Week 35: Bunker Hill Community College

Faithful readers of my blog (all three of them) already know that back in January I was selected for The Community College Residency Program. This is a program within the Humphrey Program which provides the Fellows with a one-week visit of learning and exchanging experiences at a community college.

Yesterday I returned from Boston where I visited Bunker Hill Community College along with Siradji Mahamane, a Fellow from the Vanderbilt University.  I applied for BHCC because I wanted to see how  they teach English to speakers of other languages, how they apply new methodologies in language teaching and I wanted to learn more about a new language initiative that they are implementing at their College. Also, I wanted to learn more about community colleges, because I only had a vague idea what they are and how beneficial they are for students. The visit exceeded my expectations.

Our contact person and coordinator was Ms. Zoe Edwards who excellently organized our visit, skillfully coordinated all the activities and events and was very kind, helpful and knowledgeable. Ms. Laura Montgomery, Director of the BHCC Art Gallery, hosted us in her beautiful triple decker on Mission Hill. Laura was so kind to drive us to college and back every day and even though her house was not far from the college, Laura always took a different route to show us the sights of Boston. She is a Bostonian who truly loves her hometown and knows all its secrets and we immensely enjoyed the rides during which she shared her stories about Boston and the Bostonians with us.

On the first day we were introduced to Dean Maria Puente and Ms. Vilma Tafawa, Executive Director of International Center, who warmly welcomed us to their college. After that a reception was organized for us and we had the opportunity to introduce ourselves to the Faculty and the students from the Community College Initiative Program.

Over the next days we visited ESL classes, talked to several ESL professors, all of whom readily and gladly answered all our questions, shared their experiences and were eager to hear about our teaching practices. They are also very passionate about their work and their enthusiasm was contagious. Time passed too  quickly when we spoke with them and I wished the visit lasted for at least a couple of weeks more. 

We observed several ESL classes and we even had an opportunity to talk about our jobs, our countries and also about environmental issues.

A great pleasure for me was to meet a cohort of young professionals from all over the world who were selected for the competitive Community College Initiative Program. I really enjoyed talking to these young fellows.

The highlight of the visit for me was the Language lab. Launched in 2005 by Alessandro Massaro, who I had a pleasure to meet and talk to, the lab is a place where everyone is welcome to improve their foreign language skills in a variety of ways - by using language learning software, practising on language websites, 1:1 tutoring or workshops - you name it, they will provide it! We even learned Chinese calligraphy in the lab and I wrote my name in Chinese!

Not only in the language lab do the students get whatever they need, but this is a school policy - BHCC is completely student-centered and students are provided with everything they need - education, career and financial planning, tax counseling, child care and also exchange programs funded up to 80% by the International Center.

This visit has greatly contributed to the enhancement of my practical experiences, especially with regard to using technology to enhance students’ language skill and to achieve the required learning outcomes. Learning from educators who are at the forefront of the 21^st century education will significantly contribute to building my teacher capacity and to expanding my professional learning network. 

This visit also holds personal significance for me, because it was in Boston three years ago that I first submitted my application for the Humphrey Fellowship Program. I still remember, it was on the night of our arrival that I finally clicked the submit button, after having spent weeks and weeks on writing it, and on the next day I enjoyed exploring the sights of Boston as I was dreaming of being selected for the program. And the dream really came true. 

Our first duck tour ever

With artist and educator Susan Thompson, whose exhibition we visited at the MassArt.

Post about our visit on the Bunker Hill Community College website: BHCC hosts Hubert H. Humphrey Fellows.




 

Weeks 32, 33 & 34: Sources of inspiration

As my  Fellowship year is slowly drawing to its end, I just can't find the time to write my weekly (or bi-weekly) posts. The whole year has been very busy, but now it seems to me that my day should last 48 hours if I want to complete all the things on my schedule.

The past weeks have been all about conferences. The TLT Symposium in University Park was a great event with some inspiring speakers and workshop leaders. Dr. Eric Mazur gave a great keynote on teacher education in the 21st century. He is an amazing speaker who engaged all of us in a heated discussion on a physics-related topic. Another presentation that I really liked and found very interesting and useful was One Tool Doesn't Fit All focused on Universal Design for Learning.

The highlight of all the conferences and workshops that I've had a chance to attend during my fellowship year has been the P21 Summit on 21st Century Learning in Washington DC. It was just my perfect cup of tea. The keynotes, the panels, the workshops - they were all excellent. I especially liked Fredi Lajvardi's inspirational keynote Improbable to Unstoppable about a robotics team made up of four underprivileged students from a Phoenix high school where he works as a STEM teacher. A documentary film Underwater Dreams and a Hollywood motion picture Spare Parts have been made about him and his team  and how they beat the MIT robotics and other university teams in a national robotics competition. I also liked the workshop The Critical Components of 21st Century Creativity. You can find more about it in the white paper Inspiring a Generation to Create: Critical Components of Creativity in Children that has just been released. And, BTW, at the conference, Dr Helen Soule, the CEO of The Partnership for 21st Century Skills announced the change of the name of  The Partnership into The Partnership for 21st Century Learning.

All the fellows have been working hard on their capstone projects and last Tuesday we had our poster presentation. The turnout was great and we did our best to present our projects that we're planning to implement when we return home.

I've traveled quite a bit over the past weeks, but it's not the travel itself that made these weeks so special. It was my family who was here with me, first my husband, then my kids, my sister and my nephew. I loved having them here in the US with me.  If only they could stay with me until the end of the year! (Note to future Humphrey Fellows: bring your family with you!)

Weeks 30 & 31: Spring break on stand-by

Spring break, just like any other break, means more travels on stand by for me and my family.  Most stand-by travelers will agree with me when I say that stand-by travel brings along the most ambivalent feelings ever.

On the one hand, it's the most nerve-wracking experience, because you never know if there will be a free seat on the plane you want to board until the very last minute - literally until the plane door is about to be closed - when you are either told that the plane is full or you are given a boarding pass. In the former case you are disappointed, but you rush to try your luck at another gate for another flight. In the latter you are elated because you are able to reach your destination. Once there, you appreciate it much more than ordinary passengers because you know how tight it was to get there.

This time we appreciated it even more because of a terrible winter storm that caused cancellations and delays of so many flights on the Eastern Seaboard so there was no point in careful planning of our spring break, but we played it by ear. And it turned out to be a wonderful vacation in two different climates.

Country music and homemade food

I flew first class from Washington DC to Nashville. I have no idea how that happened, but it happened sometime during the exhausting five hours I spent talking on the phone with three travel agents and trying to resolve the issue of the cancellation of a Miami conference that I was supposed to attend.

Anyway, after a short flight I arrived in Nashville,  where my dear friend Myra was waiting for me. We first met  ten years ago when both of us participated in the State Department's School Connectivity Project.  Myra's warmth and her amazing hospitality made my stay in her beautiful house in Nashville a wonderful experience.

Nashville, also known as Music City, is famous for country music and for its Grand Ole Opry House. Myra was so kind to take me to a concert at the Grand Ole Opry, where we listened to Loretta Lynn, Claire Bowen and other famous singers and singer songwriters.

We also visited The Hermitage, the birth place of Andrew Jackson, the seventh President of the United States and learned more about his impressive, but also controversial life.  I just found out that his face is on 20 dollar bill.

We explored places, old and new, those where we found memorabilia from the times past, those where we tasted delicious chocolate or those that are among the top 20 must visit coffee shops in the US.

It was a pleasure to visit the office of the Humphrey Fellows program at Vanderbilt University and speak to some of the fellows and their coordinators Shannon and Nancy.

At the end of each day we would come home and enjoy Myra's homemade delicacies. Myra is an excellent cook and everything she made was so tasty and delicious that my mouth is still watering when I look at these photos:

Weeks 28 & 29: Thawing out

Everybody says this is the worst ever winter in State College. The University was closed this afternoon and students dismissed because of snow and freezing rain. Classes at Penn State are canceled only on rare occasions - so the weather is really, really terrible.

However, because everybody wants this cold and snowy winter to be over there are many different events going on all around State College and University Park. (note to self: write a blog post about the difference between the two). From Wednesday 25 February till Sunday March 1, The Thaw festival took place with many interesting events. I attended the TEDxPSU and The State of Storytelling, both of which were very-well organized and featured some great speakers, storytellers and singer-songwriters.

On Sunday we attended the Global Connections Fundraiser - Passport on a Plate. The theme was the ocean and the Caribbean (everybody's yearning for sunshine) and each of the tables was decorated by a volunteer. For me, the most beautiful decoration was the one named People, Places and Things, made by our very own Jane Reese.

Here are some other decorations:

Delicious themed food was prepared by the renowned chefs from the Center County:

Of course, we were all dressed up for this occasion:

(despite the snowstorm raging outside)

There were also a silent and a live auctions organized to raise the money for the programs of the Global Connections with some really attractive auction lots, like a week in the Caribbean.

There was another fundraiser organized in University Park last weekend - THON - the amazing Penn State  Dance Marathon. Since 1977, Penn State students have raised more than $ 114 million for children with cancer and their families. This year they have raised more than $ 13 million. Fundraising lasts for the whole year and it culminates in a marathon during which dancers cannot sit nor sleep for 46 hours. It takes places in the Bryce Jordan Center and everyone is invited to come and support the dancers any time during those 46 hours. The spirit, the atmosphere, that something that you can feel in the air was absolutely incredible.