Cochrane High teacher reflects on the Galápagos, and his time with National Geographic
Jander Talen poses for a portrait in his classroom at Cochrane High School on Thursday, Aug. 31, 2023. Talen went to the Galápagos Islands thanks to the National Geographic Society and Lindblad Expeditions. Photo by Steven Wilhelm
Overwhelmed by gratitude and thankfulness, Jander Talen is back teaching at Cochrane High School after his trip to the Galápagos Islands in Ecuador.
“I had the opportunity of a lifetime, it wasn’t a vacation, it was a chance to learn and be affirmed of what I’m doing in the school here,” said Talen.
“As an outdoor education teacher, one of my biggest hopes is to get students to love their local natural spaces, we believe if a student can fall in love with a place, they want to know it and then they want to protect it I think that’s essential for this generation coming up.”
“I found that I was able to fall in love with the Galápagos, which is a brand-new ecosystem, environment, landscape, wildlife, and different group of people, it took me two or three days,” he said.
Talen travelled aboard the National Geographic Endeavor II with Lindblad Expeditions for ten days and got to know the Galápagos Islands on an intimate level, working with experts in the field, focused in on specific subjects.
Animals, plants, marine life, and then of course different experiences. “So hiking, walking, time in solitude, snorkeling, zodiac rides, lectures, a whole host of different ways to engage with the outdoors,” said Talen.
Talen says he was stopping to take notes throughout each day to keep track of everything, because especially in a new environment everything can start to blend.
Seven naturalists were aboard the ship, and they’re all residents of the Galápagos or Ecuador that go through intensive training in the National Parks.
“They are stewards essentially, and caretakes of the visitor sites, and so at all times, if you’re on land or in the water, you have to be near one of these naturalists, almost within eyesight,” Talen continued, “I don’t know if you’d actually want to be away from them, because they’re giving you so much information.”
“Almost every single teacher, and students, have been asking me ‘how was your trip, how was your expedition, how was your time with National Geographic,” Talen said.
“Every time I think about it, I get overwhelmed with beautiful emotions of gratitude and just utter thankfulness for this amazing experience,” Talen continued, “Ineffable would be the word I could come up with to describe it best, I can’t quite find the words that explain it.”
Talen and 49 other K-12 educators were selected by the National Geographic Society and Lindblad Expeditions to be part of the 15th cohort of Grosvenor Teacher Fellows, who all go on various expeditions around the world.
The 2023 cohort for the Grosvenor Teacher Fellowship was the first group since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Talen encourages other teachers to apply for the fellowship, which can be done here.
In terms of taking what he’s learned back to his classroom, one of Talen’s ideas is having students create a “Guidebook” for different local ecosystems. “Kind of like Ben Gadd’s ‘Handbook of the Canadian Rockies’, but for the Cochrane Ranch and our local ecosystem,” he said.
Jander Talen poses for a portrait in his classroom at Cochrane High School on Thursday, Aug. 31, 2023. Talen went to the Galápagos Islands thanks to the National Geographic Society and Lindblad Expeditions. Photo by Steven Wilhelm
It would be something students build on every year, and hopefully printed versions can be done for students. Jander says it would look at different things in the environment, and answer the questions; what is it, why is it here, and why does it matter?
Another idea he had was to implement more extended time out in natural spaces for students. “Not just the soccer field, not just around school grounds, those are good places to start, but wild places where there’s no cell service, or at the Cochrane Ranch where you can’t hear vehicles anymore.”
“I get really excited about nature and the outdoors, but I also realized that it’s not a one-size-fits-all, and while I think nature can have benefits for everyone, now I realize that maybe there are other things that people are enchanted with,” he said, “Maybe in my class too, there’s finding ways, outlets for students, what brings them to enchantment?”
As Seen in The Cochrane Times