Classes Have Started

I have a class every Monday evening and one on Saturday mornings. Every Tuesday I will go to Bloomington High School North. On Friday mornings we have a seminar with Dr Keith Barton (who has spent three months in New Zealand doing some research and was based in Wellington) and doctoral candidate Hope Rias. Classes are two and a half hours long, apart from the Saturday class which is FIVE hours long. I will also meet with my adviser every two weeks to discuss progress on my research.

On the other days I will fit in educational readings and development of my Capstone Project. Already I have a pile of books to read, and I have added some fiction by American writers. I have decided to only read US fiction whilst in the US, kicked off by taking up reading Barbara Kingsolver's "Flight Behaviour" just before I left NZ.

One of my classes is "Advanced Study of Teaching Literacy in Content Areas" and focuses on addressing literacy issues at secondary school level. We will develop instructional activities to improve literacy in adolescents, learn about reading research, and use reading/writing/thinking skills activities. I will always have a bent towards how digital technology is being used to achieve these goals.

My second course is called "Instructional Strategies for Thinking, Collaboration and Motivation".
We will be learning  how to develop classroom environments that stimulate critical thinking and creativity.  We will focus on creating learning environments that promote cooperative learning and motivation. There will be a strong technology focus in this course.

The course has a live stream to Indiana University's Indianapolis campus. Two participants link into the course each Saturday morning.

There are a lot of group work activities which involve moving around in this class. It needs to be like that as it is FIVE HOURS LONG ON A SATURDAY -- 8AM UNTIL 1PM!!!!!!!!!!

 The seminar on Friday is great too because we are learning about the US education system, current issues in education and also what has happened during the twentieth century. We have discussed the Civil Rights movement, desegregation, education for English as a New Language students, US policy on special needs, etc. We are making a comparative study sharing ideas from all our countries. It is taken by Dr Keith Barton and Hope Rias, who is a doctoral student. We are quite a talkative group, so there are lots of questions and input from the floor.

Orientation In Indiana

I feel so fortunate to have been given this opportunity and I really think other PC teachers need to apply. Only two of the eleven international teachers are primary teachers, so primary and secondary colleagues on the Kapiti Coast, read into the information when it comes out from Fulbright this year. This is an incredible opportunity.


So, what will I be doing while I'm in Indiana? I will be auditing two courses at Indiana University for the Fall Semester. This means I will do all the readings but don't have to do the assignments or the exam. We are expected to participate in discussions, contribute an international perspective and learn from these courses anything that will help us with our own Capstone Project research. We will also be expected to present to a doctoral programme about education in our own countries.                 

                                                                                                                                                            (If you are from Indiana, you are a Hoosier.)    

     

I have met the teacher I will be linked to at Bloomington High School North. They have some interesting timetabling ideas that I will discover more about when I am there. Classes are 85 minutes long and there are only four classes a day. They also have a tutorial time built into the programme that allows students to self-select into extra tuition, or teachers to target students who are falling behind in an aspect of their learning. It's also a time for electives if students are up to date and expectations for their work have been met. I haven't started in the school yet -- we have just had an orientation afternoon -- but I will be there one day a week and will learn more.

I will also get a chance to see literacy development at work for struggling learners in the local primary school. I will also be able to see an accelerated charter school in Indianapolis that caters largely to the under-served African American population. We will also be going to Chicago for a trip, and will get to visit a school up there.

The programme is really full, but also really exciting. I love the buildings that the university has -- most of them are made of limestone and the buildings themselves seem to be dignified, wise and hold knowledge from down through the ages. Even the new buildings have the grand limestone look. I now am officially a "Visiting Scholar" of the university. All students get free bus transport around the city!!!!!!!! (And to think students in Wellington pay the full adult price for public transport!!!) I have a social security number, an ID card and a bus pass. I have made it into the system.

 The Sample Gates -- entrance to the university.

 I love the buildings.

My roommates, Remya from India and Sanaa from Morocco.

 

No earthquake drills, but they do have tornado drills.

 

                                                                                                My apartment complex. I live in a three bedroom apartment on the top floor.

"Visiting scholar". I quite like the sound of that.

 The "small" football stadium that holds 80,000 people. Basketball is the big sport here; if it were football, the stadium would be bigger.

Arrival in Indiana

We have had a really long day today. We left Washington DC at 10am and flew into Indianapolis. We were escorted all the way by the lovely Patty Kubow, the programme organiser from Indiana University in Bloomington. She is a dynamic, friendly and helpful person and Indiana University has done so much to make our transition easy. We had lunch upon arrival at our apartment complex and then got signed into our apartments.

I share with Remya from India and Sanaa from Morocco (not Candy and Cindy-Lou as Lisa Harris-Powell predicted for me). The amazing thing is that Fulbright gives us each a settling in allowance of $380. We need to set up the apartment because it only has furniture -- no sheets, towels, crockery etc. Christi, Jennifer, Jacob and Patty from Indiana University took us shopping to Target. It's so weird setting up a flat like a new uni student. Mop, bucket, iron, mugs, etc, etc. A crazy shopping experience made so easy by Christi and Patty giving us tips on how to keep the price down. We bought individual items (bedding, towels, etc) and shared items that we split. We have a debit card from Fulbright so it is a very easy process.

We finished the day by having the left over lunch in our apartment with most of the other internationals. I'm knackered, but I just wanted to do a quick post before I fall into the sleep of the exhausted.

 

Clockwise starting at left -- Su from NZ, Christine from Singapore, Ousamma from Morocco, Sanaa from Morocco, Jeremy from Singapore, Purnendu from India, Petteri from Finland and Remiya from India.

Culture Night

Tonight we had a cultural night and the internationals, and also the US Fulbright grantees, gave presentations about their countries. It was a great evening and we saw a game show from the US, a video clip on "how to eat crab" from the US, a dance and a poem from India, national dress and food from Morocco, the diversity of costumes from Singapore ... and the kiwis almost did a tourism promotion about New Zealand; so much so that people came up to us later and said, "Wow, I loved that, I really want to go to New Zealand."

Thanks to the Kapa Haka group and Deb Conningsby, I managed to be attired in a very New Zealand looking outfit. I presented a PowerPoint mainly focusing on Wellington, because that is where ten of the grantees are going. I also sang and did the actions for "Tutira mai nga iwi". I have to say that I have never sung solo, unaccompanied, to a crowd of fifty people before, but there you go. It's amazing what you can do when you have to.

Fulbright Orientation in Full Swing

The last two days have chocka block full of seminars and workshops as part of the orientation programme in DC. We have heard speakers from the Department of State and the Department of Education, one of whom I had met at Parliament in March. We had a really interesting and entertaining presentation on the Art of Crossing Cultures and also another about developing global competence. The US is really wanting their students to have an understanding about the rest of the world and for the young people to be interested in and to investigate global issues, be communicators of ideas and to take positive action to help others and relate well with other cultures.

We also learned specific information about what is required of our research projects. It's going to be a busy time. I will be based at Indiana University, but will do one day a week at Bloomington North High School where I will have a mentor teacher. I will be involved in two classes at the university, but I will not have to do exams or assignments. My adviser at the university will be the key person who will help me narrow down my project. We have been told to be prepared to be flexible, because completing the project in four months requires quite a targeted focus. The sessions have been really informative and my head has become loaded with information.

A post can't go by without more free things that can be done in DC. A visit to the White House (well, a view from the fence, but that's OK). A tour of Capitol Hill. This city is known for its monuments and we went on a tour to see some of these -- (Jefferson Memorial and Martin Luther King's statue are pictured below). The weather is really warm (25-29 degrees), but when we went for the tour of Capitol Hill, it had been raining most of the day. Incredibly warm though. My hip sets off all the beepers whenever I go through security. The statue of Rosa Parks is a recent one in the Capitol (see below).

Washington DC

I arrived in DC at 1.18am on Saturday, having gone through two Fridays. I travelled with Su Mukund from Papatoetoe High School, the other recipient of the Fulbright Award. As we arrived before the Fulbright Programme kicked off, we had booked accommodation for ourselves, and being kiwis who like to travel on the cheap, it was not as posh as what Fulbright offered, but much better on the budget. We stayed in Arlington, Virginia, which is just six Metro stops from the Smithsonian stop in the centre of DC.

The great thing about DC is that there are so many free things to do.  Here's what you can do for free.
The Lincoln Memorial, famous of course for President Lincoln, but also for Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech.

 The Washington Monument, which you can go up in an elevator for free and get a great view of the surrounding city.

   

 There are also lots of Smithsonian Museums which you can visit for free. I've only been to the National Museum of Art, the Natural History Museum and the Museum of American Indians so far, but there are about a dozen others, so I shall try to fit in another one or two this week when we get some free time. The zoo is also free. I've run out of room on this post, but check out my photo gallery page to see some pictures from the museums and art galleries.

Leaving Home

As I leave the Kapiti Coast for five months in the USA, it is good to know part of me has been left behind, sitting boldly above Kelly's Footwear store, clearly visible from Pak 'n' Save . My brother took a shot of this billboard the other day and sent it to me via text saying "It's great that you're here." I replied, "It's great to be her."

I will miss walking on the beach each morning with Scott and Zephyr. I will miss Annalisa and Luke. I will miss my lovely friends and people who keep me sane when the pace of life seems fast. I will miss my wonderful colleagues and the great students we have at Paraparaumu College.

However, I will gain new experiences, new knowledge, new ideas, and see many places I have never seen before. Thank you to all of you who have given me kind words. I shall take them with me and when my courage falters, will read them again to make myself brave.