Traveloteacher

On Saturday we were invited to the President's Tailgate at his residence. This tailgate was completely different than the one I wrote about two weeks ago. It was held in his beautiful lush garden. The tables and chairs were all white, the table cloths white and blue, the colors of the Nittany Lions. There were lots of people there and at the beginning of the Tailgate the President introduced his special guests, and among the special guests were we - the Humphrey Fellows! Oh how proud and honored I was to be there wearing my Penn State T-shirt and waving at the other invitees. After the cheerleaders' performance accompanied by the Blue Band we watched a stunning performance of the Musical Theatre group. They danced and sang the songs from the 1920s and the songs, the dance and the setting made me feel as if I was at a fabulous Gatsby's party. The Great Gatsby is one of my favorite books and I felt great! After  lunch we were bussed to the Presi...

We had our official photos taken this past week. Dress code was formal and we all spruced up for the occasion. After our individual photos had been taken we all headed for the Nittany Lion shrine where we took several official photos and dozens of silly ones, which we of course enjoyed very much. The Nittany Lion has been a PennState's mascot since 1904 and the Nittany Lion Shrine is the most photographed site on the campus. The word "Nittany" most likely derives from a native American term meaning "a single mountain".  You can find more about all things Nittany here . The official photos will be published on the  Penn State Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship Program  website. The credit for the "unofficial" photos above and the photos below goes to Jane. On Wednesday evening we were invited for a dinner at Dean David Monk's home.  Dean Monk is the dean of the College of Education which hosts the H. H. Humphrey Fellowship program.  The food w...

For the second week of classes we were assigned books and articles to read, resources to explore and then discuss in the discussion forums on Angel and Yammer before coming to class for further discussion and sharing.  So I dug into it and studied all the materials before the classes, but in spite of it,  I was stressed out before each of them, because I wasn't sure how it would go, since it's been ages since I was a student. And once again I was surprised to see how the professors easily managed to create a pleasant atmosphere in their classes and make us feel relaxed and at ease. No stress at all, but a feeling of confidence and eagerness to learn. This week also marked the beginning of the football season. On Saturday, the Nittany Lions played their first home game and it seemed that everyone in State College went to the game and tailgate. Not that I'm a sports fan, but I wanted to see firsthand what a tailgate picnic looked like.  And it was a completely new experi...

We were eased into the new academic year by visiting Boogersburg School  in Pleasant Hill. This one-room school where students were taught from 1877 - 1952 is now a museum where local school children and visitors from afar can come and see what it was like to teach and learn in the times past. Teachers in period dress, a register book with names of children and their grades, a pot-bellied stove, slates, small desks and chairs, some now funny, yet strict rules for teachers (" Men teachers may take one evening each week for courting purposes, or two evenings a week if they go to church regularly. Women teachers who marry or engage in unseemly conduct will be dismissed .") brought us back to the times when education became public and free for all. During the first week, which is also known as "add and drop week" we visited different classes and by the end of the week we had to choose those that we would take for credit, audit and sit in. (Almost) all the classes...

It's been ten days since my arrival in the US. Ten days so busy that it seems to me that I've been here for at least a month. On the first morning when I entered my unfurnished apartment, I thought I would never furnish it! But thanks to Janis, my amazing, amazing host, only four days later my apartment already felt like home. Those first four days were all about the bare necessities - buying an inflatable mattress to sleep on until I get a proper bed, buying kitchen stuff, pillows, comforters (even though I still don't quite get the difference between a duvet and a comforter, I bought a nice zebra patterned comforter), visiting yard sales and giveaways (my first yard sale ever). Also, getting my student ID, opening a bank account, getting a new sim card and finding a plan that will allow me to be connected on the go, registering my computer for the use in my apartment are just a few things that we managed to do successfully during the first week. Our three wonde...

My Humphrey Fellowship officially begins tomorrow. I'm about to embark on a new ten-month learning journey at the Pennsylvania State University, one of the leading US universities. I'm thrilled  to take part in this year's program at the College of Education along with 9  fellows from 8 countries. We're part of a 2014/2015 cohort of 150 fellows from all over the world. As I'm the first Croatian school teacher to have been selected for this prestigious scholarship, I'm going to blog about my year as a Humphrey Fellow as often as possible. So I'm writing this pre-departure post from my home in Zagreb. My bags are all packed and yes, I've packed everything but the kitchen sink, which was actually quite easy. But parting from my family is not easy at all, it's unbearable! But I'm sure we'll manage to go through it.

I gave my first plenary to an audience of 300 educators at the eTwinning / SIRikt conference in Kranjska Gora, Slovenia, yesterday. Before I got on the stage, seeing 300 people in the huge conference hall sounded intimidating for a shy speaker like me, but once I started my talk I felt more confident and happy to be there.  Another great thing was involving the audience in my talk with the interactive Kahoot quizzes and the response I got was terrific. The future is now from Arjana Blazic