1.       The journey as a Fulbrighter is about to begin

“If you asked what I came to do, I´d say I came to live out loud!”

This was a sentence actor Sanna Saarijärvi (in Kodin Kuvalehti 12/2015) saw on the wall of her school, when she studied acting in New York. She copied the sentence and put it into her dressing room in the City Theatre of Helsinki. There it reminds her constantly of courage without fear of failure or adversity.

I was privileged to be chosen as a Fulbright grantee for fall 2015 in the University of Indiana, Bloomington, US. Only two from Finland and at the same time from Europe were chosen to this program. Our Distinguished Teaching Award group consists of 17 teachers, who come from Botswana, Chile, Finland, India, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore, and Taiwan. During our stay we will enroll in courses in the University of Indiana, observe and team teach in local schools and work on our own inquiry project relevant to our own educational practice.

I must admit it requires courage to leave my family, my home, my friends and my job and step out of my  comfort zone for several months. And however, what an opportunity it is for me to learn new, live in another culture and meet people from all around the world as well as in the US!

It is also a great opportunity to reflect my thoughts about world, education, myself. This blog tells about my time in Bloomington, Indiana from August 2015 to December 2015.