I am really excited to announce the rollout of an upgraded Education section on my web site. My team and I have developed an interactive site with a curriculum that will engage students and bring my message to life in the classroom.
As many of you know, before I became a professional adventurer and motivational speaker, I was a 5th grade English and math teacher. Of course, my interest in kids and education is even greater now that I am the father of two wonderful children ages 7 and 9. While I enjoy motivating adults of all ability levels, teaching and inspiring our youth is a passion.
The purpose of this Education web site is to help young people truly believe that no matter how difficult the challenges, they can make a difference in the world. We will reinforce this message by engaging the students in a variety of exercises.
The Everest Journey combines Google Earth views of the world’s highest mountain (in either 3-D or 2-D views) with video clips of our expedition and descriptions of key stages.
My Adventure Gallery features many photos from each of our climbs up the highest mountain on each continent.
The Education section includes Lesson Plans, a Lesson of the Day, and a Forum for discussions among teachers and myself. In addition to the full length curriculum that accompanies my memoir, Touch the Top of the World, we have created a series of supplemental lessons that raise issues, invite exploration, and entice students to challenge themselves.
This Education site is designed for students between 4th and 10th grades. It is offered at no charge—I simply request that you provide us with feedback and suggestions. Please spread the word about this Education site because the more students use it, the more we will develop and expand the curriculum.
Tags: Education
Will you be offering any curriculum for TVI’s and VI students?
Just curious; my son is almost 9, and has expressed an interest in
learning to “climb mountains”; he’s heard me talk about you often enough
that he talks about “wanting to climb mountains just like Erik does”.
He’s still not ready for reading your Book; but I was curious to know if
you had anything in the works for VI students. I think your new Education Site is great; I am
planning to forward the info to my son’s school. He is mainstreamed in a regular elementary school
that serves all of our area’s VI elementary students (k-5). I think the older children at his school
would truly benefit from reading your book and using the curriculum that you have provided. Thanks for taking time to create this Education Site; I think it’s great!
Katie Thames
Charlotte, NC
I am a teacher in Midland, Texas. I teach 9-12 English at a public charter high school, Richard Milburn Academy. My students are at-risk and the charter schools in Texas have been created to meet the needs of students who have not been successful in the traditional educational setting. One of the problems which has been so evident to me over the years is that many of these students have no goals, short or long range. Therefore, they simply live a day to day existence, with little or no encouragement from their families to do otherwise. I have a mirror on my door and this nine weeks the words above that mirror read “See Yourself Set Goals”. Since Everest has always been a metaphor for goal setting (I am an altitude climber in my dreams), we have used, as a part of this unit, your incredible story. We are now watching Touch the Top of the World and i have ordered the documentary. The students are fascinated by your achievement and motivated by your life story. It is so very exciting for me to see the way they respond to you. I want very much to order any materials which would help me as I tell your story in the future. I would also be so grateful if you have a picture or poster which you could autograph for my students. I would love to frame and hang this in my classroom. You would be in good company. I have Ed Hillary’s autograph on the poster commemorating the 50th anniversary of his great climb. My son is an attorney and now lives in Colorado Springs. He will probably be moving back to Denver in the near future. I feel very connected to Colorado because we visit him often and would love to hear you speak one day when you have speaking engagements in Colorado…or Texas, for that matter. I wish that you could have seen the faces of my students today as we watched your climb. It must be gratifying to know that you have touched young people in such a powerful way. Is there any way to email you or to have you respond with something which I could share with my students? I just wonder if you ever come to Texas speak and really wonder if a town in far West Texas would interest you.
I hope that you respond, or that a member of your staff will respond to my interest as expressed in this entry.
We have a complete education package available, which includes a Curriculum Guide as well as an Educational Edition of the documentary about our Everest climb (Farther Than The Eye Can See). At the moment, we are out of posters but that is one of the many projects we are working on. For educational product requests, contact skyler@touchthetop.com. Keep an eye on the Calendar for upcoming talks. Another pending project is video conferencing (telepresence) with classrooms around the country. Stay tuned!
Curriculum for visually impaired students is definitely on our agenda. Can’t give you a time frame at this point but this is something we have been working towards.