Amazing Travel Tips for Teachers

We, teachers, are also humans. While our job is truly rewarding, it may also become taxing at times especially if we do not take a break from it once in a while. Thus, we need to get away sometimes because we deserve it. However, even before we could plan for a fun and exciting trip out of town, we have killed our joys right there and then with the thoughts of our schedule and tons of responsibilities. “How can I even travel? I can’t leave my students,” “How can I travel if I got piles of outputs to check?” I myself used to think this way few years back until I tried to travel to places. With that, let me share with you a few amazing travel tips for teachers especially the full-time ones that might help you!

Check the School Calendar

It is among the most classic travel tips for teachers that they should have in mind. Even before the school year starts, check your school calendar. Make sure that you’ll take note of every national holidays, term breaks, long weekends and start and end of the school break. The thing about our job is, when there are no classes, we are not required to come to school and we also have long school breaks (the ‘summer’ break). Most likely, what you’ll be able to take note of are the National holidays even before seeing the new calendar or before the school calendar is released. Regardless, block all of them in your own planner.

Plan About your Destination

During this planning phase, you have to consider the travel time vis-à-vis the means of transportation that you’ll take to your target destination. For weekends, you might want to visit places that are two to five hours max drive away from where you are based. If you’ll fly by plane, then, book the latest trip for your departure and a later one for the return flight so you could maximize your time to the place. If it needs a long drive or you just want to go on a backpacking trip, go to that place when your offs are longer (i.e. long weekends and term breaks).

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Plan your Itineraries Well

Since teachers are usually off from work by Friday afternoon, that’s when I would decide to leave so I could maximize the weekend. With that, I could arrive at the destination at night, just in time to rest. Then, I could start with the activities early morning on a Saturday until late in the afternoon of Sunday. Then, I would often leave the place early in the evening. In this case, I still got enough time to rest.

This goes well for ordinary weekends and destinations that do not require long drives. The extended and backpacking trips would usually fall during the long weekend or term breaks and summer vacation.

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Book Flights in Advance

This is among the many hacks of the budget travelers in scoring cheap flights. This, on the other hand, is a must for teachers, too. Always check the schedule of the seat sales of the different local airlines. They usually drop the lowest fares months before its actual travel dates. You can subscribe to them even to their social media handle so you’ll get notified shall there be any upcoming seat sales.

On the day of the sale, make sure that you have a stable internet connection and card as they would often require you to pay in such mode. Don’t forget to take note of your schedule, too! You should have your destinations in mind already so that you can book it in a flash!

Trainings and Seminar Side trips

More often than not, the management would send the teachers out of town for trainings and seminars. These seminars, however, end at around 4:00 or 5:00 PM. You may squeeze in a little trip with this time, maybe watch the sunset in a nearby boulevard or a hill if there’s any. Or maybe, you can visit a nearby attraction. You may also want tot find a good local restaurant where you can enjoy a plate of their specialty food.

If your schedule would permit, you may also extend your stay for a night or two and use this time to explore the town you’re in.

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After a fruitful day at the seminar, we drove to Embarcadero in Legazpi City, Albay and witnessed a gorgeous sunset at the boulevard.

Attend Research Conferences, Locally or Abroad

Of course, we all want to travel abroad. However, if you are a public school teacher, this might be a little challenging since we need to apply for Travel Authority or Permit to Travel to the highest office. This usually takes three months or more. I almost had a problem with this one at the Immigration Office during my trip to Thailand. Luckily, I was still enrolled as a Graduate student and will attend a research conference as one. I showed the invitation and program as well. Saved!

Leisure travels are the least priorities of their approval. However, if you are to represent the school, division, region or the country in a research conference abroad, the approval of your Travel Authority is quite faster. Instead of looking at this one as quite ambitious, think of it as a goal! You may also extend for two days and squeeze in a little leisure trip! It’s like hitting two birds with one stone.

Work Stays at Work

It is indeed undeniable that the teaching job would demand you to work even after or outside school hours. Since we spend most of our time teaching classes and attending meetings, we do not often have enough time to prepare for the next classes, check the students’ outputs nor finish the necessary school reports at work. While this is indeed true, remember that you also have the freedom to let the work stay at work. Maximize your time at work or you may even leave a little later than the dismissal or official time. Time management is crucial in this matter.

As much as possible, do not take your unfinished tasks at home. In this case, you wouldn’t have to worry about these especially when you’re out there to unwind because you know that you always have time at work for them. This might sound impossible especially for a Public school teacher but you actually can! By the way, I did!

Travel Tips for Teachers, In a Nutshell

Planning and time management are quite crucial for us, travelers. However, always know that this is never far from what we are always doing at work. We prepare and plan for our lessons, activities and get these squeezed in a limited time that we have in our classes. We’ve been doing it for our students. Why don’t we try doing it for ourselves through traveling? Again, you deserve it! Remember that you are working to live and enjoy and not to bury yourself alive into loads of work.

These are just few of the many travel tips for teachers that you may consider. If you have anything else in mind or you have been practicing, too, let us know about it!