This article is sponsored by EF Educational Tours, the leader in international student travel, helping teachers and students discover the world through immersive educational travel.

Nothing peaks a student’s interest quite like a field trip. A bus ride with friends, a day out of school… it’s every kid’s dream. For teachers, field trips can be a huge stress ball. In fact, most teachers think planning field trips is so stressful a lot of them don’t even bother starting the process.

If you’re a teacher who cringes at the thought of planning field trips within your city limits, I’m sure you can’t even wrap your mind around planning a field trip to a different part of the country… or a different part of the world. I’ll wait while you stop laughing hysterically at the mere thought of organizing something that massive.

Sure, it sounds like a lot, and, yes, our schedules are already insanely busy as they are, but what if it wasn’t as hard as you think it is? And what if the benefits were more than you ever realized? It turns out taking your students on an educational tour with a company like EF Tours might actually pay off in more ways than you ever realized. For example:

1. There’s Not As Much Planning As You Might Think

Sure, if you try doing all of this on your own, your plate will go from full to overflowing in no time. But why put yourself through all of that? Companies like EF Tours take most of the legwork off your agenda and let you focus on the fun stuff. You pick where to go, and they pretty much take care of everything else. Not bad, right? 

2. It Offers A Break From The Routine

Sure, every day of teaching is unique. Some days your class is fully engaged in your well-crafted lesson plans, and other days you have to remind them to stop licking the walls. Eventually, though, it can be pretty easy for the routines you put in place at the beginning of the year to become ruts. Going through the motions day after day can wear on teachers and students. That’s where an educational tour comes in to save the day! Can you imagine putting the textbook away and actually being able to teach them lessons through worldly experiences? Sampling food from a different country? Visiting wonders of the world? Sure beats the bell ringers and pop quizzes!

3. There’s No Lesson Planning

Speaking of boring routines that no teacher likes: Lesson planning! We all have to do it, and no one enjoys it. Typing up daily agendas and linking standards and creating assignments is as much fun as dental surgery. But if you’re on an educational tour, those lesson plans could be a lot more fun to put together. Instead of sifting through mountains of Teacher Editions, you could be climbing actual mountains. Instead of stuffing your lesson plans full of paperwork, you could be stuffing your face with authentic foods from a whole new corner of the world.  

4. You Don’t Need To Have All The Answers

Students love asking questions that teachers don’t always have the answers for. Sometimes, we may turn to Google in moments of desperation, or we may utter the famous line: “That’s a great question; we’ll get back to that.” But traveling with a tour company means you don’t need to always know everything about everything. For instance, EF Tours provides bilingual tour guides that stay with you the entire trip, offering background and information for you and the kids. 

5. It’s Travel That’s Actually Affordable

For just about everybody, going on a big trip to another part of the world would mean spending a significant amount of money. But we are teachers. We don’t have significant amounts of money. So the thought of us traveling to Japan or Puerto Rico is about as realistic as us bringing in our pet unicorn for the class to ride on. But did you know that teachers actually travel for free on an educational tour? EF Tours gives teachers one free spot for every 6 students they bring with them. So if you travel with 12 students, you can bring along your favorite teacher-friend or your spouse (unless you also could use a break from them !). 

6. You Can Explore the World On Your Own, Too

If you’re a teacher, then you probably love free stuff. OK, everyone loves free stuff, but teachers LIVE for free stuff. Turns out a lot of educational tour programs have reward programs where you can earn points that you can redeem for all sorts of things. EF Tours, for example, uses a Global Rewards program that teachers can use to pay for flights, extra travel opportunities, excursions, and more. The more you travel, the more points you earn… it’s a win-win!

7. You Can Earn Professional Development That’s Not Actually Mind-Numbing

Who wants to sit through another training session? Nobody! But did you know you could rack up 45 PL hours by leading an EF educational tour? You can even take a travel-based course while on the tour to earn up to 6 graduate-level credits, which not only helps you become a better teacher but saves you a ton of money. And we all know teachers love saving money as much as we love going on vacation. 

8. It’s A Chance To Spend Quality Time With Your Students

Sometimes it can be hard to make connections with students. A lot of times, some students can fall through the cracks and teachers miss valuable opportunities to see their true potential. Sometimes changing things up and getting them out of the classroom can open up a whole new side to your students. Plus you get the added benefit of giving them an opportunity to go places and see things they would never have normally been able to see. 

EF Educational Tours