Study Abroad

Click on the links below for details.

• Summer in Costa Rica

  The Delicate Connection of People and the Biology of the Rainforest: Implications for Curriculum (Grades 2 - 8) TEED648N

  We invite you to experience the rainforest in a field-based, 16-day course that explores the Costa Rican rainforest. Through hands-on investigations, discover its unique environment and the community and the culture of the people who live there.
  
  Our goal is to learn how to construct a meaningful, unsentimental, and accurate curriculum on rainforest ecology and the issues surrounding rainforest conservation. To this end we will meet with local people, such as conservationists, farmers, hotel owners, artists, and teachers and visit local schools. We will also meet with expert biologists for hands-on experiences with bats, birds, insects, butterflies, monkeys, flowers, and plants.
  
  Most of all, you will learn practical and thoughtful ways of teaching children about nature and social studies through inquiry. You will also learn how to teach children about far-away places, including use of technology, so you can explore and teach about the rainforest through an interdisciplinary perspective in your own classroom or museum setting.
  
  Instructor: TBA
  
  Course Dates: July 31 – August 15, 2012

  
  Click here to download the Application form. (Applications due April 2, 2012. Applications reviewed on a first-come, first-served basis and decisions are based on the applicants suitability for the course and availability.)

  
  View a Sample Day from 2011.

  
  Course prices:
  No credit or 8 CEU, travel, lodging, and most meals $4,875
  2 credits, travel, lodging, and most meals $5,375
  3 credits, travel, lodging, and most meals $6,375

  *Possible Spanish language homestay/study option available before or after the course.

  This course may fulfill your requirement for a course on teaching science (EDUC 551or EDUC 535) for matriculated Bank Street College students.

• Summer in Uganda

  Exploring the Art of Teaching: Learning, Reflecting, and Collaborating in Ugandan Classrooms TEED653N

  This program is designed to give teachers a first-hand experience of free schools in Uganda that often lack even the most basic of resources. Through a collaboration between Bank Street and Positive Planet (see bio below), participants will travel to Uganda and visit in schools whose teachers sometimes have over 100 students on their rosters, in settings that may not have electricity or running water, and have little to no teaching materials besides what is found in the environment. Participants will observe in classrooms as well, and learn from and collaborate with Ugandan teachers on a classroom project to share different approaches to teaching.
  
  In preparation, there is a two-day required orientation in New York City. During orientation, participants will explore how to create meaningful learning experiences, given the many challenges teachers are facing in these schools. Topics such as behavior management, multi-sensory teaching, reinforcement activities, scaffolding, and applying newly learned knowledge are just some of the topics to be addressed. We will compare educational systems, share our own teaching experiences, and develop a richer understanding of Ugandan culture and life. And we will examine how that understanding might impact our lives and teaching back in the States.
  
  Ginny O'Hare, MSEd, is the Director of Outreach at the Mary McDowell Center for Learning (MMCL), has been a professional developer and consultant for schools in the metropolitan area for over a decade. MMCL has been one of Positive Planet?s sister schools since 2004. (For more information on sister schools visithttps://www.positiveplanet.net/what-sister_school.php). In 2007, O'Hare traveled to Uganda with a small group of educators from Positive Planet's sister schools in NY. The shared experiences for all the teachers involved, both Ugandan and American, were so powerful that she has been searching for a way to bring this unbelievable learning adventure to others.
  
  Positive Planet is a charitable organization founded in 2003. Its mission is to partner school communities in the United States and Uganda. By linking the American schools with free government sponsored schools in Uganda they believe we can dramatically improve educational opportunities for Ugandan students while expanding US students' sense of global community and instilling the value of service to others. The approach is to emphasize partnerships and empower all involved.  www.positiveplanet.net

  Tentative Course Dates August 2012

  Course cost for 2010:
  No credit: $6,350
  2 credits* $6,750
  3 credits* $7,650

  (Includes: instruction in NYC and Uganda; round-trip flight from NYC to Uganda; hotel, most meals, and local transportation in Uganda.)

• Spring Break in Morocco

  Cultural Explorations in Morocco: Implications for Educators in Multicultural Settings (Grades K - 6) TEED651N

  Based in the cities of Rabat and Fes, participants will spend seven days experiencing the culture and languages of Morocco first-hand. Through meetings with representatives from a variety of education institutions, formal and informal, the Ministry of Education, and Moroccan schools (when their calendar permits), participants will gain a greater understanding of Arab culture as experienced in Morocco. It is a country whose citizens must acquire facility in more than one language to be able to participate fully in civic life. Among the languages spoken are Amazigh (Berber), Moroccan Arabic, Standard Arabic, Spanish, and French. These linguistic competencies reflect Morocco's indigenous past, its prominence as a crossroads of Arab civilization over many centuries, and its recent legacy as a European colony. A major topic of discussion and reflection will be how Morocco's educational system fosters national unity and pride while encouraging the multilingual competency of its citizens. Finally, participants will explore the role language plays in forming and maintaining cultural identity in both Morocco and America. 
  
  Joan Brodsky Schur, MAT, is a curriculum developer, author, and teacher. Her lesson plans appear on the Websites of PBS, the National Archives, and The Islam Project.Org. She has served as a member of the Advisory Group for PBS TeacherSource, the advisory committee for WNET's Access Islam Website, and is a board member of the Middle East Outreach Council. Her books for school libraries include Immigrants in America - The Arab Americans (Lucent Books, 2004) and The Arabs ("Coming to America" series, Greenhaven Press, 2004). An avid traveler who has visited Morocco numerous times, Schur is the Social Studies Coordinator at the Village Community School in New York City, where she has been a teacher for over twenty-five years. Ms. Schur earned her Masters in Arts in Teaching and a BA in English, both from NYU. Learn more about Ms. Schur at www.joanbrodskyschur.com.

  Course Dates: April 7 - 15, 2012

  Applications are no longer being accepted for 2012. email studyabroad@bankstreet.edu to be added to our 2013 mailing list.

  Course Fees (Includes travel, lodging, and most meals):
  No Credit or 8 CEU $4,675
  1* Credit $4,800
  2* Credits $5,800

  *Participants will complete an assignment by June 2 for 1 credit and by June 23 for an optional second credit.