Pre-departure Introduction

 

Hello. If you are reading this you have heard or read about the opening effort by Wisconsin Indianhead Technical College (WITC) to develop international education opportunities for our students.

My name is Tim McRaith, and I am a communications instructor for the school and the pilot for a project with the Wisconsin in Scotland program.  The college's involvement in this project would allow students to spend a semester abroad at Dalkeith House near Edinburgh, Scotland.

The purpose of this blog is to share with WITC staff and students, friends, family, and anyone else who might be interested my experiences and the connections that I am able to make.

The goals of this pilot project are to learn more about the Wisconsin in Scotland program as it exists and to see what could be done to make to have this study abroad opportunity a feasible option for WITC program students. 

More specifically, I will be:

• Teaching two classes (Oral Interpersonal Communication and Written Communication) in Scotland to UW students.  The students will be living at the Dalkeith House along with my wife and me, four instructors from UW Colleges, and the onsite program administrator.  We will all live, eat, sleep, and do our school work in the old estate known as Dalkeith House. For more information on the program and the house go to:

 http://www.uwrf.edu/WisconsinInScotland/

• Teaching online classes (Applied Communication and Written Communication) to WITC students in Wisconsin.  This should be fun as I can use some of my experiences to make the classes more interesting for our students back here.

• Making connections with colleges and people in the Edinburgh area.  There are a number of technical, nursing, and business colleges in the area, and I will make visits and meet people who are in the same line of work as we are to see what opportunities we can generate.  Another idea to help our students make the most of a semester abroad is internships - that would look good on a resume.

I will also, of course, be getting out on the weekends to make the most of my time on the other side of the pond.  My wife, Denise DeGidio, will be taking time off from her job as the manager of the Main Street Market Food Co-op in Rice Lake, WI, where she has managed for over 12 years, to travel with me.

I am starting this blog before I leave to give readers a chance to get signed up, and to give them some perspective.  For that perspective I will add a little bit about where it is I am coming from.  First of all, my home:

As you can see, my wife and I live in a converted pole shed.  We moved in here about 10 years ago when I was first making the transition into teaching for a living. It is very efficient, and talk of building a more traditional home somewhere on the 60 acres that comes with the place has come and gone, as we are quite comfortable here. Both of us are from the area, and much of our family live in surrounding towns. Our dog, Maude, and cat, Harold, will be staying home with a friend who will be living at the shed while we are away.

Now, for some of our background. We are both "BlueGolds" - earning our degrees from UW Eau Claire in the early ‘90s.  After that, we traveled for a while spending time in North Carolina, Maine, Colorado, the Southwest, and even a summer in Alaska.  Upon our return to the area, we both worked at a nearby resort, Stout's Island Lodge.  Denise soon put her Art Degree to work as a business manager, and I finally finished the thesis for my MA in English and made the jump to education from the trades and service industries.

I have worked many types of jobs over the years and believe that my experience in manufacturing, agriculture, the service industry, and the trades makes me an effective instructor at WITC. However, it will be good to get out of the woods for a bit and travel again.

Another job that I had while going to graduate school was leading cross-country camping tours for guests from foreign countries.  I would get a van, some money, and 12 strangers then hit the road to national parks and other destinations all over the country for 6 to 9 weeks at a time. This tour leader experience should help me in Scotland when I take my students on field trips to experience what we are teaching.  For example, I plan to take my Oral/Interpersonal students to the Scottish Parliament to watch and listen to debates. Also, there is a storytelling museum in Edinburgh where I plan to take my Written Communication students. Taking the opportunity to get the students out of the classroom to experience our new culture is encouraged, and it is a great way to teach any subject.

So then, this is a little bit about what the program is about, who I am, and where I am coming from. I hope you'll join us occasionally by checking on this blog to see what we're up to.  I will try to write to a general audience and include a lot of pictures.  I am also available via email at tim.mcraith@witc.edu and will have a presence on WITC’s International Education Facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/update_security_info.php?wizard=1#!/pages/WITC-Cultural-Exchange-Program/182653991769844

Until the next post, take care.