Bad Dog Theatre - Improv Workshops

Toronto is a hotbed of improv comedy and the place many talented comedians and actors got their start, or launched their careers. I'm a huge fan of the Bad Dog Theatre - the home of Theatresports in Toronto. I've been a student in many classes there, and I perform regularly with my "Harold" team Beat Surrender on its stage. I go to the parties, I hang with he other performers, and I am proud to be associated with this place. I'm not going to lie to you. I was delighted when I saw that Ralph McLeod, the General Manager of Toronto's Bad Dog Theatre submitted the following information:

Description: The Bad Dog Theatre company is the premiere group in Toronto dedicated to the production and teaching of Improv Comedy. We have shows several nights a week including Theatresports and improvised parodies. We can also organize an improv workshop for groups of any size on any budget.

Location: Toronto, Ontario

www.baddogtheatre.com

tel: (416) 491-3115

If you are looking for an activity for your group that will get the students participating and laughing their heads off, contact the Bad Dog Theatre and arrange for a workshop done by their incredible instructors. It will be a highlight of your trip and something that is an important part of culture in Toronto! 

Are you a supplier that can cater to student groups? Complete this form to be featured in a future post on Eyes That Travel.

Spirit of Travel - Italian Tour Operator

I'm a member of several travel and tourism discussion groups on LinkedIn, and actually started one focused on educational travel called the Educational Travel Experience. One of the first members of the group was Mino Reganato, owner of Spirit of Travel. He is very capable of planning meaningful trips and tours within Italy for student groups. If you are planning a trip to Italy for students, it would be a good idea to contact an experienced local tour company like Spirit of Travel to see what they can offer. If you like one of their tours, you can ask your travel provider to add it to your itinerary. Below is the information Mino sent me:

Description: Spirit of Travel is very specialized for the followings area: Rome, Pompeii, Naples, Montecassino (Abbey), Caserta (Royal Palace), Ulysses' Coast for guided visits, hotels, coach services, restaurant and so on. All this is considered to be the cradle of history and culture.

Location: Formia, Italy

www.spiritoftravel.it

tel: 390771269288

NY SKYRIDE at the Empire State Building

Most groups going to New York City want to visit the Empire State Building (ESB), and so does every tourist. This can make the ESB one of the busiest and most frustrating places to visit if you are unprepared. Group leaders and tour guides are advised to pick up passes to the observation deck ahead of time while the group is shopping or at another site. 

One of the best things you can do at the ESB (and it will speed up your visit as well) is to do the NY SKYRIDE.  Curriculum links, scavenger hunts, AND Kevin Bacon. What could be better? Here's the scoop:

Description: NY SKYRIDE, located on the second floor of the Empire State Building, is New York's one and only virtual tour simulator. Tourists and students receive a unique virtual adventure around New York, all narrated by actor Kevin Bacon. This half hour event is supported by free downloadable curriculums for 6-12th grade as well as downloadable walking tours and scavenger hunts, Our FAST TRACK combo ticket with the Empire State Building eliminates 75% of the peak period waiting time for the Observatory.

Check out this high-energy video made using Google Earth of the sites seen on the Skyride.

Location: New York City, NY

www.skyride.com

(718)459-1964

Ice Bridge at Niagara Falls State Park, USA

Niagara Falls is a neat place to visit in the winter. Jesse Baier from Delaware North Companies, the company that provides concessions for Niagara Falls State Park, wrote me recently to tell me about the amazing ice bridge there:

"When winters are cold enough for Lake Erie waters to freeze, ice flows down the Niagara River and over the Falls, jamming and growing constantly until an ice bridge, spreading from the Canadian to American sides of the Falls, is created. At 30 to 100 feet thick, the size and duration of the Ice Bridge vary from year to year.

It has been illegal for almost a century for anyone to set foot on the Ice Bridge. Tragically, in 1912, the ice abruptly broke apart and fell down river, taking the lives of three people. Before this accident, in the winters of the late 1800s and early 1900s, thousands of people from across the world visited Niagara Falls State Park daily to skate and play on the naturally formed wonder of the Ice Bridge. Brave concessionaires even pulled huts and shanties made of wood onto the bridge to sell tea, coffee, food, souvenirs and liquor.

Currently, Niagara Falls State Park offers monthly tours from January to March that allow the public to view the majestic wonder of the Ice Bridge. The next tour will take place on Sunday, March 15 at 1 p.m."

Thanks Jesse, for the information! Niagara Falls State Park offers guided tours on the trail system that begin at Niagara Gorge Discovery Center’s trailhead. For more information on tours or to make a reservation, call (716) 282-5154.

Segway of Ontario (Segway and Walking Tours)

This is the first of what will be many supplier profiles... 

Introduce students to an important historical location in Toronto - and now one of the most used locations for film making in the city. Take a walking tour of the Distillery District or for a completely unique experience take the tour on a Segway!

Description: Explore what used to be the largest Distillery in the world! On the Distillery walking tour, learn about the history, architecture and other facts about the area. Along the way, enjoy some tasting at Mill St. Brewery (19+) and Soma Chocolate. We also provide Segway tours and workshops (two wheeled self-balancing scooter). Minimum age for Segway tours is 10yrs.

Location: Toronto ON, CANADA

www.segwayofontario.com

416-642-0008

Can you handle school groups?

If you represent a hotel, restaurant, attraction, historical site, or offer something to school groups, you should register your Supplier Profile* with Eyes That Travel. There is no cost, and it only takes a moment to create your profile.

The educational travel industry is growing quickly, but I think there is a distinct lack of good online resources for educators and tour companies to use when planning a trip. Teachers and tour companies know about some of the services offered by some suppliers, but none of them know everything about all the suppliers out there.

Here is your chance to reach new clients, advertise any special programs for student groups, talk about curriculum links, or to remind us of the all great things you have to offer student tour groups.

To register, simply complete the short (very short) Google Form here.

If the link does not work, copy this URL into your browser:

http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?key=pvgkN5XLEhAxsoNrY2fu5Aw

Your Supplier Profile will be posted as a blog entry within a week of posting, added to the blog archive and indexed by internet search engines, which is a good thing. Subscribe to this blog to receive an email update when your profile is posted.

If you have any questions or would like to inquire about having a longer, feature article written about you and become a sponsor, please email jasonkucherawy at gmail dot com. 

Thank you for helping make educational travel even better for students by helping us make your services available to them!

*The information you provide in your Supplier Profile will be used only for the purpose of promoting your business/organization to the educational travel market, and will not be used for any other purpose.

Carnaval in Quebec City

For the past 6 years I've traveled to Quebec City for the winter carnival with student groups. Quebec is an incredible place to visit any time of the year, but it really comes alive during the two weeks that Carnaval takes place. It's the largest winter festival of its kind, and is a celebration of French Canadian spirit during the coldest part of the year. And believe me... it can get really cold. But if you're prepared for extended periods of time spent outside in sub-zero temperatures and have a great pair of winter boots (like those made by Baffin) you'll have more fun than you can shake a maple taffy covered stick at.

For student groups, Quebec offers a healthy dose of history amidst the cobblestone streets of Lower Town - the birthplace of French civilization in North America, and a cornicopia of amazing cultural and recreational experiences. I won't get into the long list of possible activities, but I will tell you what I think is worth seeing and should be a priority for visiting school groups:

Martello Tower - learn about the defense of the city and life as a 19th c British soldier

Canada Odyssey - experience Canadian history through an amusing multi-media presentation

Sugar Shack Dinner - sample Quebecois music, dance and most importantly: FOOD!

Ste Anne de Beaupre Basilica - one of the most impressive churches on the continent

Dogsledding - barking dogs, the wind in your face, and pristine forest (winter)

The Glissade - a historic thrill ride down an iced slide on a wooden tobbaggan (winter)

I really enjoy bringing students here from outside of Canada because Quebec showcases a side of Canada that is unique and at the same time definitively Canadian. I practically burst with pride when talking about Quebec City's special place in the history of Canada (and the world) and love exposing students to this exciting part of Canadian heritage and culture.

If you would like to know more about trips and tours to Quebec City at any time of the year, please feel free to ask your questions in the comment section below!

Voluntraveler - Volunteer Travel in Peru

Time for a shameless plug. I started a new organization called Voluntraveler with two partners that matches volunteers with a charity organization called Para el Mundo in Mancora, Peru. 

The website is up, the online application is... er, online, and we are looking for volunteers for the fall and a House Manager for the summer to look after our volunteers.

Pass this info on to anyone who might be interested in these opportunities!

If you want to keep up with what we are doing and learn about our volunteer opportunities there are a few things you can do:

Check out our website: www.voluntraveler.com

Read our blog: www.voluntraveler.blogspot.com

Join us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/pages/Voluntraveler/45855912551

I plan to cover the world of volunteer travel in an educational context, and profile some of the organizations that offer volunteer travel opportunities for students. Stay tuned!

Tracking the Group Online

I just finished reading an article on CTV.ca about Google's new app Google Latitude which makes use of existing GPS and cell phone towers to track peoples location via their cell phones and display it on Google Maps. 

A couple of years ago a company I was working for dabbled with a similar technology that could be used to track the whereabouts of the tour guides (and therefore the group) using their company-issued cell phones. If they were not made aware of this feature, we would have been able to track them without them knowing it as long as their phones were powered up. We actually had the service for a short period of time and called up one of the guides knowing exactly where they were on a map. They were at home. I thought it would have been fun to call a guide while they were off duty at a bar and fake a crisis back at the hotel. Maybe just fun for me, but still fun.

The service was a little pricey then, and there was a debate over the cost/benefit, but with Google jumping on board now (free stuff) and more people having phones equipped with Google Maps (iphones will have it soon) this could be a big deal for educational tour companies. I always dreamed of having a device in my hand capable of holding all of the necessary info for a tour (itinerary, confirmation numbers, passenger manifest, maps, etc) and posessing all of the tools needed to do my job well like play video and sound over the motor coach entertainment system, tell me where I was at any point and where the closest public washroom was, allow me to keep in touch with my office, and to make confirmation calls. The newest generation of cell phones are practically there now.

There are some downsides to having such powerful tools int he hands of tour guides. I can see parents expecting to know where the tour group is at all times and getting worried when they see the group stopped on the highway for more than 5 minutes, or not knowing why they are taking a different route and trying to get a hold of the driver or tour guide to find out. Sound far-fetched? I've known of parents calling the tour emergency phone number at 2am (and waking up the poor office staff that had it by their bedside) to check if the hotel securty guard was on duty outside their son's room.

Sometimes it's not a good idea to give people access to too much information.

However, I think the ability now to upload photos takine on a trip immediately to facebook or other websites, twittering, and other elements of social networking make for a more engaging travel  experience for parents and students. I for one am very excited about what the future holds for the industry where technology and its use is concerned. I'll probably pick up an iphone in a year or so to use in my work as a guide. You can bet I'll be blogging about it.

The Purpose of Schools

In a recent post, one of my favourite bloggers, Seth Godin, listed what he believes are the purposes schools serve society. 

He posted the list, hoping readers would forward them to school principals and use them as a starting point for discussion. I've reproduced his list here, and I've highlighted the items in red that I think are covered well by educational travel as a part of a student's education. I would encourage people to share the list and your thoughts on it.

Become an informed citizen

Be able to read for pleasure

Be trained in the rudimentary skills necessary for employment

Do well on standardized tests

Homogenize society, at least a bit

Pasteurize out the dangerous ideas

Give kids something to do while parents work

Teach future citizens how to conform

Teach future consumers how to desire

 Build a social fabric

Create leaders who help us compete on a world stage

Generate future scientists who will advance medicine and technology

Learn for the sake of learning

Help people become interesting and productive

Defang the proletariat

Establish a floor below which a typical person is unlikely to fall

Find and celebrate prodigies, geniuses and the gifted

Make sure kids learn to exercise, eat right and avoid common health problems

Teach future citizens to obey authority

Teach future employees to do the same

Increase appreciation for art and culture

Teach creativity and problem solving

Minimize public spelling mistakes

Increase emotional intelligence

Decrease crime by teaching civics and ethics

Increase understanding of a life well lived

Make sure the sports teams have enough players

What would you add to this list? Which items do you think apply to educational travel? Do you disagree with any of these?