“Geobees and Mapheads’ Club: Always New, Fun Investigations”

I’m Tom (the Global Guy) Hughes, a retired educator who has taught every grade from first to 11th on three continents, starting as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Iran teaching English as a Foreign Language to high schoolers. But mostly I’ve concentrated on upper elementary, ten year olds, plus or minus. I’ve a Master’s in Education, specializing in individualized instruction strategies. Back in the 1980s, I was one of the Klingenstein Foundation’s “Independent School Teachers of the Year.”

As a retired classroom teacher and former homeschooling parent, I sympathize with students, their families and teachers in this unprecedented time in our global history. We are all in this together. That’s why I want to offer online, interactive programs on my specialty, global awareness/geography. The fact that we are so connected allows the pandemic to take hold, yet also provides us electronic tools with which to carry on.

Back in the 1970s teaching at the International School of Brussels in Belgium, I started with my students The Potato Museum, a unique institution that has featured in major exhibitions in Washington, DC and Ottawa, Canada. Check out our YouTube channel: "The Potato Museum Show." It's fun, informative and free. https://www.youtube.com/@thepotatomuseum

My wife, Meredith, an author and journalist, and I collaborate on many projects including The Food Museum Online, as well as the presentation of food history and geography-themed educational programs in schools, libraries and many other venues. I’m the author of several books, a couple written with my wife. Visit my Amazon author page.

My specialty has been devising and implementing unique programs about world cultures and geography as they relate to past and present geopolitics. An avid, accomplished traveler, (all continents except Antarctica,) I engage my students with artifacts collected from around the world to get across important concepts about our planet’s peoples and places. In addition to using my extensive collection of globes and maps, I’ve always employed folk art objects, toys, puppets, masks, dolls, games, puzzles, tools, music and video clips in my teaching. These include, to name just a few, a Basque pelota mitt, a Brazilian capoeira berimbau, an Iranian samovar, Nepalese singing bowls, Japanese kimonos, an Australian boomerang, Russian nesting dolls and models of American planes, trains, buses, and streetcars.

My interests beyond teaching and travel include gardening, tai chi, golf, skiing, trail bike riding, flying kites and learning to juggle, to groom my dog, Tallahassee, play the ukulele and comprehend Chinese “elephant” chess. Besides comprehensive collections of items associated with the history of the world’s foods, I maintain collections of stamps, coins, currency, postcards, sports cards, vintage board games, souvenir t-shirts and caps. My library of travel and geography-related books and periodicals numbers in the thousands, including an almost complete set of National Geographic Magazines dating back to the early 1900s.

As Tom the Global Guy, I provide interactive, global awareness, aka geography, programs for kids (referred to as Geographers or Cartographers) depending on interest, ages 8-14. I offer onetime introductory sessions which can be followed by weekly lessons.