Pre-departure Meetings
Once your students are chosen and have accepted their place in your travel abroad program, it is important to meet with them before departing to your foreign destination. Many of your students may not actually know each other as they could be from different classes or grades. It is vital to start building a community within the group, as they will be essentially living together like family for the weeks to come.
My school recommends a minimum of two pre-departure meetings. In my case, I choose to do three. Three was the perfect amount of time based on what we needed to cover as well as our busy schedules prior to departure. I broke my meetings up to cover different information each time and set my meetings apart enough to give students an opportunity to digest the information and bring valuable questions to the next session.
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Pre-departure meeting #1 (1.5 - 2 hours): We started our first meeting with introductions and icebreakers. This provided a great time for students to connect and for me to see who got along with who. I gave my students an opportunity after this meeting to voice their opinions on who they wanted to room with and team up with for excursions and activities. This is also the perfect time to establish a group communication platform. We choose to use WhatsApp as everyone was familiar with it and it can run on Wi-Fi instead of always requiring a data connection. Your group chat becomes invaluable throughout the pre-departure phase, during your trip and acts as a permanent connection for the group afterwards.
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The first meeting is always the most exciting and I like to feed off the excitement by introducing our travel destination and filling our time with information on the region, food, language and culture that we are going to be experiencing. This is a great time to include regional etiquette lessons and cover any important do's and don'ts when traveling abroad.
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If the language of the area is different than what everyone is use to speaking, consider introducing various technology apps that can be downloaded to start learning the language of the region you are traveling to. Drops is a popular one that provides lessons in short 5-minute increments. My students favored Duolingo as it allowed them to challenge each other to friendly competition as they learned and moved their way up the leader-board.
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Many students may be traveling abroad for the first time without their family or loved ones. It is useful then to go over travel procedures and talk about what to pack for this particular trip. The Canadian Air Transport Security Authority as well as your airline can provide detailed information on what your packing and traveling limitations may be.
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Pre-departure meeting # 2 (1.5 - 2 hours): I generally like to set my second meeting 1- 2 weeks after the first meeting. We begin by reviewing any information or questions that have arisen from the previous meeting. By the second meeting, I hope to have preliminary itineraries available to share with students. This helps a lot to also remind students of what they may need to pack for particular activities such as hiking shoes or formal attire.
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The second meeting really focuses on the academic deliverables and academic give backs that the students are required to complete as part of their time away from the normal classroom. I spend time going over each assessment and providing as much detail as possible in terms of where and when the students might be able to complete each assessment. Keep in mind that if you have students in different grades or classes, there may be several assessments to go over.
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I let the team break off into collaboration groups and brainstorm what their academic give back will be too. The academic give back needs to be something guided by the students for their fellow peers. The academic give back is more powerful when it is heartfelt and they and their experience can serve the students peer community.
Pre-departure meeting # 3 (1 hour): The final
pre-departure meeting is the shortest and most effective when held a few days prior to travel. At the final meeting, I like to hand each student something useful and something fun. The something useful is usually a final package of documents and checklists, all packaged nicely in a simple plastic folder that they can travel with. Inside are checklists including items that need to be printed such as plane tickets and insurance cards, as well as packing lists separated into what should go into their checked luggage and carry on. Try to include any emergency contact numbers, a finalized itinerary and other documents of importance.
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The something fun is something that gets them excited again for their approaching travels. This can be a t-shirt, travel pack or key-chain.
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Prior to finishing the last meeting, make sure to confirm and re-confirm the meeting location and time at the airport. You wouldn't want someone to be late and miss their flight!
