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On the Road: What Travelling as an Educator Can Teach Us
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Christopher Clyde Green
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Founder of Verdant Consultancy
6 min read
October 2025
Laptop? Check. Passport? Check.
Stepping Beyond the Classroom
There is a liberating feeling about leaving the four walls of your classroom behind and stepping into an unfamiliar environment. There is a different rhythm, another town, people to chat casually with, and a fresh set of curious colleagues. Working in international education opens doors to new and enriching experiences. Whether it’s delivering an IB workshop in The Hague, co-writing a website in Geneva, or authoring a textbook in London, stepping outside of your own environment can rekindle the flame that made you passionate about teaching. Clearly, being a travelling educator has its benefits, but what do we gain, and risk, when we take our teaching beyond the walls we know so well?
Experiencing the World as Educators
As educators, we spend a lot of time helping students to understand and appreciate the world and its cultures. Yet sometimes we forget to go out and experience it ourselves.
Stepping into new environments – whether through running workshops abroad, peer evaluation visits, or cross-school collaborations – invites us to expand not only our mindset but also our pedagogical depth. The IBO’s recent “Wellbeing for Schoolteachers” review, conducted with Oxford University, revealed how entwined teacher wellness is with student success. Teachers who participate in international exchange programmes gain in intercultural competence, leadership, and instructional strategy. You might be curriculum designing in Paris or policy-building in a Dubai staffroom with someone you just met; the same thing is true: every school shares the same hopes (and Wi-Fi issues). Those moments remind you that a passion for pedagogy knows no borders, and this cross-pollination carries real weight for student and teacher improvement.
Challenges on the Road
Of course, stepping out of your comfort zone isn't without its challenges. The emails from back home stack up, and juggling responsibilities across locations can leave you feeling “multi-hatted”. Somehow, a three-day workshop can demand a year's worth of energy. Then come the logistics – cancelled flights, childcare, booking errors, and delayed payments. Every journey teaches you something about adaptability and resilience and helps you find meaning amid the chaos of modern education.
The Move to Independent Consultancy
Becoming an independent educational consultant through Verdant was, in many ways, the natural step for me. I wanted to keep collaborating with schools and colleagues, not as a visitor passing through but as a partner helping teachers and students thrive. Working independently has its risks and may not be for everyone (there’s no IT department to call when your presentation doesn’t load). But it offers something powerful in return: the freedom to impartially shape projects that genuinely improve how young people learn and how teachers grow.
Learning Beyond Borders
If there’s one thing the road has taught me, it’s that great education doesn’t happen in isolation. The best ideas emerge when teachers and students share: across borders, roles, and generations. At Verdant, we work with schools and educators who want to build those bridges too – co-creating pedagogical workshops, building resources, supporting with school and university guidance, and enrichment experiences that connect teaching with the wider world. Because sometimes the most important and powerful lessons we learn are not in the classroom, but beyond it.
Christopher Clyde Green is a trusted partner of the Global Education Network – to learn more about his work and their partnership options for schools and teachers, visit his partner page or you can email him directly at info@verdantconsultancy.com
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