Michael "Aronson"

When I entered school this morning I was greeted by a number of teachers and students with "Hello Mr. Aronson!" My confused look prompted them to ask "you didn't see the paper over the weekend?"

By Thomas J. McKillen
Managing Editor

Germantown High School teacher Michael Aronson will be teaching and learning next fall. Aronson has been accepted for a Fullbright Scholarship Exchange and will be teaching in Ghana next year. As part of the exchange, a social studies teacher from Ghana will be teaching at the high school.
Aronson explained the exchange program to the Germantown School Board April 28. The program has been in existence for 65 years and is administered through the State Department.
“For me, this is an important step in a three-year journey,” Aronson said.
He explained that informal work to apply for the exchange began three years ago while he started the formal application in the fall. After the application, he was interviewed by a board of educators who previously were Fullbright recipients. He received support from Superintendent Kenneth Rogers, who previously was a Fullbright Scholar.
On Dec. 15, Aronson learned he was recommended for the program and received a phone call in early April that he was accepted for the program. Aronson’s wife jumped for joy when he received the acceptance phone call.
“We’ve been somewhat hoping and planning for this,” he said.
The teacher coming to Germantown has taught for more than 20 years and is the chairperson of her school social studies department.
Aronson noted that Ghana is a former British colony and that English is the official language of the nation.
“I think all around it’s an amazing cultural experience for the 20 or 50 students who come in contact with her directly. The staff in social studies is very excited about this,” Aronson said. “The pieces are all there to have this work well.”
He added that Elmbrook is the only district that currently is part of the Fullbright exchange.
The board offered congratulations to Aronson for being accepted in the program.
“I can’t wait to hear from your upon your return and have the opportunity to interact with your partner while she’s here,” board member Michael Schultz said.
Rogers added that he “can’t imagine anything negative. We get a teacher that expands our knowledge of the world. When (Aronson) comes back we expand the knowledge of the world beyond us.”
Aronson indicated that he will keep a blog chronicling his experiences overseas.

Nope, I hadn't. Unfortunately, the online version of the VERY local newspaper (Germantown only) doesn't have the same picture that my "above the fold" story contained in the print version. But, the text is all the same.

Darn, why doesn't the paper ever spell my name wrong when I get arrested!

99 and 44/100% Sure

Monday night the Germantown Board of Education voted to accept my Fulbright Teacher Exchange for the 2009-2010 school year. This means that there's nearly no formal obstacle preventing Cori and me from going to Ghana next year!

I wasn't sure what to expect out of the board Monday night. But, when the superintendent introduced the topic, and then me, the board members revealed a set of proud grins. I distributed some information about the program, my exchange partner Lucy, and the potential benefits to the district. For the next ten minutes to so I described the application process, my interest in the program and this exchange in particular, and my hopes for the experience the district, its students, staff and community would enjoy during the upcoming school year. I can best describe the board's reaction as congratulatory and grateful. The vote was swift and unanimous, and I left the meeting to a series of handshakes, best wishes, and statements of vicarious wonder.

Friday morning, along with Liz, a teaching colleague who has agreed to serve as a mentor to Lucy next year, I will fly to DC for a Saturday orientation. Liz will receive some mentor training, and I will meet the other American Fulbrighter headed for Ghana next year.

There is a lot to accomplish during the weeks to come, but for the first time in many, many months, Cori and I can finally say, with confidence, what we will be doing next year. And that peace-of-mind, at least in the moment, might be the best gift of all.

The Offer

Months of waiting are over! I received a phone call last week asking me if I would consider an exchange to Ghana! A few days later a package was waiting for me when I returned from my golf trip to Kentucky.
Inside, a book entitled "Fulbright - Your Exchange in Ghana 2009-2010"

Cori and I have 10-days to accept the offer. There is a lot to do in the meantime: meet with my principal, contact my exchange partner (a 40-year-old social studies teacher named Lucy), talk to my landlord, establish a mentor teacher for Lucy at my high school, and so much more.

Cori's thrilled. Ghana was her first choice. I'm also excited, but I have to admit I was hoping for central Europe. After all, I listed Czech Republic and Hungary as my first two choices.
Still, the more I read about Ghana and think about the amazing cultural experiences we'll have, the more fired up I become.

Ghana is located along the west-central coast of Africa. It's formerly known as The Gold Coast during its time as a British colony. The official language is English, however there are some 40 native languages used throughout the country. The most common is Twi. It's about the size of Oregon, and is bordered by Cote d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, and Togo to the east. Ghana's southern border is the coast of the Atlantic Ocean. We would live in the port city of Tema, located a short distance east of the capital Accra. Interestingly, Tema is considered the closest city in the world to the 0-degree longitude/latitude point, located just off the coast!

The first questions most people have asked me relate to Ghana's safety, stability, and standards of living. It is a poor country by western economic standards, but so is every African nation. Relative to western Africa, its economy is strong. Annual income is about $1,500 per person. The majority of labor is in agriculture, but there is also a growing manufacturing and service sector, especially in and around Accra.

Live expectancy is about 60 years. Women bear an average of 3.6 children in their lifetime. Malaria is widespread, and tap water (when it works or is even available) can not be consumed without boiling. Also, electricity, while available in and around the cities, is not too reliable. However, it is a stable country: recent presidential elections took place peacefully. This post speaks highly of life in Ghana.

Finally, the Ghanaian school year is in trimesters. School is in session from Sep-Nov, Jan-Mar, and May-July. So, my exchange would be from Sep-July, with the months of December and April available for travel.

As I said, there is a lot to do in the coming days and weeks before this is "for sure," but it appears pretty likely that Cori and I will be spending the next year in Africa!

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!