Hopes, dreams, and goals—all of our amazing Ambassador Teachers embark on their cultural exchange experience with a long list of these. During their five years in our Ambassador Teacher program, our goals are to provide every educator with a wide variety of opportunities to choose from and to help them maximize their Participate Learning experience. With a focus on connections, cultural experiences, leadership, and learning, we plan, coordinate, and offer a wide range of activities and events that fall into these four categories and that participants can engage in as they wish. In addition to offerings from us, Ambassador Teachers also discover these types of opportunities through their schools, districts, communities, and beyond.
We encourage Ambassador Teachers to dream, imagine, and plan! What do they want from this experience? What personal and professional goals do they have for this chapter of their lives? Read on to learn more about the ways Ambassador Teachers can choose their own adventure and embrace opportunities within each of the four areas of experiences.
Connections
As Ambassador Teachers join a powerful network of educators in the U.S., we want to ensure that they have opportunities to create as many connections as possible. The strength of this network for problem-solving, collective brainstorming, planning, and innovation greatly enhances any Ambassador Teacher’s experience in the United States.
The friends that educators make during their Participate Learning experience will be their supporters, cheerleaders, travel buddies, and more. And many of the relationships they form during their five years with us will be lifelong ones, so we strive to foster these connections in any way possible.
Cultural Experiences
Ambassador Teachers arrive in the U.S. with dreams of seeing the Statue of Liberty and strolling the streets of New York City. Many are eager to stand in awe of the Grand Canyon or see the cherry blossoms blooming in Washington, D.C. And they may be looking forward to attending a real American baseball game or enjoying their first Thanksgiving. These U.S. cultural experiences are a wonderful way for Ambassador Teachers to maximize their time as cultural exchange participants.
As Participate Learning Ambassador Teachers, our teachers are also here to share their culture and other cultures around the world. They do this by integrating such content into their curriculum, planning celebrations, participating in festivals, and a wide variety of other activities.
Both through events that we plan and resources that we share, we encourage them to think about, take advantage of, and create many different cultural experiences during their time in the United States.
Leadership
Grade level chair. Student Improvement Team secretary. Community soccer coach. Conference presenter. Mentor. Local adviser. These are just a few of the many leadership opportunities that our Ambassador Teachers may have during their time in the U.S.
Formally or informally, both within the Participate Learning network and beyond, they have lots of chances to take initiative and show leadership during their time in the program. We aim to encourage and celebrate them as they explore these professional and personal growth opportunities, and we look forward to hearing all about them!
Learning
Ambassador Teachers embarking on this experience are interested in growing both personally and professionally. Whether they hope to get a master’s degree, enhance their best practices, or develop technology skills, we provide them with valuable learning experiences and professional development. Through digital badging and credentials collections, we encourage and recognize both formal and informal learning opportunities.
Ambassador Teachers make this journey their own–and we support them in these efforts and cheer them on so they can be successful in uniting our world through global learning, maximizing their cultural exchange experience, and making an impact. For more glimpses into all of the connections, cultural experiences, leadership, and learning that Ambassador Teachers are engaging in, we invite you to scroll through the #unitingourworld thread on Twitter.
