To finish my Master of Education in Curriculum and Instruction at the University of San Diego, I had one component left - the global requirement, which nicely brought together my intensive program with a reminder of how large the scale is of educational work and our impact on the world as teachers. The course was in comparative education, and many interesting discussions took place with the guest lecturer as we discussed mandatory ages of education (in England and France, you are allowed to stop schooling at age 16!) and the progressive reforms that are sweeping through England at a rapid top-down pace. My favorite educational goal that David Cameron, the UK’s Prime Minister has set for the country is coding - click through to see my earlier post about why I think this is so important and more about England’s Year of Code.
It was a wonderful, educational trip with many good friends that I have made over the last year. It was so fun to get to kick back with people whose friendships had been forged under stress in this intensive one year program - we hadn’t been able to do this much in the past year and it set a new tone for the program and left us on a good note. We explored the city of Oxford itself, going up in the tower at New College (one of the oldest colleges that comprise the University of Oxford), went punting (a gondelier-type sport where one of us would push with a giant rod and the others would sit in the boat, and of course the classic English pub, Turf Tavern. We had a wonderful conclusion to the program and were excited to go to London to begin our travels!