought\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

American author Mark Twain once said, \u201c\u2026throw off the bowlines; sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore; dream; discover.\u201d As summer break approaches, I can think of no better advice for educators.<\/p>\n

Pam Stephens is Professor of Art Education at Northern Arizona University and a member of the President\u2019s Distinguished Teaching Fellows.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

During the weeks before summer break, I am prone to contemplating how I will take a breather from the hectic pace of teaching. For me, summer is a time to gather my thoughts, reflect, and experience something new or out of the ordinary. It\u2019s a time to travel and experience the world first hand. How […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education","category-teaching"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/teaching-academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/teaching-academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/teaching-academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/teaching-academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/teaching-academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/teaching-academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/teaching-academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33\/revisions\/34"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/teaching-academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/teaching-academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/teaching-academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}