The last weeks in Indiana

Even though the past few months have been full of different experiences, our main work here has been to complete an inquiry project which has required a lot of hard work. I’ve been focusing on differentiated instruction and teaching groups of students who are at various readiness levels. Especially in the last weeks of the semester we were busy finishing up and submitting our projects, completing questionnaires, and writing reports. The last official week of our program culminated in our inquiry project presentations and graduation festivities where representatives from Indiana University, the Fulbright Program and the Department of State handed us certificates as the official end of our program. It was impressive to listen to everyone's presentations and hear more closely what everyone had achieved and developed over the semester: friendship programs for special education children in India, ways to help deaf students in Botswana, just to name a few.

It was also a week of farewell events. We went to thank our host teachers at the local high school, had a farewell dinner with the amazing CIEDR staff who have done everything possible to make our stay here memorable. On our very last night we got the chance to perform and sing a song, partly in nine different languages, at a local pub here in Bloomington as a goodbye. As the 17 of us have been living so closely and shared the same hallway, we have spent a lot of time together and often also sung songs in someone's apartment - mostly thanks to our two talented guitar players. We will definitely be remembered for the tunes that echoed at the Evermann Apartments on many nights. 

It wasn't easy to say goodbye to all these people. Not at all. It’s hard to describe what a great privilege it has been to participate in this program, see different parts of the country and learn, meet wonderful local people, and share this Fulbright experience so closely with sixteen amazing teachers from around the world. This blog just scratches the surface of these past few months. I would like to express my sincere thanks to all the people I met along my journey in Indiana and around the country. I can't thank enough all the schools that I got to visit, all the teachers who so warmly welcomed me into their classrooms. I am truly grateful to the Fulbright Program and Indiana University for making this all possible.

"A journey is best measured in friends, rather than miles."

Thoughts about American Schools

One of the major parts of the Fulbright Distinguished Awards in Teaching Program has been to complete an inquiry project on an educational topic. Besides spending time at the library and getting familiar with literature, I wanted to use the opportunity to learn from local teachers. I visited 15 different schools in five U.S. states during this program and collected practical ideas for foreign language classrooms. Visiting many schools in different areas from coast to coast has also shaped the picture I have of the country and it has helped me understand how diverse and many-sided the U.S. and its schools and society really are.

One thing has become clear during these months; there is no such thing as a typical American school. Not only do school systems vary slightly from state to state, but schools also differ from area to area since most of the schools’ funding comes from the local level, mostly from property taxes, meaning wealthier areas have more resources than schools in poorer neighborhoods. On top of this, there is a variety of different types of schools. Besides the regular public schools, there are also many so called charter and magnet schools which often have more freedom than the regular schools and they often focus on something specific such as project-based learning. Students to these schools are normally chosen through a lottery as there are often many more applicants than these schools are able to take. There are also elite private schools with high tuition fees for those who can afford them. Coming from Finland where all schools are very similar and a lot of attention is paid on providing everyone with the same equal opportunities in education, I found it interesting to see these differences between schools here. Even though I’ve seen many amazing schools, I’ve understood that not all the schools here have the resources they would need.

One difference between Finnish and American schools is also the amount of testing. Whereas Finnish children and students do not take any standardized tests until the very end of their high school/upper secondary education, here in the U.S. students are tested many times a year starting at elementary schools. While these standardized tests probably serve a purpose, they also give a lot of pressure not only to the students but to teachers as well. Schools are often ranked according to the results and often even the funding of the schools partly depends on the results. Even teachers themselves are evaluated regularly. I’ve met many hard working dedicated teachers who even spend their lunch breaks and prep periods tutoring students, and it’s been sad to hear how little appreciation teachers get here in America.

What I found wonderful was the number of different extracurricular activities, such as music, sports and academic clubs most American schools provide their students. In Finland young people join different clubs in their communities, whereas here they can also do a lot of different things at school for free after their regular classes. I also noticed that American schools pay more attention to the differences between students when it comes to different level classes. Here students are offered different options, for example honors classes and AP classes, which allow students to take even college level classes at high school, something that is not very common in Finland yet. Despite some differences between the schools in America and Finland, in the end we are doing the same job and wanting the best for our students. 

Three seasons and American Holidays

Having spent several months here, I’ve been able to see three different seasons, topped off with a number of American holidays, which has been great. When we arrived here in August, it was hot and humid for a long time. Whereas in Finland you are forced to dress more warmly when going outside (often even in the summer), here it was the other way around. When going inside a building you always had to remember to take a long sleeve shirt with you to prevent you from freezing. Americans love their air conditioners and after weeks and weeks of hot and humid air, I slowly started to understand why. I have never fully understood why make the buildings too cold, though. Besides the air conditioners humming in many buildings, you could also hear cicadas (insects) making their very distinct loud buzzing sound everywhere outdoors. You could certainly feel and also hear that summer was still here.

The first American holiday we got to experience was Labor Day, which is celebrated on the first Monday in September. The university staff here in Bloomington has been very hospitable during the whole semester and we were also invited to one of the university staff member’s home that day. Despite its political origin, Labor Day (and the weekend before it) is often considered the unofficial end of summer and people spend it typically having barbeques and just enjoying each other's company. The temperatures stayed close to 30C/90F degrees for weeks after that weekend, so at least in Finnish terms, the summer certainly didn’t end that day. It was particularly nice for a Nordic person like me who normally gets to enjoy those temperatures only around midsummer, if lucky.

Despite the warm weather, the leaves started to slowly change colors in October and the cicadas quieted down. You could only hear squirrels hopping on the fallen leaves on campus. The trees were amazingly colorful and especially with the sunny weather it was something I enjoyed very much. Unlike Northern Indiana with its cornfields, the area around Bloomington here in the south is quite hilly and there are lots of forests, which makes this area especially gorgeous in the autumn and perfect for hiking. You could also see fall/autumn decorations, especially pumpkins, appearing on people’s porches and in stores, and at the end of October it was time for Halloween. We were invited to a Halloween party again thanks to the wonderful staff at IU. Halloween has a reputation of being only something scary especially in other countries where people have strangely enough started to copy this American tradition, but here it seemed more like any costume party. Some people said they like to plan the perfect costume for months in advance. Many of us went and picked something from the local costume store to fit in. It was particularly fun to see all the little children come trick-or-treating as bears, Star Wars and different cartoon characters.

Very soon after Halloween the pumpkins and scary things in stores were replaced with Santa Clauses and Christmas ornaments, even though there was still one big holiday ahead, Thanksgiving. When we arrived in Bloomington in August, all of us signed up for a friendship program which matches international students and guests with local people. I’ve had the pleasure of meeting the most wonderful hosts, who have invited me to visit their home, taken me out for meals, and taught me about American way of life. They also invited me to experience and celebrate this very American holiday, Thanksgiving, with them. Thanksgiving is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November and many people travel to see their families on this holiday. Even the university closed for the whole week. It’s a day of lots of food, pumpkin pies, spending time together with family and friends, and being grateful. Experiencing this with such a lovely family was one more reason to be thankful for. As most people have the Friday after Thanksgiving off, the stores have started to use it to lure potential customers to their stores with big sales to fight over TV screens and other deals. Most people highly recommended to avoid stores on this Black Friday altogether, which sounded more appealing to me.

Now as we are getting closer to the end of the year, the days have started to get grayer and even the first snowflakes had fallen while I was out of state in November. To experience a little bit of Christmas, some of us used the last opportunity to see great performances at the theatres around campus a few days ago and went to see a wonderfully energetic musical style Christmas concert and also the ever charming Nutcracker ballet, performed by the dance students at the University.

Visit to the West Coast - California

The Fulbright Distinguished Awards in Teaching Program allows all grantees to apply for an additional grant to participate in a conference that is related to one’s inquiry project, which is a wonderful privilege. I got the opportunity to attend The American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) Annual Convention and World Languages Expo which was held in San Diego at the end of November. It is an annual event that gathers foreign language teachers and scholars from around the country, and the world. It was a huge convention with over 700 educational sessions, up to 20 different lectures and workshops held simultaneously in a massive convention center.

The reason I had chosen this particular convention was that not only was it about language teaching, but it also offered several sessions on differentiation which is what I have been focusing on while here. It was great to listen to and meet different people in the field of foreign language teaching. It was also interesting to notice which languages seemed to be the most popular. Quite a few times I found myself accidentally entering a room full of Chinese teachers listening to a presentation held in Mandarin. Spanish teachers were also very well represented. Most of the lectures were in English, however, and I could find a few interesting sessions in German as well.

Since I knew I was flying all the way to California, I wanted to make the most of my visit, and I feel extremely lucky that I was able to combine school visits with my trip. With the help of my American Fulbright friends I was able to visit three high schools while in California, one school near San Francisco and two in San Diego. It has been wonderful to see schools in different states and get a broader picture of the school system since there are also differences between the states. For example, unlike in Indiana, in California most schools have open campuses, meaning students are allowed to leave the school building, even the school area, during the school days. They also have lunch outside. Another common feature at the Californian schools I visited was a slightly larger number of immigrant students. I met many students who had just recently arrived in the country. I got to visit classes of wonderful teachers who work hard to help each student, even students with very limited literacy skills in their native languages, to get the skills they need to continue their studies in the U.S.

One of the schools I visited was one of the leading project-based schools in the country. I have also had the opportunity to visit other project-based schools in other parts of the country and most of them have been so called charter schools, which means they are more independent than regular schools. These project-based schools are quite impressive since teachers typically work in teams and subjects are linked together in creative ways. A lot of cooperation is also done within the community and the students literally work with real word problems.

It was also great to learn about California as a state. As an example, I was happy to find out that recycling is something much more common in California compared to many other states. For an environmentally conscious person like me, it’s been hard to see the amount of trash many American school cafeterias produce with their disposable plates and cups and not being able to recycle in Bloomington like I’m used to back home in Finland. States and areas differ, and we should avoid making generalizations about the country. 

I was also lucky to have a little bit of free time in both cities. Just like when visiting my teacher friends on the East Coast, I was so warmly welcomed by my teacher friends on the West Coast. They showed me around their beautiful cities and you always see and learn so much more when you meet locals. It was amazing to see the Golden Gate and the hilly streets of San Francisco and be amazed by the beautiful parks in San Diego and catch incredible sunsets by the Pacific Ocean.

Visit to the East Coast - Connecticut and New York

With the help of my American friends, I have also been able to organize some schools visits outside the Midwest, which is providing me with wonderful opportunities to learn more about the U.S. education system. Last week I had the privilege to fly all the way to the East Coast and visit a few high schools for my project there. I was able to visit two private boarding schools in Connecticut, one of which is one of the most elite and competitive boarding schools in the whole country, and also two public schools in New York City.

Connecticut and the other New England states on the East Coast are famous for their highly respected private schools. Since we don't have private boarding schools in Finland, it was very interesting for me to get to visit these schools and to learn more. The tuition fee at both boarding schools I visited is around 60,000 US dollars per year. It's a staggering amount, but knowing that, it is easier to understand the amazing resources such schools offer their students. At both of these boarding schools there are only about 10 students per class, which means students often get more personal instruction than at most regular schools. The schools have their own campuses with incredible facilities on beautiful locations. Both schools also offer very specific classes, anything from ornithology (study of birds) to architecture.

It was clear right away that the teachers are really dedicated to their work, they live on campus and therefore practically work 24/7. They have evening shifts at the dorms, they often help their students with their homework, they teach classes even on Saturdays and have other duties on many Sundays. It is definitely a way of life both for the students and for the teachers. As my friend who works there said, they really do "eat, live, and breathe" the school. There was a great sense of community and think living at a boarding school must feel like being on an ongoing camp! Just a minority of Americans go to private schools, obviously because of the extremely high costs, but these schools are often seen as alternatives for American and also international students who are looking for more individual instruction, very specific high level classes, and who can afford to pay for that. 

On a different note, Connecticut is also famous for the beautiful coloured leaves on its hills in the fall, people travel there to admire them. I also admired the pretty white wooden New England houses you could see everywhere. I happened to be there at the perfect time!

It was also very exciting to get to visit two public schools in New York City. The United States is often described as the melting pot of different cultures and this is very vividly seen in NYC. The schools I visited there have lots of students with an immigrant background. Since the student population is so diverse and most of the students are so called English language learners, the teachers work hard to differentiate instruction based on their students’ native languages and skills. The students seemed to love their teachers and hang around at school even after classes. Since living in a new country isn’t always easy, the teachers put a lot of effort in making everyone feel welcome and they really were lovely. This was not my first visit to New York, but I had never seen everyday life at schools in such a big city before. It was really exciting and also reminded me of how diverse the United States really is.

The United States has, of course, a long history of immigration and all Americans have a story of their ancestors and their different roots. I've noticed that people here, especially those of European descent, might still identify themselves as Greek, German, Norwegian, for example, even though they are all American and their families have lived here for decades or even centuries. The roots still stay with them. I had a couple of days to explore exciting New York City after my school visits and I also visited the Immigration Museum on Ellis Island. I had a personal interest in seeing that place since also a great number of my relatives travelled to the United States as immigrants in the 1800s, many of them stayed here, some came back to Finland years later. Even my great-grandmother was born in the U.S. Walking around in the building where many immigrants had waited for their official entry to the new country, I couldn't help but think, how much courage it has taken to leave everything familiar, spend weeks on a ship across the Atlantic, and enter a country you knew hardly anything about and where people spoke a different language. Even though times have changed, the world has become smaller, and travelling a lot easier, there are still many courageous people leaving their home countries today, some of their own will, but many because they are forced to do so. Schools play a key role in helping young immigrants feel at home in their new countries. 
 

During the week I also walked around visiting all the major sights in New York and was once again amazed by the size of the city. It's something you just have to experience yourself!

Travelling around the Midwest

During the last couple of months we have done different trips around the Midwest. The Indiana University has organized various visits, mostly school visits, for the whole group and at the same time we have had the chance to see different places in the states of Indiana, Ohio and Illinois. Here are just some examples of the places we've got to see over the past few weeks.

Indianapolis is the beautiful capital of Indiana and also the biggest city closest to Bloomington. So far I have had the chance to visit a couple of schools close to the city. As a group we also learned about the history of the American Indians by visiting the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indian and Western Art. Even though there are not many native Americans living in this state anymore, the name Indiana still refers to the "Land of Indians".

After visiting a couple of schools in Columbus, Indiana, we also stopped by a lovely old cafe, Zaharakos Ice Cream Parlor, which is also a museum at the same time. Such a pretty place!

A couple of weeks ago Indiana University organized a visit for us to the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, a museum in Cincinnati, Ohio, which presents the cruel reality of slavery in the past. The so called Underground Railroad was a network of secret safe houses used by enslaved people trying to escape to freedom by crossing the Ohio River.

A couple of weeks ago we also got the chance to visit a school and spend a few days in one of my favorite U.S. cities, the biggest city here in the Midwest, Chicago! I had visited Chicago some years ago and I was excited to go there again. This time it was literally the Windy City, since the weather is now slowly getting colder, but it was still as gorgeous as ever. We went on an Architecture River Tour, visited the America's tallest building, Willis Tower (or Sears Tower as it used to be called), and many more. One of the things I like about Chicago is its amazing location. Lake Michigan never ceases to amaze me, it's like a sea!

 

A few friends of mine and I also visited the Amish country in Montgomery, Indiana, some time ago. It was an interesting experience, like going back in time. We had the chance to have a dinner at an Amish restaurant and also visit their auction where they were selling goats, old items, etc. Attending the auction seemed to be a common pastime for their whole families on a Friday night. 

While driving to visit all these different cities and places, it’s been wonderful to also see more of the countryside, places I would not necessarily have seen as a regular tourist.