Halloween Hits Bloomington - Who you gonna call?

Tonight we got into the Halloween spirit by dressing up for a party as different mystical characters. Sylvia and Simon went as the 'spooky couple'. Man now I know whats its like to get make up off your face! The guy in the sheet is supposed to be a ghost - wooooooooooo

ESL Schools in Indianapolis

On Wednesday we all went by bus to Indianapolis. It was cold for some, but not for Kiwis from the south. We visited two schools that focussed on integrating immigrant students into the US school system. One school was a K to 6 grade school and had an immersion model. Approximately, 75% of all students in the school of c. 380 had a first language other than English - and most of those were Latino. One of the features of the classroom was flexible seating: beanbags, different shapes and sizes of chairs, bouncy balls. The active seating idea allows for those active students to keep active while they learn. Also, it is found that having these options mean students try to get to class to get the seat they want. If they are not there, someone else gets the seat! The model of immersion was seen as best for learning English at this younger age.

An alternative type of school (A 'Newcomer School') was next door. Only established in the last 4 months, this school had about 150 students (grades 7 to about 10), was a public school and received its funding from the local county as all other public schools do in this area. The school is rapidly growing and pools from across the city. The staff work closely with parents and the community. Unfortunately, quite a few of the students have had harrowing backgrounds on their journey to the US and I won't go into those.

So the school represents a laudable commitment by the state to improving outcomes for these students. Here, immigrant students learn together in different grade levels and are not in the usual public school immersion. The idea is that as the language of specific subjects get more complicated, students coming into English language learning will be best served when language learning is the whole focus in their different subjects. The results speak for themselves. Students show rapid development in language ability and we saw many confident young speakers. The staff were fully committed to improving the outcomes for their students. The director has worked out that with this system they get double the amount of explicit English language practise per week than they would in an immersion type system: In the latter they may sit in classes that are unproductive for them, because they simply can't communicate well enough..

The two different models have lead to quite a discussion amongst the Fulbright DAT's with respect to best approaches.

The Colour Run

The Colour Run is for the Indiana faithful the Color Run. This is an event running since 2011(I think also in other parts of the world?) that promotes healthiness and happiness by bringing the community together. Students and community members run 5km through the campus and city streets and at 4 stops get pelted with colouring - charming. We had two entries: one was Fulbright colleague Wei Feng from Taiwan (he trains every day!) and Jacob our CIEDR Director in charge of our exchange (he doesn't!). Anyway the first runners completed the course (in full colour) in a little over 16 minutes. Wei Feng managed about 22 minutes. We cheered them on and had a good morning waaahoooing and encouraging the runners. Here is the Team....see above.

Visit to PBL Schools Columbus

Today we visited two Project Based Learning Schools in nearby Columbus Indiana: one elementary school and one secondary school (grades 9 to 12 - about year 10, 11, 12, 13). Both are examples of magnet schools. These bring students toward them (like a magnet) from within the county and outside the county. These schools are not charter schools, but do offer a focus that is different to the larger public schools. The elementary school is guided by about 4 different topics and themes for inquiry per year per grade level. However, the staff will go with the direction the students select re timing and topics. A lot like our UCF platform. At the moment they are looking at (Grade 1) Endangered Animal, (Grade 2) Animals in Indiana, Grade 3 Columbus - their city, (Grade 4) Giving Back - community, (Grade 5) Clean water for Cambodia, and (Grade 6) Colum Tykes - the students response to the local city initiative of encouraging bikes for all. These topics start with a member of the community in these fields coming into the school and discussing the situation with the students. They have a 1:1 tech, device to student ratio for grades 1 to 6. They also have a kindergarten attached to the school. We were 'ambassadored' around by some wonderful young people from each of the grades, Clearly it was normal for them to do this kind of thing. There are about 350 students and they take both special ed. students and those across the capability spectrum.

The secondary school was initiated by industry in its conception with a focus on engineering. It has developed further form there to involve a wider range of subjects. Teachers strive to get students to be self regulated learners by prompting them through a process that starts with a topic to study that student select, key prompting questions that promote further investigation. Students are very enthusiastic with the programme. The school was started from scratch with 100 students and 450000$. The principal reckons that a size of 400 max is enough for this type of school, because building a culture of trust, respect and innovation. The classrooms are arranged around central corridors with open class fold out doors. It is part of the 'New Tech Network' of schools of which there are now 180 in the US. Note that there are some of these in Australia. Class sizes are as high as 28 for freshman (Year 10) and as low as 10-15 for older specialised subject groups. Some subjects are Physics, Chemistry, Physics and Chemistry, Biology, Citizenship and Social context, Art and Design, Business, IT, Mathematics, Geometry and Calculus ESL, Spanish. It takes the full spectrum of learners re ability. This school works in partnership with the local much bigger standard state school. Students who graduate from the PBL school do so with the bigger public schools qualification, but with a PBL endorsement. Some of the projects going on here were building boats, algae in fish tanks, bees, windmills etc..... Similar to a YES approach. See you soon here comes some donner and blitzen!

Field Trip Hydrology

Before our road trip, I helped out my host teacher Angie and her Environmental Science classes. The students are all about 17 or 18. I manned a water quality monitoring site in an urban catchment in Bloomington. We measured dissolved oxygen, nitrates, phosphates, clarity, temperature and pH at our site. Nearby the students did an invertebrate study. Many of the same invertebrates we would see in NZL were here too.

Starting the Day in the Tudor Room at IMU

We started our road trip with a brunch in the Tudor Room at the Indiana Memorial Union (The Registry equivalent at OU). All you can eat for 9$ - appealed to this group of students.

Lake Munro - The Trees are all Changing Colour

The Travel Team Groupie

Chicago - My Kind of Town

You can feel the allure of Chicago. 'My Kind of Town, Chicago is...' sang Sinatra. As we travelled from Bloomington my mind drifted to what it must have been like to go west hundreds of years earlier - to take ones life in hand and explore the interior of the continent: Without a car, a plane, a bus. A base inland from the coast - a place that had to be confident on its own. It needed its own style, people with ingenuity, and people who were resilient. And so, it got all three.

You can explore a brief history of Chicago here https://www.cityofchicago.org/city/en/about/history.html

We travelled by bus to the city. Its flat there and back. Our driver was a great guy. We got tidbits of information about settlement, the best place to buy fried chicken and the steel industry along the lake shore. The bus was like an airliner - complete with overhead lockers, LED screens and plush interior (thank you to CIEDR). Our freeway path was an inevitable corridor stretching on - two to three lanes in both directions and cars and traffic continually by your side and coming back toward you. We had a rest stop along the way. The facilities were jaded from the 70's or 80's. The layouts are similar to but not as well maintained as the German Autobahns.


Corn fields, trees and fields in Indiana give way to a similar look in Illinois. Then you see the lake, but it looks like the Sea: big waves crash to the shore and water stretches into the distance. The remnants of the Steel Industry that flourished in the 1800-1970's are all around. Big Structures show themselves in the distance, but we didn't get close to unpack their shape. The scale is vast. Have you watched the 'Blues Brothers"? The opening scene of the movie shows the Chicago foreshore waking up one morning - the morning - Jake is released. Here we are in that scene.

In the city you can see the dominance of steel in structures like the bridges crossing the Chicago River. Big scale chunky iron girders with Big rivets and Big cross bracing, dominate the rail over lines running above some of the inner city main roads. Chunky is good, a statement of intent, but refined to detail.

In 48 hours we did a lot. The Fulbrighters divided into groups and did different things. Get a GO Chicago Card and visit as much as you can: you can purchase on line. We went first to Navy Pier on Friday midday and then an Architectural River Cruise followed by more to do on Navy Pier. Later we trialled Chicago Style thick crusted pizza at Gino's Restaurant.

On Saturday we visited the Shedd Aquarium - which has every aquatic animal and associated plants galore. We had lunch there and we were reminded of being in the US thanks to the gun sign on the outside of the cafeteria. So strange to think through the psychology that this is even needed in any place - yet alone one for kids and families. The Fields Museum is next door. Standing in the foyer you come across the T-Rex and I thought of 'Calvin and Hobbes'. A note that on the other side of the road is the 61000 seat Soldier Stadium: for football. The All Blacks play there on November 5th. We have tickets and may make it.

We took the Go Chicago bus tour to get to these places. The guided tour is worth it, but it rained. No worries. We put on plastic ponchos and coats and sat it out. I enjoy getting wet. The canyon habitat is constraining and narrow. It's overpowering and locating - like looking at the stars. Some of our group went to the 360 meter Willis Building to get scared looking down through a plate glass platform at the city below. Added in for additional 'thrill' is a 30 degree tilting window you hold onto as you experience a controlled fall into space!@#? Sensible types held down their lunches (which of course is value for money) and retreated for the Hotel.

We took a taxi to and from The Museum for Science and Technology on Sunday morning. This museum is well worth a visit for its scope of themes and interactive exhibits. We saw vortex and particle fluid Physics, futuristic display screens and interactive virtual projection models etc. etc. etc. Tired out, with much less shoe leather than we started with, we headed back for the bus trip home - enjoying the sunset through the wind turbines outside LaFayette.