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. 

 

Settling in Bloomington, IN

After the orientation in Washington, DC it was time for us to fly to Indiana and start another week of orientation in Bloomington. Center for International Education, Development and Research (CIEDR) at Indiana University is hosting us this fall semester and they have done an amazing job planning and organizing everything and helping us settle in. They have helped us go through all the paperwork needed and taken us to various offices at the university, to a local bank, to the social security office, etc. They have even helped us get to the grocery stores, get local cell phones and things for our appartments. The first few days would have been very different without our CIEDR friends.

Even though we will only stay here for one semester, it has required surprisingly much paperwork, different documents from our home countries as well as from the U.S. before and after our arrival in the U.S. It has been an extremely educating process that started last spring and a good way to learn about the various offices and how many things are done here. And many things are actually done very similarly in Finland. One thing that I admire about Americans is how helpful and kind everyone is. No matter who you ask or no matter which office you visit, everyone is so happy to help you with friendly smile to make you feel welcome.

During the orientation week in Bloomington we also walked around the campus and even got to visit the local elementary and high school for the first time. We were given a very walm welcome there as well. I'm looking forward to the weekly visits to Bloomington North High School that will start next week and getting to know the campus and the city of Bloomington better as well. Exciting weeks ahead, I'm sure.

Orientation Week in Washington, DC

I was very excited to start my Fulbright journey with an orientation week in the U.S. capital. All Fulbright Distinguished Teachers were invited to this event, 48 American teachers who will be traveling abroad, many Fulbright alumni who had just returned back home, and 17 of us international teachers who had come to the U.S.

During the orientation workshop in Washington, DC organized by IIE we had different seminars on various topics such as the art of crossing cultures, global competence, the expectations and development of the inquiry project that every Fulbright Teacher will complete while abroad. It was very interesting to hear about the experiences of the teachers who had already returned back home. We were also privileged to be welcomed by the U.S. Department of State. Besides the seminars, we also had a tour of the U.S. Capitol Building as well as a Culture Night, where teachers got to present something typical of their countries. We were able to enjoy various performances, African dance from Botswana, Maori stories from New Zealand, and many more. IIE had organized a wonderful orientation and start for our journey.

Meeting so many teachers from all over the world and from all over the U.S. at the same time was the best thing about the whole week and something I will never forget. Seldom does one get the chance to meet colleagues from everywhere between New York, California, Alaska and Louisiana, all sitting at the same table. It was an amazing opportunity to learn! The main thing I learned right away was that I cannot start generalizing U.S. schools since there is no such thing as a "typical" American school. There are great differences between the school systems in different states and areas, and there are also different types of schools. Also private schools are very common in the U.S. unlike in Finland. I look forward to starting the school visits and learning more about the everyday life at different schools in the coming months. 

I had visited Washington, DC once before but I was happy to arrive a few days earlier and get the chance to explore also the city a little more. The U.S. capital is a very beautiful city with lots of memorials, monuments, and amazing museums. A place definitely worth visiting.

 

 

 

Participating in a Fulbright Program

I have the honor to be one of two teachers from Finland selected to participate in the Fulbright Distinguished Awards in Teaching Program this year. I was overjoyed last spring when I heard that I had been selected and given this opportunity. It is a great privilege and I feel very excited to be part of this international group. We are seventeen teachers from nine different countries, from Botswana, Chile, Finland, India, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore and Taiwan, and we will spend the fall semester 2015 at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. During our stay here each of us will audit courses at Indiana University, visit local schools, and also complete an inquiry project on an educational topic.

This is a blog where I hope to share some of my experiences in the United States from August to December 2015 especially with my teacher friends and those of you interested in applying to the program.