Teacher Trips Can Help Students Learn is an interesting article by Joe Nathan about what one school is doing to connect with its neighborhood a bit more.

Here are a couple of excerpts:

Local field trips for students are common, but not so much for teachers. A Minnesota school recently took its teachers around neighborhoods they serve to help them understand more about their students and families…

Understanding and respecting the community can help a school and classroom be more welcoming, encouraging and successful. So, for example, Academia Cesar Chavez educators learned about the close, ongoing relationships between families it served and their extended family members who still live in Mexico. Part of what ACC educators learned was that many of the families are simultaneously working to support their families and to attend classes so they can learn or improve their English. Thus, it’s important to schedule conferences at times that will work for parents.