Life in Bloomington, Indiana

Before I left for the U.S. I didn’t know much about Bloomington. I just knew it was a relatively small town somewhere in the middle of the state of Indiana. The city of Bloomington definitely has a small town feel, but at the same time it's also a very lively college town where there are a lot of things going on all the time. For example, it offers many cultural and other events. All the Fulbright teachers here have taken advantage of this and have gone to see different theater plays and concerts. So far I've seen, for example, Mice and Men at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater and the legendary Tony Bennett sing at a concert at the Indiana University Auditorium. The Auditorium is very famous for bringing Broadway productions and world-class singers and other artists to Indiana. Indiana University Jacobs School of Music is considered one of the top music schools in the country and it also offers many performances, even from opera to ballet. Since we've been here, we have also had the chance to experience two festivals, an Arts and Crafts festival and the Lotus Music Festival. Even though the Indiana University campus is in a very central role in the city, there is also a downtown area that to me looks like a very typical Midwestern small town in the U.S. It's a nice area to walk around sometimes. Looking at some of the buildings there, I feel like I'm in a modern version of a Western film I remember seeing as a child.

It has also become clear to me that sports play a big role in American university towns. It is the football season now which means there’s a football game every Saturday, and the teams of different universities play against each other. My international friends and I went to experience this very American event one Saturday. It’s common for people to go tailgating before the game, which basically means barbecuing on the parking lots at the stadium before the game. We were invited to the School of Education tailgate. The actual game was a four-hour event and it was much more than just watching people play football. Music was played by the marching band every few minutes, cheerleaders were dancing, different videos and advertisements were shown on the big screen, and of course there were fireworks. And not to mention, lots of people in their red Indiana shirts. That is the uniform of most college students here! It was a fun one time experience even though most of us had no idea what was happening in the game itself. It didn't matter since the games seem to be big social events and it was interesting to see what it was all about. I’ve heard that many good players are given scholarships to go to American universities since this is also a way for the universities to make money when people go and watch the games. It's big business.

Besides, studying, working on our projects, visiting schools, travelling and enjoying what Bloomingon has to offer, it's also been very interesting just to live basic everyday life here. I guess what makes living abroad always so fascinating is that even everyday things like going to the grocery store can be an interesting experience. You don't find as many stores in the downtown area here as you would in many European towns and cities. For a Finn who is used to finding for example grocery stores here and there and very close to you, travelling a bit further away to do your shopping has been something I have had to adjust to here. It’s not very typical for a smaller American town to have public transportation since basically everyone has a car, but here in Bloomington we are lucky to have at least some local busses that run pretty regularly.

Since we are 17 teachers from nine different countries from all over the world and we all live as close neighbors, this has been a wonderful opportunity to learn from each other as well. We've spent a lot of time together, we’ve had potlucks with international dishes, etc. Sharing this Fulbright experience with all these wonderful people has been the best part of living here.

Studying at Indiana University

As part of the Fulbright Program we are all taking two classes at Indiana University (IU). We are auditing the classes, but we have been busy with our readings and small assignments, nevertheless. I am taking both classes at IU School of Education, a class on teaching English as a second/foreign language as well as a class on instructional strategies for thinking, collaboration and motivation. In addition, we have had the opportunity to listen to different guest lecturers and discuss various topics related to U.S. education during our weekly Friday Seminars. The seminars have been extremely interesting and they have also helped me understand some aspects of the U.S. society better. Besides the classes, we have also had meetings with our faculty advisors and other university staff regularly to discuss our individual inquiry projects.

The campus we are studying on is the main campus of Indiana University. Indiana is famous for its limestone and basically all the university buildings here in Bloomington are build of that stone making each building mach each other perfectly. We live very close to the campus, technically on the campus itself, as it is a huge area. I feel lucky to be able to study in such beautiful surroundings during these few months.

First school visits

The last few weeks have been full of interesting school visits, studying, and learning about the American culture and society in many ways. I have got the chance to visit six different schools so far, some regular public schools, project based magnet schools and one charter school. The variety of different types of schools has been something that has totally surprised me. Coming from Finland where basically everyone goes to a public school and all schools are therefore very similar, I have found it very interesting to see so many differences between schools here. Since I work at a typical Finnish public school myself, at this point I will share some observations I have made at a few general public middle and high schools. 

Seeing dozens and dozens of yellow school busses every morning and after school is something very normal to an American, but something very exotic to a Finn. Here all students are picked up basically at their very own doorstep and brought to school by bus every morning. At the end of the school day students board the busses again and are brought home. Many people here have been really surprised to hear that we don’t have a similar school bus system in Finland, but children mostly walk, bike, or use local transportation to get to school. In general Finnish children learn to become very independent at an early age and they have more freedom. The busses they use here provide security as the distances can often be very long in each town and city. The school districts provide the bus service for their students, which is a great thing.

In all the schools I’ve visited so far, the school day is the same length for every student every day. It starts at around 7:30 a.m. and ends at around 3 p.m. Depending on the school, the length of a class varies from 45 to 90 minutes, just like in Finland, but the breaks are very short here mostly only 5 minutes. Students rush to their lockers to get books for their next class while teachers often spend the breaks supervising the hallways. The lunch break in the middle of the day lasts about 30 minutes. Many students bring their own lunches, some buy food at the school cafeterias. Visiting schools abroad always reminds me to appreciate the free healthy warm meal every Finnish school provides for all their students every day. It is so easy to forget that and take it for granted.

  

The schools here seem to be quite big with mostly over 1000 students. This also means that the schools like to have a good control of their students. Every student and teacher patiently waits for the school bell to ring before leaving the classrooms even if everyone is ready with their work a few minutes earlier. If a student needs to go to the bathroom during class, he or she kindly asks for a hall pass, which is a card or a piece of paper from the teacher allowing them to enter the hallway. The school doors are locked at least in most schools during the school day and some schools even have security guards in the hallways. Although we have rules at Finnish schools too, we seem to trust our students quite a lot and give them more freedom. Our students are allowed to exit the school building freely during breaks or their free periods, for example. I value the freedom our students have, but at the same time we often talk about discipline problems and the difficulty of keeping certain limits in the classrooms. Finding a balance between control and freedom is often quite challenging.

Besides certain compulsory classes, like English and Math, high school students also choose various elective classes here. For example at one high school that I have visited a few times, students can study anything between jewelry making and child care to firefighting. I think it’s wonderful for students to have all these different options under the same roof. I have heard that the elective classes that are offered vary a lot from school to school, though. Some schools have more resources than others. As all students go to high school in the U.S., some elective classes can be helpful especially for those students who might be interested in more vocational careers later. In Finland the system is a little different since besides the more academic "lukio" high schools, we also have a lot of different vocational schools students can go to.

Many high schools here also offer different extracurricular activities, such as music, academic clubs and sports after school. In Finland young people join different clubs in their communities, whereas here they can also do a lot of different things at school after their regular classes. It seems to be quite common for a school to have, not just a general sports field, but also their own swimming hall, football stadium, baseball field, tennis courts, etc., which I find quite amazing. I went to see one high school (American) footgall game a few days ago as everyone kept telling me how important those games were. Besides the players, also cheerleaders and a huge marching band played an important role in the whole event. It was wonderful to see so many students participating and working together.