The Counsilman Centre - A Treat to Visit

I happened to meet John from IU in the student rec centre: it has is a large pool and gym complex We got talking and it turned out he knew one James Doc Counsilman. Now Doc was one of America's best ever swim coaches in the 60's and 70's. He trained Spitz and other top swimmers like John Kinsella, Gary Hall and Jim Montgomery (first man under 50 seconds for 100m Free).

Duncan Laing also met him and I think visited him in Bloomington. Duncan had the book written by Doc called ' The Science of Swimming'. This man was one of the first to apply Science to understand how to teach and refine technique and improve training. He invented anti-turbulance lane ropes, stop lap timers and many other items. He had a strong emphasis on cardiovascular fitness. I read this book cover to cover in the 80's - superb. One of his best quotes was this 'it only hurt once - from the start to the end' He said this after preparing for swimming the English Channel himself (successfully) by sitting in ice baths to be ready for the cold in the swim. Duncan was a similar innovator and took on board many of Doc's methods as well of course as inventing his own.

John invited me to the the School of Public Health (in IU) that had the pool in it that Counsilman used - built 1960. In fact he had a major influence on its design: underwater viewing and video etc. As I walked around it I saw many items that reminded me of Moana Pool. For example, and old pulley and paddles set complete with ropes and just lacking the bench. Duncan built one like this at Moana and it was the focus of many dryland training sessions for us. I wondered if Duncan had seen the pool too or plans from it. I have made a note to ask Betty about it when back in Dunedin.

Anyway the pool is only 33 1/3 yards long and yet it saw the training of many National Champions and many Olympic medalists. Each years swim team is up on the wall - it is a memory lane of swimming in an era where this pool was at the hub of swimming in the world. Check out these pictures at counsilman career highlights

The School of Public Health extends the work of Doc through kinesiology, nutrition, training, coaching etc. The facilities here are old, but still highly functional and in part reinvigorated. See the pics here and note the Docs pool, a 'gym' built in 1920's with ten full size basketball courts (originally it had a clay floor and they had to spray the surface with water to keep the dust down) all inside and an older original pool built in 1917. Check out the impressive tiling around this older pool - still in use today - and inclusive of brass fittings to the pool side steps.

Education in the USA

Here is a view of the state of education in the USA by Chris Hedges an award winning journalist. It certainly has parallels in New Zealand.

Visit at http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/why_the_united_states_is_destroying_her_education_system_2011041

There are other summaries of education in the USA from the Department of Education - see me if you are interested. I couldn't find the link.

Jacobs Music School

I spent an hour this afternoon with Sylvie, Karina (Mexico) and Lay Kheng (Singapore) listening to the University Orchestra in the Music and Arts Centre. Superb sound - all from very accomplished young people under the age of 26 at the internationally famous Jacobs School of Music. Here is a picture of part of the MAC - a nationally recognized acoustic space.

Polar opposites crossing the Equator

Here's proof of the upside down view of the world as you cross the Equator from New Zealand. This light switch is in the ON position in the USA. Of course the correct view is the Kiwi one where this switch is actually OFF. Also note the tectonic uplift in this region from right to left. Detailed, unbiased, observation is the key to scientific interpretation for the Flat Earth Society. Cave Praecipitium!

Psychology and Race: History and Challenge

A very thoughtful and reflective day. Today I delivered my first paired reading (we have to do it with a partner) assignment to the Educational and Historical Foundations of Psychology class. My task was to review and help facilitate a discussion on the topic. I was given Frantz Fanon's 1952 classic Black Skins White Masks. This is a powerful, emotional, but very well argued subjective analysis of the 'Black Man' (collectively men and women) and the imposition of colonialism on him (in this case French). This book and 2 other articles really got us all thinking deeply about race issues in the USA and everywhere - not just in our own countries and communities, but also in our own minds.

I noted that Fanon's conclusion, despite all of his personal experiences with racism and his deep psychoanalysis of the roots of racism, insightfully finished with the following:

'The negro is not. Anymore than the white man. Both must turn their backs on the inhuman voices which were those of their respective ancestors in order that authentic communication be possible.' p. 180

'I, the man of colour, want only this: That enslavement of man by man cease forever. That is, of one by another. That it be possible for me to discover and to love man, whereever he may be. p. 180

 

We were joined by a Prof. Dann (a Professor at IU and originally from Chicago) who specialises in this area and she brought out some really good context. We recognised the role all teachers and managers of schools have to bring forward these issues in their classes. Really, it is part of a metacognitive skill we need much more in our increasingly interconnected world: perspective taking.

Off to school tomorrow.....

Visit to Lake Lemon

Today we went about 20 minutes from Bloomington to Lake Lemon. The landscape is dominated by low hills with abundant forests and grasslands. Houses might be called lifestyle type in NZ - there is abundant space and hardly any fences between houses and no roadside ditches - all making for a different open land-use pattern

Sylvie and some of the other Fulbright Teachers had a swim and the lake water was warm.

The trip was sponsored by the Bloomington Worldwide friends Group. They support students from different countries to feel at home in the USA and organise social trips so people can meet up and see some of the sites. Our BWF are Martha and Frank. They have been most kind, inviting us out for dinner and driving us too and from the Lake. Here they are with us and some other pics of the Lake.

Consequence Wheels Presenter

The Way The World REALLY looks

New Zealand in its rightful place - on top and in the middle. Thanks to Mr Miller

Consequence Wheels

On Saturday I introduced Consequence Wheels to the class. This is a tool to extend student's thinking - particular cause and effect - and is also good to visualise thinking. It went down very well. Here is my example.

Lennies Restaurant

Lennie's brew their own beer and the foods good too. Not to mention the good friends. Here are Khalid from Morocco, Wei Feng from Taiwan, Sam from Mexico, Nazir from Singapore. Plus a kiwi and honorary German Kiwi!

A typical week?

The weekly programme? On Monday and Wednesday I have two classes. One is on Educational Psychology and goes from 1115 am to 1230pm. The format is always based around discussion - students are always required to read relevant texts and be prepared to contribute to the group. We sit in a circle and away we go. The facilitator has an indepth knowledge of psychology and  is experienced in posing questions to keep us going. My fellow class mates are mainly looking at counselling as a career. They are a clever, articulate and insightful group. I spend the afternoon on these days 330 to 5pm with teacher trainees. They are completing a course to get them ready for teaching next year. This is much like our own COE trainees.

Tuesday is research and preparation day. Thursday I visit a High School for the day. We are up at 630am and at school by 730am. School starts at 8am and finishes at 255pm. I have a host teacher whose classroom I visit and observe. I also get the chance to take in other classes operating around me in other classrooms. Break times are limited and some - around lunchtime are staggered to allow all students to have a lunch at the canteen (please see picture below). I observed students run a start up for a community programme called 'Build On'. Here students raise funds to help build a dwelling or other for a country in need. Last years country was Haiti.

On Friday between 930am and 1230pm we have an international education class run by CDIER where all Fulbright Teachers attend. We discuss issues pertinent to education internationally and in the US. Guest speakers join us and last Friday we addressed such issues as racial and gender discrimination. On Saturday we are in our 'Instructional Strategies for Thinking, Collaboration and Motivation' as described below. The IU has excellent eatery options where food is cooked in front of you based on different choices: very healthy and popular!

Professor Curt Bonk in full flight: Saturday Morning at IU.

Team Creative

Best poster e-v-e-r. What a team! Chaoran from China, Marina from India, and Haya and Hasna a from Palestine and a kiwi thrown into the mix. This work was done in Professor Bonks class on Saturday. We start at 8am and go to 1pm. Prof. Bonk's speciality areas are integrating IT and Online learning into the curriculum to promote thinking, collaboration and motivation. He has many ideas/tools for teaching and his classes are always highly interactive. Prof. Bonk uses the R2D2 (Reading-Reflecting-Displaying-Doing) and TEC-VARIETY models as instructional strategies for thinking, collaboration and motivation (Tone/Encouragement/Curiosity/Variety/Autonomy/Relevance/Interactivity/Engagement/Tension/Yielding: visit at http://tec-variety.com/. Prof. Bonk is very generous with his time and resources.

Principles of Education 3.0

Today we worked in groups exploring what the next generation of education should have as it's guiding principles. We are calling this Education 3.0 - the world is open to learning!

Nazir my Colleague from Singapore Teaching Physics