After a very long and informative day of Grosvenor Teacher Fellow training I visited the National Geographic Museum store. Behind the register is a map of the world with pins marking where you have been and where you are going. Several of us marked our expedition destinations. I proudly placed my pin on the arctic Svalbard… after the nice clerk brought me a stool so I could reach.

This experience feels so surreal yet down to earth at the same time. First of all, being in a room surrounded by educators, collaborating, and sharing ideas and insights is a relatively normal experience for me. However, we come from all over the U.S. and Canada and have a wide variety of experiences and expertise. The fellows this year include a librarian, a band teacher, an art teacher, a zoo educator, a pediatric hospital educator, and k-12 classroom teachers from public and private schools. Plus, amazingly we were sitting in the National Geographic Headquarters building learning about our roles as Grosvneor Teacher Fellows which will impact our teaching careers profoundly. There were many moments where the enormity of it all would hit me and I would be in awe. There were also moments where I would forget that it was an extraordinary day and lose myself in the joy of talking to other like-minded individuals and gaining ideas to bring back to my kindergarten team.