#NathGeo: The Grosvenor Teacher Fellowship, Part 3 - The Countdown Begins

You read that right. My circumnavigation of the British Isles with National Geographic and Lindblad Expeditions departs in 6 days. I'm almost ready, but let's back up a bit in the story.

When I returned from the DC training at the National Geographic Society's headquarters, my students were very curious about my upcoming journey. I'm rarely out of school so when I take three days off in the middle of a school week, they need to know where I was and what I was doing. Simply telling them about it was not enough. They needed pictures, videos, and lots of details. I decided that I needed to get organized with how I shared my journey so I made a presentation (click the link to learn more) explaining everything about the Grosvenor Teacher Fellowship.

The students listened with rapt attention especially when I talked about my expedition ship, The National Geographic Explorer and the smaller zodiac boats that launch from it. This presentation came in very handy when I spoke to journalists about the fellowship. My local newspaper, The Baton Rouge Advocate, covered my story with a large article.
To maximize my students' interest, I decided to have them each do a small research project about a topic that would assist me on my expedition. I got this idea from one of the GTF alums, Karina New, whom I met at our DC training.

As I near the departure date for my expedition, I've been doing all kinds of preparation. I had to rent water-proof wellies (boots) for zodiac landings. I had to visit a doctor to talk about scopolamine patches and Dramamine for seasickness. I've never been seasick (even after an overnight ride on a commercial car ferry across the Mediterranean from Athens to Crete), but I've also never been on the North Sea. According to TikTok, the North Sea is trying to kill you. I've also bought some special gear like a phone lanyard so I don't accidentally drop my phone (camera) in the North Sea.

In addition, I've had to plan pre and post-expedition travel with my shipmate, Deb Frietag. We decided early that we would spend a few days traveling in Scotland before embarking on our expedition. We'll go to Glasgow to see the stunning Roman collection at the Hunterian Museum in Glasgow. My principal, Erin Howard, has already tasked me with getting "merch" with Glasgow on it since our school is named after the famous Scottish city. We'll spend one day taking a tour of the Highlands. After the expedition, I plan to spend another day in London visiting the British Museum to see Legion: Life in the Roman Army. This exhibition will end a few days after I see it so I feel so incredibly fortunate - it contains some of the most interesting Roman artefacts out there, borrowed from all over Europe. Most thrilling is the Vettweiss-Froitzheim dice tower that I've written entire Roman Technology class lessons on. I don't want to jinx it, but I truly can't wait to see this object with my own eyes.

I'll be sharing as much of my journey as I can. I hope you'll follow along!