Q&A: Group Leader Claire Beyer discusses her trips to Washington, D.C.

Claire Beyer, a Smithsonian Student Travel Group Leader, is an 8th grade U.S. History teacher at the Ramiro Barrera Middle School in Roma, Texas.

Q: Tell us a little about your trips to Washington, D.C.:
A: I’m leading a trip to Washington, D.C., during spring break (March 16-20, 2009). I led this same trip last year. At that time, we had 36 students and 6 chaperones, including myself. This year, we have 42 enrolled students! This trip is becoming more popular every year…this year we had over 70 applicants!

Q: What prompted you to lead a Smithsonian Student Travel trip?
A: The Washington, D.C., trip has become a tradition at our school over the past five years. The trip was started by U.S. history teachers who wanted to give students who don’t have the means to travel on their own the opportunity to travel. We want the students to experience the history they study in class. I inherited the trip, in a way, after hearing how rich and rewarding an experience it was.

Q: Did you plan special curriculum around your upcoming trip?
A: Well, since we select the students for our trip from a pool of applicants, we treat the trip as an extracurricular activity. We have meetings after school every two weeks to build group culture and to learn more about the places we will be visiting. Students have also been creating presentations about the monuments and memorials we’ll visit.

Q: Did you set aside time after last year’s trip for student to reflect on their experience?
A: Yes. We set aside time for journaling last year, and this year I plan to put together a collective journal, with a page written by each student detailing each day of the trip. After returning home last year, we had a party after school where we watched slideshows of pictures students had taken, ate ice cream, and wrote thank you notes to all the people who had donated to our trip fund.

Q: You're associated with Teach for America. Tell us how that played a part in your travel experience.
A: Since I teach in a small, tightly knit community where I was not born and raised, the opportunity to lead this trip has been a great way for me to get involved in the social fabric of Roma. Working closely with students' parents, raising funds at community events, and choosing a combination of local teachers and teachers from the Teach for America program to be chaperones has been a valuable experience, both personally and professionally.

Q: How did fundraising affect your tour?
A: Fundraising is certainly the biggest challenge, since our group of students is large and our community has low economic resources. We were able to raise nearly $200 per student, and some families worked together selling lunch plates, having garage sales, and holding raffles to raise remaining funds.

Q: What did your students enjoy most about the trip to Washington, D.C., last year?
A: Although different students reported different highlights--Mount Vernon, the Capitol, the Lincoln Memorial, the Holocaust Museum, or a surprise protest that sprang up around us while we waited in line at the National Archives--I would say that what they most enjoyed was the feeling of independence and the importance of representing their hometown, their school, and their families. Many of my students had never left southern Texas, and this trip was something that they will tell people about for years. They tried food they had never tasted, they felt cold weather for the first time, and they were able to explore places that their friends had only seen in textbooks or on the Internet.

Q: And what was your favorite part of the trip?
A: My favorite part of the trip was spending time with my wonderful, bright, and motivated students outside the classroom. I got to know them on a more personal level, and I saw them grow during our five-day trip. I think my favorite moment was when we sat in at a class at Georgetown University, and several of my students raised their hands to ask very thoughtful, insightful questions. I was so proud of them for gathering the confidence to do that! By the end of that visit, I had at about ten students who already had their college futures planned out, four years ahead of time!

Q: Any additional thoughts or advice for teachers who are considering leading a tour, but who might have reservations about fundraising, the responsibility or the work that it takes to put it together?
A: You won't regret it. It is a lot of work, but it is worth it. Plus, parents want to do everything they can to help the trip be a success... they are invested in their own children, and they will take on the responsibilities that you delegate.