Teacher Greg Burch helps student Claudi Russell, 13, during a computer class at Flowing Wells Junior High School. In late October, Burch will be off to the Galapagos Islands as part of an international teacher program. He hopes to incorporate lessons of the trip into the classroom here.

Mamta Popat / Arizona Daily Star

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Greg Burch may not get to take his students to the Galapagos Islands, but he'll do his best to bring the islands back to the classroom.

Burch, a Flowing Wells Junior High School media arts teacher, was selected to take part in the Toyota International Teacher Program. The program will send Burch and 19 other teachers from across the nation to the islands, which are 600 miles west of Ecuador.

Though the 10-day trip will focus on environmental issues, Burch said it is intended to be a multidisciplinary take on the environment.

"What I want to bring back is that the environment doesn't have to just be taught in science," Burch said. "And that goes for any subject.

"We can teach the history of an environmental disaster in social studies. In computers, we can use technology to illustrate things about the environment."

On a recent morning, Burch asked his students in a beginning computer class how they could apply Microsoft Word's AutoShapes to other school subjects.

Eighth-grader Claudi Russell threw her arm up and answered that the tool could enhance presentations in other classes.

Soon, Russell and her classmates will take the digital images and video Burch collects from his excursion and use them to learn about computer programs.

Bringing world's lessons home

Burch said the environment will serve as the framework for second-semester lesson plans.

"I think it's more useful if we have more real-world stuff," Burch said. "My main goal is to collect a lot of images to bring back to have my kids use that in class."

Principal Deborah Schreiner said she and the faculty at the junior high school were thrilled to learn that Burch was selected.

"He is very deserving of this," Schreiner said. "What an experience. We just all wish we could go along. But we're going to make him come back and tell us all about it."

And while the students and staff will benefit from Burch's visit to the islands, so will he.

Burch and a group of teachers will make a presentation on New York's Hudson River and the project to protect and restore the river's ecosystem during a forum of American and Galapagueño teachers.

"I've learned how to collaborate and work on a project online," Burch said.

During his 12-year teaching career with the Flowing Wells School District, Burch also has learned from other travels through programs for educators.

In 2004, he spent part of his summer in Cyprus learning about the culture and geography of the island in the Mediterranean Sea.

Then, in 2003, he visited Japan, where he observed the educational system and culture.

"My goal with all of these trips is just to share it with my students," he said.

Connecting with kids

Burch's next voyage to another part of the world will occur in late October.

Before setting down in the Galapagos Islands, Burch will first travel to Los Angeles and then Guayaquil, Ecuador.

In all three instances of educational travel, Burch has been selected to be part of programs that sponsor educators' visits to other countries, so he hasn't had to pay for the opportunities to travel.

"It's something you have to look for," Burch said. "It's a lot of extra work."

Students and colleagues agree that Burch is doing something right in the classroom.

"He makes learning fun," Russell, 13, said. "He teaches me things that I don't know about the computer."

Added computer technician Stacey Chappell: "He's an awesome teacher. He has so much patience with the kids."