Parker Lefton is a retired history teacher from Maclay Middle School in Pacoina California, outside of Los Angeles. He continues to work as an educator in his role as a volunteer coordinator for the Determined to Dream Foundation. 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 students at Maclay and have been actively funding and planning 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 field trips. Each year, a group of students take an educational tour of the East Coast to Boston, New York City, or Philadelphia. Lefton also goes on an annual trip with a group of students to historical and geographic points of interest in California. “I feel like it’s important to expose the kids at this school to the outside world. A lot of the kids who 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 defined itineraries that couldn’t be changed. “I didn’t necessarily like the tours that other companies presented,” Lefton noted, “so I finally said yes to the company that was open to organizing the tour in any way that I wanted.” Educational Travel Consultants was willing to customize the tour to match their curriculum. Consultants work with teachers to create educational pathways that parallel the teaching objectives. Prepackaged 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 trip begins at Maclay Middle School near Los Angeles, continues through the Sierra Nevada mountains near Lake Tahoe, makes a stop in the San Francisco Bay area and Sacramento, and continues up the California coast through Monterey. and Santa Cruz, then back to Los Angeles.
Students travel to Sierra Nevada
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 about 57,000 years ago. The students then proceed to nearby Lake Tahoe, another geographic wonder: a large, deep mountain lake that stands approximately 6,225 feet high and is located on the border of Nevada and California. 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 the two educational exercises on the journey begins with a search for information. Students work with their peers to find specific information at the Museum. Winners receive Target gift cards. During their visit to Sacramento, students also tour the California State Capitol building, where they get information and perspective from the 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) , visit the National Maritime Historical Park and take a walking tour. from Chinatown. In the evening, the group of students dine at a restaurant on 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 shoreline from the lookout point at Point Lobos State Nature Reserve.
A student tour of an 18th century mission
On the way back to Los Angeles, the bus stops in Morro Bay, where a tour of the Museum of Natural History provides a visual and educational overview of the coastal area. At their last stop, they tour La PurÃsima Mission, a wonderfully preserved example of a mission as it would have been in 1800. The second part of the search for information occurs at La PurÃsima, where students are tasked with finding specific details about the mission story while towering.
Competing for a spot on the California tour
Funding limitations do not allow all Maclay Middle School students to attend this grant-funded trip. So Lefton and the Andersons have created an academic competition with the winners awarded a spot on the California tour. The contest helps them live to get better grades and also involves the element of luck. Students receive tickets for a drawing for each acceptable grade in the A, B and C range. “The more good grades they receive the first semester of school, the more entry tickets they have to enter the drawing,” says Lefton. Fourteen names are drawn from all the 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 designed trip like this, or even one that is quite similar. The tour could be shortened to three or four days instead of five or six and still offer many learning opportunities.
For more information on scheduling a student trip to California, visit http://www.educationaltravelconsultants.com or email [email protected].
