FAQs

An educator exchange is an opportunity for a teacher to create a lifelong friend while learning and traveling. Each U.S. educator will be paired with an educator from the partner country. They will host that educator in their home and let them experience the U.S. teacher life for ~2 weeks. Then, the U.S. educator will have the opportunity to travel for ~2 weeks and be hosted by the same person and see a new country and culture first-hand. 

The program fee includes two orientations, liaisoning with school administration, profile review, expert pairing with international partner, planning/scheduling support, 24/7 supporting while hosting and traveling, hosting and travel logistics, and some logo/swag items. 

The anticipated costs are: Program fee, airfare, traveler's insurance, any applicable visa/passport fees, background check and hosting of your partner teacher. 

It is expected that the traveler will host their counterpart and handle the meals, local transportation, and provide housing from the moment their partner arrives at the U.S. airport. The same will be covered for them when they arrive in the host country. Travelers will work with their in-country program director to coordinate all fees, airfare, insurance and visas.  

If a teacher is unable to host and cannot find a local host in their place, an additional fee may be paid to ensure that the host teacher has an equivalent experience to what the traveler will experience abroad.  

U.S. teachers host their Brazilian/Uruguayan counterparts the last two weeks of January each year. The exact dates will be set in September/October before hosting begins. 

The U.S. teachers travel to Brazil/Uruguay in early June after all participants have ended their contract year at their local schools. The exact dates will be set in February of the program year after the hosting experience has ended. 

No. The teachers coming from Brazil speak English so they'll be able to communicate with you and for you while traveling to Brazil. If you do speak Spanish, you'll find that you'll be able to utilize your Spanish in Southern Brazil as most will understand it. 

In Uruguay, most of the teachers coming are excited to practice their English with you so no world language knowledge is required. For Spanish teachers traveling to Uruguay, you'll find that you and your partner will be able to have some fascinating discussions about the Uruguayan dialect of Spanish as it is truly unique. 

No, we welcome teachers of all grade levels and content areas. In fact, elementary teachers are in high demand for this program and we're looking to have our first CTE teacher as well as there are some great vocational schools in Brazil that are doing some wonderful things for high school aged students.  

Not necessarily. Sometimes it works out that you are paired with someone whose content area matches yours, but it is more common to pair folks up with people that have common interests and agreeable personalities to ensure a good connection. During the school day, you are welcome to have your partner observe and speak to other classes in the building or district both to give them more experiences in U.S. schools and to allow you to focus on your students. Our philosophy is that when you are sharing your home with someone, it's important that you can connect and build a good relationship and then while at school you and your partner will help shape those experiences to match the content area of the visiting teacher. 

Your partner is coming to experience what the "teacher life" is like in the U.S. So, if you go to yoga class twice a week, please make arrangements to take them with you while they're here. When you go to the grocery or shopping, they'll want to go with you as those a great indicators about what a culture values and what impacts our daily life. (For example, the cereal or chip aisles in U.S. groceries are pretty shocking to most BEE teachers from abroad!) Welcome events will be planned with you in the months/weeks leading up to hosting and usually include a sporting event and a shared meal to officially kick off the exchange. You will have another weekend of hosting that you can plan whatever you want like a trip to a neighboring city, a trip to an outlet mall, a family gathering or game night, or just spending time outdoors or exploring a local college campus. The possibilities are endless. All we ask is that you don't just sit at home unless you two need a night to catch your breath! 

This program was designed very intentionally to both keep your school community safe, but expose them to international educators who can share about their country and culture first-hand. The international teachers come to the U.S. in mid-January and will be in the community for approximately two weeks. Of the ten school days that could take place during that time, the visiting teacher may serve as a guest speaker in the host teacher's classroom or any other relevant classrooms (history/geography, language or EL classrooms, etc.) and/or they could be an observer in a variety of classrooms. 

The teachers from both Uruguay and Brazil will have a criminal history report run by their municipality within 90 days of the experience and the U.S. director will email this to you in its original form and include the English translation. If your school would like to run a background check on the teacher, your local teacher can help coordinate this a few weeks before the exchange takes place. 

It is customary for a school leader to meet the teacher on their first day in the building and spend a few minutes introducing one another. It is also very appreciated for the school leader to share a school swag item or spiritwear item with the teacher upon their arrival as a "welcome gesture". If your school could allow the teacher to have a guest badge for the two weeks so they don't have to check in each morning and/or allow them to attend sporting events or faculty meetings jointly with the U.S. host, these gestures are also appreciated by the international educators. 

The U.S. teachers travel in June once the contract teaching year has ended, so teachers will not miss school to travel abroad on this program.