Parker Leon is a retired history teacher for Maclay's high school in Pacoin, California, near Los Angeles. He continues to work as a teacher as a volunteer coordinator for the Certain Dreams Foundation. Garrett Anderson, a recently retired Major League Baseball player who spent most of his career in Los Angeles, is financed by the Certain Dreams Foundation. Anderson and his wife, Teresa, were once students at MacLay, and they have been actively funding and planning special projects at the school since 2003.
Initiatives of the Carter Anderson Foundation and educational travel
The Specific Dreams Foundation is a source of funding for the Maclayay High School Reading Initiative and study tours. Each year, a group of students takes an East Coast educational tour to Boston, New York or Philadelphia. Levon also holds an annual trip with a group of students to the historical and geographical landmarks of California. “I feel it is important to expose the children in this school to the outside world. “Many of the children who go to Maclay had no way to go beyond Los Angeles,” Leon commented.
Hunt for an educational travel company that offers flexibility
When he first began to hunt for an educational travel company, Leon said he was disappointed that many of the companies with whom he spoke had certain routes that had not been changed. “I didn’t necessarily like the tours that other companies represented,” Leon said, “so I finally said yes to a company that was ready to organize the tour at will.” Educational travel consultants were ready to set up a tour in accordance with its curriculum. Consultants work with teachers to create educational tours that are parallel to the learning objectives. Ready-made tours of popular holiday destinations are also offered for school groups.
Created a student tour of California
Levin helped create a six-day tour of California. The journey begins at Maclay's high school near Los Angeles, continues through the Sierra Nevada mountains near Lake Tahoe, stops in the San Francisco Bay and Sacramento Bay and runs along the coast of California through Monterey and Santa Cruz, and then back to Los Angeles .
Students travel to the Sierra Nevada Mountains
Levon wanted to start the tour with a review of the geography of the state. The school trip begins with a visit to Mount Mammoth, the site of an ancient volcano that erupted about 57,000 years ago. The students then go to the nearby Lake Tahoe, another geographical wonder - a large and deep mountain lake, which lies at an altitude of about 6,225 feet and is located on the border with Nevada and California. While touring the area, students also visit the Colom Valley, the place where gold was first discovered. This discovery triggered a gold rush in California in 1849.
Tours in Sacramento and San Francisco Bay
After spending the day in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, the school group travels west to Sacramento to visit the California State Railway Museum, where they will learn about the construction of a transcontinental railway. Here the first of two training exercises on the trip begins with an information hunt. 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 in public administration.
Further along the route lies the San Francisco Bay Area, where students visit the Alcatraz Island prison by boat, walk along the Golden Gate Bridge, take a tour of Fort Point (the old era of the Civil War), watch the Maritime National Historical Park and take a walk around Chinatown . In the evening, the student group has lunch at a restaurant on the Fishermen’s Wharf.
Santa Cruz and Monterey
The next day, the school group heads south from the San Francisco area and visits Santa Cruz, where they see one of the forests in a California forest and stop in Monterey, the first capital of the state of California. Here, students look at the Mexican period in California history, visit the Monterey Aquarium, and see the coast of the Great Coast from the point of view of the Lobos State Nature Reserve.
18th century student mission tour
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 overview of the coastal zone. At their last stop, they complete the La Purisima Mission, a well-preserved example of a mission, as it was in 1800. Part two of the information hunt takes place in La Purisima, where students are tasked with finding specific information about the history of the mission while touring.
Competition for a place in the California Tour
Funding limits do not allow all Maclay students to attend this grant-sponsored trip. So, Levon and the Andersons created an academic competition with the winners who won a place in the California tour. The competition helps them to strive for the best classes, and also includes an element of luck. Students are given draw tickets for each eligible class in the A, B and C ranges. “The more good classes they receive in the first semester of the school, the more entrance tickets they must enter in the drawing,” says Leon. Fourteen names are taken from all the entries, and these happy students travel in their native state.
This unique trip was created because the history teacher wanted to develop a study tour in which students can participate in any active learning about their home state. The California tour is ambitious on all sites it covers. Students studying history, geography, and social studies in California will benefit from a trip similar to this one, or even one that is very similar. The tour can be reduced to three to four days instead of five or six and still offers many opportunities for learning.
For more information about planning a trip to California, visit http://www.educationaltravelconsultants.com or email info@educationaltravelconsultants.com.
