A watched pot...

Lately, I have been crossing my fingers when I log into my email account. Like the 8-year-old boy who waits for the mailman each day, longing for those mail-order sea monkeys to arrive, I could hardly be more anxious about news on this Fulbright Exchange.

Last week I contacted Fulbright to remind them that I do not have to be matched with a teacher who teaches both world history and economics; A world history-only teacher will do. They kindly replied saying they would note that in my file (I hope it was already noted!) but they did not provide any insight into progress of finding me a match. :-(

So, I wait....with crossed fingers.

Approved - Now the Waiting Begins!

Some good news in my quest to teach abroad next year! A couple weeks after my November telephone interview I receive a letter stating that I had been recommended by the peer review committee for an exchange. From what I can tell, this means my name is among those in line for a teacher exchange next year, but there are more teachers in line than they have exchanges. So, I think now it all boils down to three things:
1. How good do I look to foreign education departments
2. How good does my school look to foreign teachers
3. Luck.

After getting word of my approval, I was asked to complete two more documents. The first provided evidence of my school's support for an incoming teacher. I have been very happy with my principal's support of this all throughout. I think his willingness to host a foreign teacher for the year is a real boost to my chances.
The second document is a statement of available support for a foreign teacher from the community. I spoke with a number of friends, coworkers, and my dad about pitching in where able to help an incoming teacher with things like drivers licensing, setting up a bank account, getting medical care, and providing social opportunities. I could not be more pleased with everyone's willingness to help. This too makes my chances even greater!

So, now I wait for further word from Fulbright. They say they will be in touch by the end of March at the latest. Otherwise, as soon as they find a match!

There are still a couple of issues to consider: Sabr. Fat Sam. Puff. Duplex. Cori's Job. Our stuff.

Suggestions are most welcome.


I have included the text from the latest letter I have received from Fulbright:

January 7, 2009

Dear Fulbright Teacher Exchange Applicant,

We have now received your School and Community Support forms. Thank you for submitting them. This email is to notify you of the next steps in the selection process.

Over the course of the next two months, AED will work in collaboration with the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, and with partners in the ten participating countries to find suitable matches between American applicants and foreign applicants. Matches will be made on a number of criteria, including similarity of teaching assignments, similarity of schools, training and years of experience, location, housing availability, and personal qualities and plans as revealed in applicant’s essays. In making matches, we always consider your first choice of country, and will not propose to match you with a teacher in another country without consulting you first.

Although you have been recommended by the peer review committees based on your application, supporting documents, and interview, there is no guarantee that a suitable match will be found in the coming months for your teaching level, subject, or school. Regrettably, the number of qualified candidates always exceeds the number of available grants.

If a match is found, we will notify you by the end of March. We will then forward your immediate supervisor and school administrators the application of the foreign teacher. The application includes: educational background, professional experience, letters of recommendation, teaching credentials, interview results and other supporting documentation. Once the administration receives that proposal packet, they should review it with you. You will also be provided the contact information of the foreign teacher so that you may begin communication.

If you are selected for an exchange, you will be required to attend two orientation sessions, one in May (Washington, DC: May 2; Chicago, IL: May 16; Denver, CO: May 30) and one in early August with your foreign exchange partner (in Washington, DC, date TBD). Please keep these dates available.

Best Regards,

Project Director

Fulbright Teacher Exchange Program

Interview Completed

Earlier this month I completed an interview hosted by a Fulbright peer review team. Unlike in previous years, this year's interviews were conducted on the phone. I was told by members of the review team that the State Department has contracted with a different operations agency this year than they have for the past couple of decades so new methods such as this are to be expected.

The interview last about 35 minutes. I was speaking with three veteran teachers from Iowa, all of whom have completed various Fulbright experiences. Questions included:
"Why did you apply for this program?"
"What characteristic do you think would make you a good candidate for an exchange?"
"Why do you think you would represent well the United States to the students and staff you will encounter on your exchange?"
"How would you assist a foreign teacher assigned to your school?"
"Do you think your community and school would be supportive of an exchange teacher?"
"If you are selected, how would Cori be a good fit to join you abroad?"

It's difficult to summarize my answers, although I can generally say I made frequent reference to my time teaching in Hungary, my experiences teaching at Germantown, and Cori's great sense of adventure. I spoke about my school's involvement in hosting foreign exchange students and staff through our foreign language program, and I talked about my interest in foreign culture and global events, and my desire to create a foreign-travel social studies class at Germantown.

In all, the interview seemed to go well. There were no awkward moments, none of the questions threw me, and I had a handful of questions for the panel as well. Towards the end, the team leader told me I should expect to hear from the Fulbright organization by February as to whether I have been selected for an exchange, although that doesn't guarantee anything: a match with a foreign teacher still must be arranged, and that could take until as late as June!

So, the wait is on.

Fulbright: Step 2

When I returned home from a wonderful Thanksgiving at Cori's parent's house, I found a hand-addressed envelope awaiting me in the mail. Thinking it would be the hyper-inflated Weimar Republic banknote I recently purchased on Ebay, I excitedly tore it open. Inside, I found a letter from the Fulbright Iowa Chairperson.

It turns out my application has been forwarded to the regional interview team and I have been granted an interview by telephone this Saturday! In past years these interviews were conducted in person, but this year Fulbright is trying a new method for screening applicants (perhaps they are going "green?").

So, this week the chairperson and I will arrange a time at which I will interview with a screening panel. From what I understand, the group will use the interview to evaluate my candidacy. The panel will then provide a recommendation to the Fulbright Academy for Educational Development (AED) in Washington, DC. The AED will ultimately decide if I will be selected to teach abroad.

If I make it that far (and I have guarded confidence that I will), I will face what I anticipate will be my biggest hurdle: finding a viable matching teacher abroad. I teach world history and economics, and I have a feeling the economics class will be the difficult one to align with foreign teaching candidates. This week I plan to ask my principal if my school can be flexible about allowing my potential match to teach only world history, and have a domestic teacher pick up my sections of economics. We'll see.

However, at this point, I'm glad to have made it to the second step in this process. Before I completed the application I had tempered my emotions as they relate to this opportunity. But since that time, I have had a difficult time keeping my mind off the exciting possibilities that might lie ahead!

Back in Business...I hope

It has been over two years since my last post, an announcement that Cori and I would not be returning to Hungary to teach. However, there is now a chance that we will. Or, at least we may travel somewhere abroad to teach.

Last week I completed my application to the Fulbright Teacher Exchange Program. As a teacher of world history and economics I may be limited by the number of possible exchanges, but Cori and I have our collective fingers crossed.

I should find out sometime in November if I have been selected for an interview. The interviews normally take place in December. Then, if approved for an exchange, I would be notified sometime around February. At that point I would have the right to accept or decline the placement. If accepted, Cori and I would move abroad for the 2009-2010 school year!

My top three country choices (there are only 5 countries that are accepting social studies teachers) are 1. Czech Republic, 2. Hungary, and 3. Ghana. Also possible are Switzerland (high cost of living) and the United Kingdom (cost of living and lacking the cultural complexities we're looking for). Two other countries looking for teachers, but not of the social studies variety, that I wish I could go to are India and Turkey. Oh well, I'd probably settle for any of the five listed above.

The program requires that an applicant be in at least his third year of teaching at his current institution, which I am. If approved, I would essentially trade places with a foreign teacher who would teach my classes at Germantown. My principal and district administrator are fully supportive of this opportunity! In fact, my administrator is a former Fulbright teacher himself, having participated in an exchange to Romania a few years ago.

The application was fairly extensive, with a personal essay being the most daunting component. Here's what I ended up writing. I hope they like it!

Instructions:

On no more than two additional pages, please write one essay addressing both A and B below:

A. Provide a narrative picture of yourself. The essay should deal with your personal history, focusing on influences on your intellectual development, the educational and cultural opportunities (or lack of them) to which you have been exposed, and the ways in which these experiences have affected you. Also include your special interests and abilities.

B. Describe your future career goals and plans, especially ways you plan to use your experience abroad in your professional work in this country and to enhance international education in your school/college and community.

During an era of rapid economic, political, and technological globalization, the need for cross-cultural education, tolerance and, in the end, acceptance, could not be more pressing. Nearly 90 years ago, H.G. Wells authored The Outline of History, in which he insightfully noted,

The weaving of mankind into one community does not imply the creation of a homogeneous community, but rather the reverse; The community to which we may be moving will be more mixed (which does not necessarily mean more interbred), more various and more interesting than any existing community. Communities all to one pattern, like boxes of toy soldiers, are things of the past rather than the future.

More recently, we have famously been told that “The World Is Flat.” This characterization may be apt. However, the world’s citizens surely do not appear to be equipped to contend with its natural consequence: that cultures will increasingly be pressed into challenging and potentially contentious encounters with each other. The potential outcomes of this situation present a stark contrast: peaceful coexistence, or mass conflict risking possible extinction. I believe education will be the difference-maker.

My own educational experience has motivated me to change the way we teach. I had been labeled an “underachiever” by my teachers and parents. My natural intellect was offset by poor academic performance. I muddled through high school, unsure of the relevance of what was being taught. My parents urged, “Work hard and earn good grades so you can attend a good college.”

“But, to what end?” I often wondered. “To get a job that pays well?” Though satisfying to many, this notion failed to motivate me. School seemed unfulfilling at best, irrelevant at worst.

Midway through my freshman year of college I had an “awakening” of sorts. For weeks I had considered dropping out. I had only enrolled in college out of a sense of duty, to fulfill the expectations of those around me. I lacked direction and purpose. Desperate for answers I started examining the lives of other students. It was a group of music majors that caught my attention. These students spent their free time on nights and weekends enjoying the subject they were working so hard to master during the day. They were studying something they loved to do! My mind started racing. In a matter of days I met with my advisor and changed my major from mathematics to geography and economics, topics that had fascinated me since childhood. As a young boy I would sneak a flashlight under the covers late at night, not to read comic books or Sports Illustrated, but to “read” the world atlas. I would trace the rivers and railroads from place to place. I sailed along the Nile, rode trains across Siberia, journeyed deep into the rainforests of Brazil, and peeked behind the Iron Curtain. A decade later, with childlike wonder, I finally “owned” my education. I was finally going to school because I wanted to learn.

Fifteen years have passed since then. That time has been marked by moments of realization, many inspired by considering the world from an alternate perspective.

“True wisdom comes to each of us when we realize how little we understand about life, ourselves, and the world around us”

- Socrates

In 2005 while enrolled in school to earn a teaching license, an advisor mentioned the opportunity to student teach in one of two foreign countries: Costa Rica and Hungary. Costa Rica in springtime would be beautiful, but Hungary captured my imagination. My father’s family emigrated from Russia in the early 20^th century and I had always been interested in the Soviet Bloc. A few emails and one lovingly selfless decision by my wife later, I was heading somewhere I hadn’t been since those late nights under the covers with a flashlight.

A teacher met me at the airport in Budapest and drove me to Szolnok, a mid-sized city located about 100 kilometers from the capital. Suffering from jet lag and culture shock, I had little to say. A short time later, Juliana dropped me off at my new home: a communist-era block flat. I was alone, very alone. Loneliness and fear washed over me. I did not speak the language. I had no phone or Internet. I had no real idea where I was. I felt completely vulnerable.

Shortly, I began to notice countless tiny details. Hungary smelled different. The aluminum foil was really thin. People drank pear juice. Tables did not carry salt and pepper shakers, rather salt and paprika shakers. Hungary was certainly different, but with each new experience, I learned to cope, adapt, and embrace. I worked hard to learn Hungarian words and phrases. The people were so appreciative when they heard an American make an effort to speak their unique language. They would smile and warmed to me. I learned to communicate using hand gestures, pictures, and facial expressions. Sometimes, when the message couldn’t be transmitted, I learned something much more important: patience and humility. Never again would I frustratingly sigh when a non-English speaker in line ahead of me struggled to find correct change. I was quickly becoming comfortable living in a foreign land.

Among my goals while in Hungary was to explore people’s views on international issues. No one made a greater impact on me than Attila. A 26-year-old public defender with university degrees in law, economics, and public policy, Attila was clearly well educated and intelligent. He had spent a year attending high school in California, which he enjoyed, but he said the school was not very challenging and the students seemed immature to him. But when I asked him if he hoped to return to the United States one day work, his response staggered me.

“No," he stated, "I would never lend my intellectual capabilities to a nation with a foreign policy such as yours."

I was too stunned to be offended. Attila explained why he felt this way: he viewed the American government as conceited, brash, and reckless. He described the United States as a global empire set on economic and military expansion. Although, he was quick to note, he really appreciated all the American people he had met. Naiveté can only begin to describe how I felt after our conversation. This was a perspective with which I was vaguely familiar, but one that had been roundly demonized by the American pundits whom I read. In the following weeks, I spoke with other Hungarians, along with Slovenes, Slovaks, and Czechs. Nearly all shared Attila’s opinion: The American people seemed very generous and friendly, but their government had become a global bully.

Socrates was speaking to me.

"When you don't understand you will fear and when you fear you will destroy."

- Chief Dan George

During my second year teaching World History at Germantown High School, I asked a student if she would speak to my class. She was one of two hijab-wearing Muslim students in the school. In fact, she was one of only a small handful of Muslim students in the school. My class was studying the origins of Islam and had been asking many cultural questions that I couldn’t answer. Rabia agreed to join us, though on the day of the talk she was very nervous. She explained the pillars of Islam, the tradition of the hijab, and her experience moving to the United States from Pakistan as a little girl. She described how scared she felt on 9/11: for her country, America, and for her people, Muslims. I could tell the students had many questions, but were afraid to ask. After a few minutes everyone started to open up. Students began to ask about dating, playing sports, wearing shorts, and listening to music. To the student’s surprise, Rabia’s answers were quite like any other teenager’s might have been: She liked soccer, she loved talking on the phone, she had a ton of songs on her i-pod, and she even laughed when a student asked if her parents had already pick out a husband for her.

The next day my students told me it was one of the greatest experiences they had ever had in school. Many of the girls said they thought Rabia was “cool” and that they wished they had talked to her sooner. Everyone seemed surprised she was so “normal.”

Chief Dan George’s words speak volumes about the desparate need for meaningful, authentic, cross-cultural education in this “flattened” world.

In recent months I have talked with my administration about creating an international travel course that would allow students to explore the effects of more than four decades of communism on Central and Eastern European culture and perspective. At the same time I expressed my interest in applying for a Fulbright Teaching Exchange grant. They were excited about both. I believe spending a full year teaching in Central Europe will afford me the opportunity to build relationships and lay a foundation necessary to create a meaningful, authentic, cross-cultural opportunity for American students to travel abroad in the years to come, with the goal of providing them with the same access to unique perspectives that I have been so fortunate to experience.