Yesterday I started a new school attachment at Christ Church Secondary School, which is located in the Woodlands neighborhood in Chicago. I have to commute via bus-train-bus to get there, which takes up to 1.5 hours total from door-to-door. This is definitely my longest travel time out of all my attachments. When I first rode through the Woodlands area on the MRT a few weeks ago, I was surprised at how undeveloped the area is. There are much fewer HDBs – the government supported housing high-rises that line the path of the East-West Line. I had become accustomed to those on my previous commutes and it was shocking to me that the area in the norther part of the island is not as developed. Just when I thought I had some aspect Singapore figured out (like thinking it’s densely populated everywhere), I learn something new. That’s pretty much the theme of my entire experience anyway – I keep learning new things.

CCSS is another welcoming school with committed teachers and visionary leaders. They, like the other two schools I’ve been attached to, really know how to roll out the welcome mat for us Fulbrighters (another Fulbrighter is assigned to the school with me, whereas I was on my own at TSS). An introductions of the school’s mission and vision was followed by a tour of the campus. It’s another huge campus with multiple blocks/buildings of at least 3 floors high. The school has labs, outdoor high ropes and climbing walls, a dance studio, art studio, refurbished library, an after-school drop-in center, a ‘gardens by the fence,” and even a zip-line. All around the school’s stairwells are educational messages that are related to the mission and current directives of the schools. These intentional messages about learning not only promote and reinforce messages from the teachers, they also send the message that the school is serious about what they are talking about. Everyone walks the walk and talks the talk. I’m looking forward to seeing how this plays out in the math classrooms.

While I anticipate my classroom observations at CCSS, I have to wait until I return to Singapore. I took a red-eye last night to make it to Melbourne, Australia this morning. I’m attending a conference on google apps for education. I may even be able to share what I learn with teachers at CCSS when I return.

It didn’t take long for me to forget that I was in the southern hemisphere. “Are you on Spring Break right now? They looked at me kind of funny. Teachers here are on “Easter Break” for the next two weeks. “Oh, wow. Do you get another Spring Break, too?” Yes, they get one in September, which makes a ton of sense because that’s when they have spring ‘down under.’ Oops. I won’t make that mistake again.