{"id":6177,"date":"2016-04-25T09:49:23","date_gmt":"2016-04-25T13:49:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/?p=6177"},"modified":"2016-01-21T14:59:29","modified_gmt":"2016-01-21T19:59:29","slug":"group-leader-darren-andrea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/group-leader-darren-andrea","title":{"rendered":"Group Leader Spotlight: Darren & Andrea"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Darren,<\/a>

Darren, history teacher,
Andrea, math & science teacher<\/p><\/div>\n

Husband and wife team Darren and\u00a0Andrea weren\u2019t always travelers.\u00a0\u201cWhen I decided to start leading trips,\u00a0I\u2019d never been to Europe,\u201d admits\u00a0Darren. \u201cHere I was teaching all\u00a0this European history, but I\u2019d never\u00a0actually been there myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

When a friend asked Darren and Andrea\u00a0to co-lead an Explorica tour they jumped at the opportunity.\u00a0\u201cThat was 10 years ago,\u201d says Darren, who has\u00a0since visited some 14 European countries with Explorica\u00a0and is presently planning his 13th tour. \u201cToday our\u00a0friends joke that we have the best job in the world. They\u00a0say, \u2018Wait, you and your wife get to go to Europe each\u00a0year, plus you go on these teacher trips, and you bring\u00a0your family?!\u2019 We just look back and wonder why we\u00a0didn\u2019t do it sooner.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both teachers are committed to bringing their lessons\u00a0to life through their trips, so they craft tours that build\u00a0on their respective curricula. \u201cWe\u2019ve worked with the\u00a0same program consultant since 2005, and even though\u00a0we\u2019re always tweaking and customizing tours, she never\u00a0makes us feel like we\u2019re a hassle,\u201d says Andrea. \u201cNine\u00a0times out of 10 she\u2019s able to get us what we want, and in\u00a0the instances where she can\u2019t, she\u2019s always upfront\u2014and\u00a0we\u2019re always thrilled with the alternative.\u201d<\/p>\n

Darren, who does a two-week case study on the French\u00a0Revolution with his Honors World History classes, recollects\u00a0a particularly rewarding visit to Versailles Palace.\u00a0\u201cWhen we entered the Hall of Mirrors, two of my students\u00a0looked at me and said \u2018this is where our skit about\u00a0Louis XIV and Marie Antoinette took place! How crazy\u00a0is it that we\u2019re actually standing here now?!\u2019 Every trip is\u00a0filled with moments like that. It\u2019s pretty special.\u201d<\/p>\n

Make the past come alive for your students. Our European Combination itineraries<\/a><\/strong> are a great place to start!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Husband and wife team Darren and\u00a0Andrea weren\u2019t always travelers.\u00a0\u201cWhen I decided to start leading trips,\u00a0I\u2019d never been to Europe,\u201d admits\u00a0Darren. \u201cHere I was teaching all\u00a0this European history, but I\u2019d never\u00a0actually been there myself.\u201d When a friend asked Darren and Andrea\u00a0to co-lead an Explorica tour they jumped at the opportunity.\u00a0\u201cThat was 10 years ago,\u201d says Darren, Read More …<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":41,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,172],"tags":[345,58,115,323,40,128],"class_list":["post-6177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-explorica-news","category-teachers","tag-educational-tours","tag-educational-travel","tag-european-history","tag-european-tours","tag-france","tag-student-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/41"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6177"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6177\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6179,"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6177\/revisions\/6179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}