How has thinking of yourself as an Educator Explorer vs an Educator changed your instruction?
Personally, I had identified closely with an indoor cat. Fabulous, clever, indoors. The outdoors wasn’t for me. I even made jokes about how I didn’t go outside. Truth be told, I wasn’t invited outside. My family members didn’t spend time outside and therefore neither did it. I was never forbidden, just uninvited. Then I met my husband. 
I began to realize I had believed lies about myself. The outdoors WERE for me. Then I was named a GTF. I felt like I had fooled National Geographic. What were they doing sending ME to the Galapagos? Didn’t they know I was an indoor kitty? What I didn’t know is that they had already seen the explorer inside of me. After my expedition, my ideas on my limits exploded. I identified more as an explorer, but it isn’t my primary definition. Therefore I came up with the hashtag #EducatorExplorer. This changes how I teach, and I use established models of explorers (myself included, gasp!) with my young learners. They see themselves as explorers and are empowered by how simple exploration can me. I don’t have to seek carnivores or scale caves. I can go outside my classroom and enjoy the nature right there around me.
How has it impacted your personal life?
I am profoundly different, and yet still the same. Have you ever cooked boeuf bourguignon? It’s exquisite when you first cook it, and it’s even better when you reheat it. My experience in Galapagos first changed my professional identity, as you can see on my blog. Then, the more I was pulled back to learn and grow with National Geographic Education, it was like I was reheated. I am getting better and sharper and identify stronger as an #EducatorExplorer each time I touch back at HQ. Sometimes when “I come home” I cry a little bit. I’m not alone in this. With awe, I walked back in last summer with Monica Nunez. Two weeks ago Peg Keiner and I felt like we were partying at the Queens of Egypt party in our living room, having drinks where we took training. I ate dinner with Anne Lewis last summer at an online meet up led by Luke Zimmer and people treated us like NatGeoEducation royalty. “You’re Glitter Sparkle Penguin!?” It’s bananas. I blur the lines between personal and professional when it comes to NatGeo. I call JT, Meghan and Allison my mentors but they are also my friends. I ask about their lives as well as their work, and vice versa. Anne and I are part of a 6 person group of 2017 GTFs called #MotivationalMonday. We check in monthly and encourage one another, dream, share. They carried me through this past year with a huge project and my husband going through chemo, and we cheered each other on as well as planned #Badlands2019. It’s giving me a #NatGeoFamily. I can’t fully explain how profoundly impacted I am, but I know my learners and their families see it. Here is an email I got today: (female student) LOVES the integration of National Geographic into the curriculum and talks about it all the time. We feel really lucky you’ve given the kids this opportunity!
Is there a quote or anecdote from a learner or specific classroom example that helps illustrate how learners have been impacted by your Explorer Mindset?
There are too many to recount. The time my learners “played” Dr. Andrew Stein on the playground after having an Explorer Classroom with him. The time we connected to Explorer Magazine while learning about butterflies. The time a learner said, “I thought YOU were an explorer!” when I told him I didn’t know Daddy Long Legs weren’t a spider type. Today while the Spanish educator had my learners write about a profession they’d like one day, a student asked, “How do you spell scientist in Spanish?” I didn’t realize she wanted to be one. My hope is that I am fostering something in her through exploration, and that she never loses that fire.
I check in annually with my former 2nd grade learners (now 4th graders) who did a project with my my first year as a GTF. It was on Dr. Ryan Carney. They still feel inspired by this work, ask about him, get excited when I saw we’re working together. This is TWO YEARS later in the life of a young child, and yet they remember in great detail. This is the impact of an #EducatorExplorer.
Jennifer’s Advice to Educators as they Embrace an Explorer Mindset:
Try something, even something small, every so often. Next thing you know, you’ll have drunk the kool-aid like me and infuse exploration into everything. It is then that you realize all learning is exploration! I believe the future of #EducatorExplorer is relationship based, to make lasting relationships with established explorers and perpetuate them, benefitting learners, educators and explorers. According to Timothy Brown of NatGeo, this is the paragon of what they want to see – educators and explorers perpetuating work with one another for the benefit of all.
