What is The Geography Project?
My name is Kel Michele and I am the original creator of The Geography Project. I have been an educator for over 13 years, endorsed in secondary Social Studies. It wasn’t until I started teaching World Geography that I understood my deep-seated passion for nature, culture, and travel.
The Geography Project was born when I began working at a mid-sized high school where I realized many of my students had not traveled outside of the state, let alone to another country. I wanted to provide them with an opportunity to understand the world outside of our four classroom walls. Despite growing up from humble beginnings, I was afforded opportunities throughout my childhood and young adult life to travel Internationally. In fact, my very first plane ride was to Costa Rica when I was 15 years old. When I was assigned to teach World Geography I was pretty excited but it wasn’t until my students began commenting on how many travel stories I had to share that I realized they could be learning about the world through the stories of others. I had this idea that if I started an Instagram I could start collecting postcards from around the world and we could learn about cities and cultures from other countries. I love sharing my own stories, but what if we had stories from people who live, work, or visit frequently to other places? What if we had the opportunity to see the world through others' eyes?
Photo by Kelsey Knight on Unsplash
The Geography Project Instagram page took off and within a few weeks, we were receiving postcards weekly and having rich discussions about the countries that were sent to us. While teaching World Geography, I have realized how passionate I am about nature and hiking, my love for cultures all around the world, and my need to travel and experience the world first hand to share stories with my students and others. What started as a classroom project, has turned into my passion to teach others the beauty of this world and a way for me to always feel like I’m traveling even when I’m not.
It’s a joy to feel passionate about what you’re doing. I hope that you will find the same love for geography as you travel with us around the world as part of The Geography Project!