When I first found out that I was awarded the Fulbright fellowship, most people assumed that I would be teaching in Singapore. And, for some Fulbright programs, that is the case. Fulbrighters in academia are usually visiting professors who teach at the host institution. When I say that my purpose for being in Singapore is for learning and research, some people were surprised or didn’t understand what that could mean.

My understanding of the Fulbright DAT program is each participant involved in the program (including Fulbrighters, host teachers, host institutions, host students) is both a learner and a student – simultaneously at times. This understanding has been reinforced for me over the past couple of days. Even in a recent example of an interaction in a classroom with a student at KR, I found myself reiterating my purpose in Singapore.

I had been sitting in on the second session of a Robotics class. I had actually learned what an Arduino board is; how to read the color-coding on resisters; how to connect an LED light, the resisters and the cables; and how to read a code in order to make the LED light blink. After I successfully set mine up and before I set it to go, I was walking around the classroom to see how the students were doing with it.

Student 1: Teacher, did I do this correctly?

Me: I don’t know. We’ll see if it works in a second.

Student 2: Why do teachers always say that: “We’ll see!”?

Me: I don’t actually know if it will work. We’ll have to see.

Student 2: Why are you here?

Me: Well, why are you here?

Student 2: I’m here for learning.

Me: So am I.

Student 1: What??? (his eyes wide) I thought you were a teacher?

Me: I am – shouldn’t teachers be learners too?

Student 1: shrugs shoulders and nods his head

Earlier in the day, I sat in on a PLC meeting with four other math teachers. They had very little exposure to Desmos, so I was ready to share the love. I walked them through the process of creating activity builders, but I also encouraged them to search for some and either bookmark them or edit them to make them their own. We only had one hour to chat, so it was really a brain dump – I unloaded as much as I could. I hope I didn’t overwhelm them, but it was hard to hold back.

My host teacher had used Desmos in her class, but had not used activity builder yet, either. I sat in two classes in which she was using the slider feature to get students to ‘see’ how the parameters in the vertex form of a quadratic determined the location of the vertex. I appreciate how she was getting the kids to make the discoveries on their own.

I also had a productive meeting with my academic adviser from NIE. He will be helping me with my project. He was an adviser last year to another Fulbrighter. He’s already pointed me in the direction of some great resources that I will be looking at over the next two weeks. He is actually a Fulbrighter, too. He has been a visiting professor to a school in the states. I love that I have someone so knowledgeable about the program and so willing to be helpful.

Tomorrow is the first day of Chinese New Year. We have learned of several customs that Chinese people follow in order to bring luck and prosperity in the new year: giving oranges – but only in even numbers; cleaning before the New Year starts to sweep out bad luck; NOT cleaning on New Year’s day to NOT sweep out the good luck; wearing red. These were pretty east to get behind – even if we aren’t Chinese. 🙂

Almost all of the stores will be closed tomorrow and even Sunday as most people spend time with family – as Chinese custom dictates that one must visit older family members, in descending order, over the 15 days of the new year’s season. We’ll be having lunch with  some friends of Johan tomorrow. That’s as close as we can get to having family to visit. We just got back from Cold Storage (grocery store) so we are set with food for the weekend. Phew!

One of the other major aspects of living here that we have learned – and continue to learn – is the bus and MRT system. Seems like each day we are taking a new bus and getting to know its route. We consider the options via google maps, but then have to re-evaluate as we get to a bus stop and see which buses are arriving first. Sometimes the multiple apps that we have to predict the arrival times aren’t right. So we’ve learned that being at the bus stop, waiting for the bus, and taking the ride is a lot different than what our phones tell us what will happen. …Sounds like a good metaphor for life learning.