After clearing Immigration and Customs procedures, the group will be met by your national guide for the transfer to Killarney. 

In route visit the Cliffs of Moher, which are situated on the Atlantic Ocean bordering the Burren region. One of Ireland's most spectacular sights the cliffs stand at 230 meters above the ground at their highest point and are 8 km long. They boast one of the most amazing views in Ireland. On a clear day, the Aran Islands are visible in Galway Bay as well as the valleys and hills of Connemara.

Take the Shannon Car Ferry onward to Killarney and check into your hotel.

Killarney Towers Hotel is centrally located in town center. Each room offers guests all the modern conveniences that you would expect from a contemporary 4-star hotel, spacious and bright, decorated and furnished with your comfort and convenience in mind. Rooms have a safe, hairdryer, bathrobe and slippers on request, iron and board, AC and free Wi-Fi. The hotel has onsite dining, a gym with a pool, a bar and business center.

Enjoy a welcome dinner this evening.

Overnight: 4* Killarney Towers (or similar)

Included meals: Dinner

Please Note: Breakfast is included daily at your hotels.

Head out after breakfast today, starting with your tour to see some of the highlights of the Ring of Kerry. Starting in Killarney you will pass through the beauty of Killarney National Park. The park is famous for its native natural habitats and species including oak holly woods, yew woods and red deer, to the beautiful town of Kenmare. Ceann Mara is the Irish name for Kenmare, its literal meaning being Head of the Sea – to indicate its location at the head of Kenmare Bay. En-route to Kenmare, stop at the breathtaking Ladies View and the equally stunning Molls Gap.

Lunch will be provided this afternoon.

Next stop is Molls Gap to visit the Kissane Sheep Farm. This traditional, working sheep farm with approximately 1.000 mountain sheep and hundreds of lambs is run by John and Anne Kissane, as it has been run by generations of the family for the last 150 years. Learn about sheep farming in Ireland including seeing a sheepdog demonstration, sheep shearing demonstrations, bottle feed the orphan (pet) lambs in season, take a marked mountain/puzzle walk.

Enjoy a private dance and brush dance class with the Torc Traditional Irish Dance Group.

Dinner is on your own this evening. 

Overnight: 4* Killarney Towers (or similar)

Included meals: Breakfast & Lunch

After breakfast, check out and journey to the idyllic and welcoming community of Cahersiveen, deep in the Kerry countryside. A special homestay experience for two nights will immerse you in the local culture and provide the opportunity to see how the locals live.

Enjoy lunch at local restaurant.

Later today the plan is to visit a Gaeltacht (Irish speaking) school like Scoil an Ghleanna in the area. Learn more about how Ireland is expanding its non-denominational schools and how there is a growing trend toward Irish speaking schools. This unique school has also integrated Ukrainian students during the 2022 academic year who when they arrived could not speak a word of English or Irish!

They are a multi-denominational Gaeltacht school, with the ethos of the Community National Schools. It is of great benefit to them that there is a low teacher-pupil ratio 2022 ensuring that they can be provided with an excellent standard of teaching and learning. They have a holistic and advanced approach to teaching and learning, ensuring that students receive a full-fledged education. 

You'll receive a warm Irish welcome today from your host family. Nanda Journeys has a long-standing friendship and relationship with the people of Cahersiveen who have opened their homes to teachers and students alike for many years.  With COVID keeping us all from traveling, it has been some time since this amazing community has been able to welcome American guests into their home - they are so thrilled and excited to be looking forward to this special opportunity again. 

Dinner is under own arrangement this evening. 

Overnight: Homestay 

Included meals: Breakfast & Lunch

After breakfast at your homestay depart for a full day immersion with the local schools like Asana Language School and/or Scoil Saidhbhín. You’ll spend the day with teachers, students, and community leaders to learn about curriculum development, oversight, and implementation. You’ll also see firsthand how this tiny community of 1041 recently increased their school roster by over 30% as they welcomed over 50 displaced Ukrainian students into their school in early 2022. Learn how the students have been seamlessly integrated and how the teachers, district and community have come together to create a cohesive culturally balanced environment for the students. CNN did a short feature on the school in May 2022 to highlight how such a small town had extended a huge Irish welcome to the displaced Ukrainian families.

Enjoy lunch at a local restaurant. 

This small community has long had a service centric approach to its global citizens. They have hosted many international students during the summer and collaboratively developed community service projects that the US and Irish students work on together. Hear from Mary Golden, the local high school guidance counsellor, about the impact this has had on the town and the many benefits that have presented over the years, many of them unexpected. 

This evening dinner will be at a local restaurant joined by some of the teachers from the local area. 

Overnight: Homestay

Included meals: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner 

After breakfast, say goodbye to your homestay families and head to Cork. 

First you will stop in Kinsale and enjoy a walking food tour. The food tours are like a walking food trail which takes you to a selection of different eateries. As you walk through this beautiful medieval coastal town, you will experience a range of different local foods. During the tour you will hear stories about the food and the town. 

This afternoon the plan is to have a guided tour of the University College Cork. They are an award-winning institution with a history of independent thinking stretching back over 170 years. UCC is proud to be ranked in the top 1.1% of universities in the world. Their beautiful university opened its gates to just 115 students in 1849. They now have a student population of over 23,000. Alternatively, the group will have free time this afternoon to get settled into your hotel.

Dinner is by individual arrangement. 

Overnight: 4* Metropole Hotel (or similar)

Included meals: Breakfast & Lunch

After breakfast, check out and head to Dublin.

Visit the Rock of Cashel, possibly the most photographed site in Ireland. It towers over the town of Cashel from its perch on a 200-foot-high outcrop of limestone. Once the seat of the Kings of Munster. St. Patrick visited the rock in 450 AD, while Brian Boru was crowned the first high King of Ireland here in the tenth century. Granted to the church in the twelfth century, by the O'Brien clan, today the impressive stone walls enclose a round tower, a cathedral, a twelfth century Romanesque chapel and high crosses. The Vicars Choral has been recently restored and its basement houses a small museum of artefacts found on the site. One of the leading visitor attractions in Ireland, in 2011 it was visited by Queen Elizabeth II on her historic first visit to the Republic of Ireland.

You will have some free time in the area to explore with lunch on your own. 

Continue to Dublin where you will check into your local hotel with dinner on your own.

Academy Plaza Hotel is the perfect location just off O'Connell Street. A short stroll to Temple Bar, the shopping districts of Henry St & Grafton St, the Irish Emigration Museum (EPIC) & Trinity College.

Overnight: 3* Academy Plaza Hotel (or similar)

Included meals: Breakfast 

After breakfast enjoy a panoramic tour of Dublin City. Discover the north and south side of the river Liffey. This area offers great striking monuments such as the GPO (General Post Office) on the city main thoroughfare, O'Connell Street, or the Custom House along the quays, as well as the Phoenix Park, the largest public park in Europe. The south side appears more sophisticated with its vast Georgian squares, such as Merrion Square, where Oscar Wilde’s House can still be found (today owned by an American College), its colorful doors, along with Grafton Street and its quality shops. Not so far from St. Stephen’s Green, in Kildare St., you will see the house of Bram Stoker, the author of Dracula. This part of the city is also dominated by the students at Trinity College, where the famous Book of Kells is permanently exhibited in its library. 

Lunch will be provided at a local restaurant.

This afternoon we will request a meeting with a local non-profit, school, or government representative to share information with you on the steps Ireland is making to improve literacy in the country. 

Accompanying Guests:

Guests will have the afternoon free if you opt not to spend the afternoon with the professional members of the group.

Dinner is on your own this evening.

Overnight: 3* Academy Plaza Hotel (or similar)

Included meals: Breakfast & Lunch 

After breakfast, enjoy an in-depth guided visit to MoLI - Museum of Literature Ireland. Opened in the spring of 2019, after almost a decade of collaboration with the University College Dublin and National Library of Ireland, MoLI is in one of Dublin’s finest historic houses, Newman House. The facility celebrates Ireland’s internationally renowned literary culture and heritage from the past to the present, inspiring the next generation to create, read and write. Explore their cutting-edge, digital, interactive exhibitions surrounding Irish writing from medieval times to the present day.

This afternoon, visit the Guinness Storehouse to discover all there is to know about the world-famous beer. It’s a dramatic story that begins over 250 years ago and ends in Gravity, the sky bar, with a complimentary pint of Guinness and an astonishing view of Dublin City. They offer food if you would like to order something to eat for lunch (individual expense).

This evening, say your farewells during your farewell dinner at a local restaurant. 

Overnight: 3* Academy Plaza Hotel (or similar)

Included meals: Breakfast & Dinner

Check out of your hotel this morning and transfer to Dublin Airport for your flight home.

Included meals: Breakfast

Program Leader: Patricia A. Edwards Professor of Language and Literacy at Michigan State University

We are excited to have Patricia Edwards leading this education delegation. Patricia is a veteran delegation leader, having led international delegations to China, South Africa and Russia. 

Patricia A. Edwards, a member of the Reading Hall of Fame and a NCRLL (National Conference on Research in Language and Literacy) Distinguished Scholar, is a Professor of Language and Literacy in the Teacher Education Department at Michigan State University. She is the immediate Past Chair of the American Educational Research Association's Family, School, Community Partnerships Special Interest Group. She is a nationally and internationally recognized expert in parent involvement, home, school, community partnerships, multicultural literacy, early literacy, and family/intergenerational literacy, especially among poor and minority children.
 

She served as a member of the Board of Directors from 1998 to 2001 of the International Literacy Association (formally the International Reading Association), from 2006 to 2007 as the first African American President of the Literacy Research Association, and as the 2010 - 2011 President of the International Literacy Association.
 

She has published articles in highly refereed journals and authored two nationally acclaimed family literacy programs: Parents as Partners in Reading: A Family Literacy Training Program (1993, 1990) and Talking Your Way to Literacy: A Program to Help Nonreading Parents Prepare Their Children for Reading (1990). She is the co-author of A Path to Follow: Learning to Listen to Parents, Bridging Literacy and Equity: The Essential Guide to Social Equity Teaching (2012), and Change is Gonne Come: Transforming Literacy for African American Students (2010), winner of the 2011 Literacy Research Association's Edward B. Fry Book Award.
 

Edwards is also the author of Tapping the Potential of Parents: A Strategic Guide to Boosting Student Achievement Through Family Involvement (2009), Children's Literacy Development: Making It Happen Through School, Family, and Community Involvement (2004), and New Ways to Engage Parents: Strategies and Tools for Teachers and Leaders (2016), winner of the 2017 Delta Kappa Gamma Educators Book Award. A 2019 Teachers College Press book, Partnering with Families for Student Success: 24 Scenarios for Problem Solving with Parents recommended for the 2021 AACTE Outstanding Book Award, helps teachers gain confidence and build sensitivity when interacting with caregivers and families who speak diverse languages and may come from different cultural, racial, and social backgrounds.
 

Edwards is a member of the Michigan Department of Education's Family Engagement Stakeholders' Taskforce. She is the recipient of the Literacy Research Association's 2012 Albert J. Kingston Service Award, the 2014 International Literacy Association Jerry Johns Outstanding Teacher Educator in Reading Award, and the 2015 Michigan Reading Association's Outstanding Teacher Educator Award. Edwards was named as the 2017-2018 Jeanne S. Chall Visiting Researcher at Harvard Graduate School of Education. In 2019, she received the AERA Scholars of Color Distinguished Career Contribution Award (senior level). She was recently awarded the 2020 Oscar S. Causey Award from the Literacy Research Association (LRA) for her outstanding contributions to reading research. She is the first African American in the history of the organization to receive this award. She was also the first African American President of LRA some years back.

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