Parker Lefton is a retired history teacher from Maclay High School in Pacoina California, just outside of Los Angeles. He continues to work as an educator in his role as volunteer coordinator for Fundación Determinados a Soñar. Garret Anderson, a recently retired major league baseball player who spent most of his career with the Los Angeles Angels, funds the Determined to Dream Foundation. Anderson and his wife, Teresa, were once students at Maclay and have been actively planning and funding special projects at the school since 2003.
The Garret Anderson Foundation funds reading initiatives and educational trips
The Determined to Dream Foundation is the funding source for Maclay Middle School’s reading initiative and educational trips. Each year, a group of students takes an educational tour up the East Coast to Boston, New York City, or Philadelphia. Lefton also takes an annual trip with a group of students to historical and geographic points of interest in California. “I think it’s important to expose the kids at this school to the outside world. A lot of the kids that go to Maclay haven’t had a chance to get out of Los Angeles,” Lefton said.
Looking for an educational travel company that offers flexibility
When he started looking for an educational travel company, Lefton said he was disappointed to find that many of the companies he interviewed had set itineraries that couldn’t be changed. “I didn’t necessarily like tours that were put on by other companies,” Lefton noted, “so I ultimately said yes to the company that was open to putting the tour together the way I wanted it to.” Educational Travel Consultants was willing to customize the tour to match your curriculum. Consultants work with teachers to create educational pathways parallel to instructional objectives. Pre-packaged tours of popular destinations are also available for school groups.
A student tour of California is created
Lefton helped create a six-day tour of California. The journey begins at Maclay Middle School near Los Angeles, continues up through the Sierra Nevada mountains near Lake Tahoe, makes stops in the San Francisco Bay Area and Sacramento, and continues along the coast of California via Monterey and Santa Cruz, then back to Los Angeles.
Students travel to the Sierra Nevada mountains
Lefton wanted to start the tour with an overview of the geography of the state. The school trip begins with a visit to Mammoth Mountain, the site of the ancient volcano that erupted some 57,000 years ago. Students then head to nearby Lake Tahoe, another wonder: a large, deep mountain lake that sits at approximately 6,225 feet in elevation and sits on the Nevada-California border. While touring the area, students also visit the Coloma Valley, the place where gold was first discovered. This discovery triggered the California Gold Rush of 1849.
Touring Sacramento and the San Francisco Bay
After spending a day in the Sierra Nevada mountains, the school group heads west to Sacramento to visit the California State Railroad Museum, where they learn about the construction of the transcontinental railroad. Here, the first of two educational exercises on the journey begins with a search for information. Students work in pairs to find specific information in the Museum. Winners receive Target gift cards. While visiting Sacramento, students also tour the California State Capitol building, where they gain insight and perspective on state government.
Next on the itinerary is the San Francisco Bay Area, where students visit Alcatraz Island prison by boat, cross the Golden Gate Bridge, tour Fort Point (a former Civil War-era site) , see the Maritime National Historical Park and take a walking tour. from Chinatown. In the evening, the group of students have dinner at a restaurant in Fishermen’s Wharf.
Santa Cruz and Monterey
The next day, the school group moves south to the San Francisco area and visits Santa Cruz, where they see one of California’s redwood forests, and make a stop in Monterey, California’s first capital. Here, students consider the Mexican period in California history, visit the Monterey Aquarium, and view the Big Sur coastline from the point of view of Point Lobos State Natural Reserve.
A student tour of an 18th century mission
On the way back to Los Angeles, the bus stops at Morro Bay, where a tour of the Museum of Natural History offers a visual and educational insight into the waterfront. At their last stop, they tour Mission La Purísima, a wonderfully preserved example of a mission as it would have looked in the 1800s. The second part of the information hunt occurs at La Purísima, where students are tasked with finding specific details about the mission. mission story while in the round.
Competing for a place on the Tour of California
Funding limitations do not allow all Maclay Middle School students to attend this grant-funded trip. So Lefton and the Andersons created an academic competition in which the winners receive a spot on the California tour. The contest helps them push themselves for better grades and also involves the element of luck. Students receive tickets to a raffle for each acceptable grade in the A, B, and C range. “The more good grades they receive the first semester of school, the more entrance tickets they have to enter the raffle,” says Lefton. Fourteen names are drawn from all entries, and these lucky students tour their home state.
This unique trip was created because a history teacher wanted to develop an educational tour that would give students the opportunity to engage in active learning about their home state. The California tour is ambitious in all the places it covers. Students studying California history, geography, and social studies will benefit from a trip designed like this, or even one that is quite similar. The tour could be reduced to three or four days instead of five or six and still offer plenty of learning opportunities.
For more information on scheduling a student trip to California, visit http://www.educationaltravelconsultants.com or email [email protected].