Listo!

Ready! ...Okay.

It is hard to reflect on the culmination of my Fulbright experience because for so long it just seemed like a mirage of a possibility. We began this journey with Fulbright TGC in September 2019. We engaged in an incredible school year of professional development, attended the Global Education Symposium in Washington D.C. in January 2020, and collaborated in virtual exchange experiences with other educators and classrooms across the United States.

Slide to see photos from the Global Education Symposium, Jan. 2020

Listo! This common Spanish phrase means "ready".

Following the Symposium and meeting alums that had visited Colombia and collaborating with my cohort, I could not have been more ready to begin preparing for my July 2020 travels and thinking about how that would further shape my evolving view of education. However, when the pandemic hit shortly after the Symposium and four months before our highly anticipated trip to Colombia, it felt from then on that everything was relying on hope and uncertainty. Like many things the past two and a half years, it has been difficult to predict what will continue from our past plans and what to prepare and plan for in the future. I found myself shifting from wondering when and where the anticipated field experience would be to if it would occur.

Connecting with our original cohort over Zoom to discuss our first reflections of teaching

during a pandemic in April 2020 and celebrating Colombian Independence Day in July 2020

While we awaited travel and health updates from the various countries Fulbright works in, I was able to stay connected with many of the original cohort members and seek advice, collaboration, and conversation as we, in various contexts throughout the United States, navigated this global pandemic. As most teachers that taught from spring 2020 to now will tell you, my ideas of what I believed education to be and what my purpose was within it shifted as we navigated the pandemic together. While I had been thinking the field experience would be the ultimate example of "global education" that would transform my thinking as an teacher, we were, in fact, being transformed daily along with students and educators across the globe while we navigated the unexpected. I found myself open to learning and reimagining what I thought was possible in teaching and saying "yes" to new ways of learning.

Listo! Colombians typically say "listo" as another way to say "okay"

In the two years we awaited our international field exchange, as the world underwent unprecedented changes, I also was experiencing changes in my professional life as I said "okay" or "listo" to new opportunities. Within that time, I transitioned from being an instructional coach to being an assistant principal on another campus. Throughout the year as an instructional coach during the height of the pandemic, the concepts of "global citizenship" and "global competencies" became so much more tangible as we were universally struggling, collaborating, connecting, and problem-solving through the same extraordinary circumstances. While transitioning to my role as an assistant principal, I reflected on how the systems and structures I was using to support teachers would help them build upon these skills developed the past two years and how we should embrace and process global citizenship moving forward.

When I received an email on December 20, 2021 of the details of our field experience in Colombia, my heart soared. I had been looking forward to this for so long that it didn’t seem like reality that we would get to experience this international exchange! Despite my best efforts to remain cautiously optimistic and reserve my hope, my anticipation and excitement only continued to build as time passed. I was ready to embrace this adventure, and I knew I was prepared to say okay to learning and reframing what I thought I understood.

After looking forward to this experience for years, my expectations were incredibly high as we planned, packed, researched and prepared for this experience. Though however high I could have set my expectations for the two weeks we spent in Bogotá, I wasn't aware this opportunity would exceed all of them. It is difficult to put into words an experience that was truly once in a lifetime.

I traveled to Bogotá with 14 other educators from across the United States, 2 IREX program specialists, and an in-country educator host. We came from Texas, Louisiana, Georgia, California, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New York, Massachusetts, Virginia, Arizona, Washington DC, and Washington state. We are consultants, administrators, specialists, and teachers teaching ESL, science, art, special education, English, history, and self-contained classroom teachers in elementary, middle, and high school settings in both urban and rural districts. There were so many unique and different perspectives and contexts within our group, yet what each of these people had in common was being incredibly passionate, enthusiastic, skilled, intelligent, and possessed a humility and fervor for continual learning.

If I was to just stay in a room and talk with these educators about our own educational contexts, experiences, and philosophies on global education and global citizenship for two weeks, I would have been counting my blessings. But to get to experience so many different educational opportunities in Bogotá with these educators was a profound gift!

At the Atlanta Airport awaiting our flight to Bogotá- July 2022

This experience, in the most beautiful and welcoming country alongside such incredible educators and people, is hard to put into words! Though I know my reflections are coming from a place of gratitude for what I have learned, readiness to put it in to practice, and openness to new ways of viewing myself, my students, and our world.

And now, for whatever comes next, Listo!