Do You Know the Way to San Jose...Oops, Siri, I meant to say Ho Chi Minh City

OK, OK, OK…I know what you’re thinking. What is up with the gap in blog posts? You had me going with a compelling story about being named a Fulbright teacher and your preparations leading up to the big trip and then…crickets. What gives? As Lucy would often tell Ricky on I Love Lucy, “you’ve got some splaining to do.” Fair enough. I am here with a blog post that I originally had planned for Monday, September 24, 2018 but I do have a fairly good splanation…I mean, explanation. Firstly, since arriving in Vietnam, I have been caught up in a whirlwind of meeting new people, exploring new places, trying new foods, visiting classrooms, and experiencing the Vietnamese culture. Secondly, and probably most important, the internet has been slow and intermittent, making for issues to address when composing and submitting a blog entry – particularly when the entry includes photos in the Megabytes size range. As I get my bearings about me and my life in Vietnam becomes somewhat routine, I will try to post on a regular basis. So, with the humble apologies and a vague attempt at providing an excuse, it is time for me to describe the most exciting part of the process…my trip to Vietnam.

When I found out in May 2018 that my application for the Fulbright award was successful, there was a lot that I knew…but there was also a lot that I didn’t know. I knew that I would be assigned to Nguyen Quang Dieu Gifted High School, its location was in Dong Thap Province, and that I would be working with teachers on strategies and techniques in STEM instruction and with students on concepts and activities in Physics. However, I didn’t know where I was going (rather the route that would take me there), how close (or far) the school was from my arrival point, and the specific days and itinerary comprising my time in Vietnam.

But as the saying goes, “Each day is a learning experience.” As time progressed, things started to fall into place. The school’s location in Dong Thap Province was close (relatively speaking…it was approximately a 3-hour drive) to Ho Chi Minh City, located in Southern Vietnam. I also determined that my schedule would run from September 2 to October 13. In addition, I learned or rather made an attempt to learn about the Vietnamese culture, food and language in the time leading up to my departure. So, in this blog entry, I would like to describe my flight to Vietnam and my initial observations of my first day on Vietnamese soil.

Flight

The flight from Dallas/Fort Worth to Ho Chi Minh City was a long one (surprise!) and occurred in two legs. The first leg of the trip was a 13-hour flight from Dallas/Fort Worth to Tokyo (Narita) airport and, after a 4-hour layover (which morphed into a 5-hour layover due to maintenance issues), the second leg was a 6-hour flight from Tokyo (Narita) (NRT) to Ho Chi Minh City (SGN). To illustrate the flight paths of the entire trip, I accessed the maps of each flight from www.flightaware.com and display them below.                                                      

DFW to NRT

NRT to SGN

The trip from the moment that I stepped out of my house to the moment that I stepped into my hotel room in Ho Chi Minh City, 29 hours and 34 minutes had passed. The hotel was quite a distance from the airport but when I finally arrived, I asked the front desk clerk if would oblige me with a photo to document this momentous occasion. 

Of course, during my preparations leading up to my trip as well as the trip itself and the first days in Vietnam, I have been struck by several observations that I think bear describing.

Currency

The fundamental unit of currency is the Vietnamese Dong which has an exchange rate compared with the US dollar of 27,000 VND to 1 US Dollar. The typical denominations of currency are $100,000 (= $4.30 USD), $200,000 (= $8.59 USD), and $500,000 (= $21.48 USD). Here are pictures of each of the denominations.

Since I wasn’t sure how much money I would need during my three weeks in Vietnam, I selected an amount and ordered $800.00 of Vietnamese currency. When the currency arrived, I received corresponding amounts of $100,000, $200,000, and $500,000 bills that equated to $800.00…which took a little getting to use. This is the first time that I could honestly say that I had $100,000 bills or even $500,000 bills (notice my clever use of the plural form of bill) in my pocket. Up to this point, my only experience with numerical values consisting of 5 or more zeroes would routinely come about in physics calculations.

Hotel

Since I would be arriving into Ho Chi Minh City very late, it was agreed that I would stay the night at the Silverlake Central Hotel and that I would be met by two teachers from Nguyen Quang Dieu Gifted High School at 9:00 am on Sunday to drive me to the school. The hotel was very nice, clean and well kept. At about 1:00 am, I made it up to my room (Room Number 2307) and to be quite honest, noticed only one thing…the room had a bed in it. That was all that mattered. All I could think about was trying to get some rest before an early rise to get breakfast and be prepared for a busy day ahead.

Food                 

            Food. Yes, I love food and was anxious to try the various Vietnamese dishes and drinks during the next three weeks. My first exposure to Vietnamese food came with the morning breakfast buffet. I had not had dinner (yeah, I was given the opportunity to eat but I was so tired that I literally slept or tried to sleep on the second leg of the flight.) Also, to be quite honest, I was a little tired (pun intended) of airline food, so I decided to wait until breakfast and I am so glad that I did. When I got to the restaurant, I was met with a wide variety of choices. Since I hate making choices, I just decided to try everything. I loaded up a plate of the following dishes and went to work…eating that is. The plate full of food is the last photo in the collage. The food was so good, that I went back for seconds. Although I did not include a photo of the second plate, please believe me – there were seconds! It turned out to be a great start to my time in Vietnam.

This will not be the last time that I speak about food. I have made a targeted effort to try new food dishes as well as beverages on a frequent basis and descriptions of these will follow in future in blog entries.

People

In my opinion, the best feature and characteristic of a country is the people. The people are representatives and serve as unofficial ambassadors of their country. My interactions with people from a different country give me a inherent sense of the customs, traditions, and inherent values that I always strive to observe and embrace as a guest in their country. Usually, it requires several days to a week to fully assess and validate my observations but this was not the case for me with regard to my Vietnam stay. It took me only minutes within meeting my two colleagues, Linh Phan and Tran Thi Qui Ca, who arrived to pick me up from my hotel on Sunday morning, to realize that they were indeed truly unique, genuine, personable, and more like family. 

I knew from that moment on that this experience would be more than just career extending but rather life changing. In fact, Tran’s son, who wanted to get up before 5:00 am to accompany his mother on the trip to see me, took pride in showing his special present for me – a US flag colored in red, white, and blue.

It was a rather long trip from Ho Chi Minh City to the school so we stopped for a bite to eat. It was nice to stretch our legs and it gave us time for conversation.

My first time trying the traditional Vietnamese dish, pho, and it was incredibly tasty. I enjoyed the food and the company. We finished the meal and returned to the van for the remaining portion of the trip to the school. When we arrived at the school, we all three gathered at the front of the school for a photo. 

Overall, the trip was pleasant but I had questions. There was more information that I wanted to know about this trip - the trip from Ho Chi Minh City to Nguyen Quang Dieu Gifted High School in Dong Thap Province - that could only be provided through a phone app. Since the primary reason I was selected for the Fulbright appointment because of my expertise and experience in STEM instructional activities and strategies, I thought this might be an excellent time to demonstrate one such activity that I would be sharing with my teacher colleagues as a practical application. Using the phone app, MotionX-GPS allows anyone with the installed app to use GPS to track its motion. From the moment we stepped out of the Silverland Central Hotel in Ho Chi Minh City, I activated the app to track my movements to the moment where I had stepped foot inside my housing accommodation on school grounds and the information collected from the trip was collected and summarized below:

Traffic

In all of my efforts and attempts to research life in Vietnam, one constant facet that frankly every country and every city, especially the larger cities, face as a way of life is traffic. But the traffic in Vietnam is different than that in other cities as the primary mode of transportation is not cars but rather bikes – motorbikes as well as the traditional pedal bikes. Bikes are very economical and easy to maneuver which comes in very handy as they share the road with vehicle drivers at the same time. You cannot help but notice the shear multitude of bikes that are often moving side by side with cars (sometimes within centimeters of each other), often competing for road lane and position. And as proof,

I would never, ever entertain braving the sheer number of drivers on the road as a driver. It turns out that motorbikes and a much smaller percentage of pedal bikes are an economical and efficient way to navigate traffic and travel within the city and to locations beyond. But as a passenger, well, that’s a different story.

It turns out that, since my inaugural motorbike trip as a passenger, I would go on to take many trips on the back of motorbikes with my friend Linh as well as other teachers at the school to go out for dinner, coffee, and errands. I must admit that it is a rather exhilarating feeling to ride as a passenger on a motorbike and have grown to adapt to the rather unorthodox rules of the road in Vietnamese traffic.

Coming Up Next: If you will notice, there is one aspect of my initial experiences that I did not mention in the descriptions above and it is probably the most important of all of them – the school. Please do not worry, it will serve as the topic of the next blog entry.  


Disclaimer: The blog, "Dr. H's Fulbright Experience", is not an official site of the Fulbright Program or the U.S. Department of State. The views expressed in this blog are entirely those of George Hademenos and do not represent the views of the Fulbright Program, the U.S. Department of State, or any of its partner organizations.

(Let Me Tell You About) The Birds and the Bees...and the Fulbright As to Zs

As the reader can see from the title of this blog entry and in fact, the title of the blog page itself, the name Fulbright is featured prominently. I am sure that the following questions will naturally ensue:

Who exactly is Fulbright?

What does Fulbright do?

Where do I find out more information about Fulbright? 

When are opportunities for Fulbright opportunities made available?

Why would individuals apply for a Fulbright opportunity?

How does Fulbright factor in my upcoming experience?

These are all excellent questions and there is no blog entry like the present to offer an explanation to each of them. However, before I begin, let me be the first to unfortunately dampen expectations. Although this blog entry claims to address “…the Fulbright As to Zs,” it would be virtually impossible to offer a comprehensive overview of Fulbright and the numerous programs that directly benefit from the efforts and contributions from the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board in a single blog entry. Although I have been successful with an award from my application this year, I have been keenly aware of Fulbright for many years and the esteemed honor that accompanies those who have been fortunate enough to be referred to by the Fulbright descriptor – Fulbright scholar, Fulbright teacher or Fulbright student. To that end, I would like to describe Fulbright programs in my own words with an emphasis on the programs available for educators – based both in the United States as well as at international institutions.

Fulbright is more than just the name of an individual or a figurehead of an institutional board. Fulbright, or to be more formal, J. William Fulbright, is symbolic of a profound and significant philanthropic investment in educational initiatives that are driven by the establishment of international partnerships and collaborations between academic institutions and scholars/educators. The proposed initiatives are designed to foster professional and personal growth in all learners, whether they be teachers or students, providing them opportunities to apply their knowledge and expand their expertise through the development and implementation of inquiry-based projects. The wide spectrum of Fulbright opportunities are managed by the US Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, whose webpage can be accessed here https://eca.state.gov/fulbright.

The particular program that I applied for is entitled, Fulbright Distinguished Awards in Teaching Program for U.S. Teachers, which can be accessed through the site: https://www.fulbrightteacherexchange.org. In this program, teachers have the opportunity to submit applications for an instructional opportunity of a lifetime that will allow them to: (1) travel to a host country to experience and embrace the culture, history and fellowship of its citizens, (2) collaborate with and share educational best practices with teachers and students of your host country, (3) conduct an inquiry-based project to gain knowledge and communicate results with the educational community at large, and, (4) connect and engage with other Fulbright alums on matters ranging from knowledge of instructional expertise to stories of their experiences. The program can be subdivided into two broad categories related to the time commitment required for the particular host country: the long-term program which offers opportunities that run from 3 to 6 months while the short-term program offers opportunities that run from 2 to 6 weeks.

In an initial effort to explore the application process for a Fulbright award, I reviewed the list of participating countries in the short-term program available for the Summer of 2018 and one proposal from Nguyen Quang Dieu Gifted High School in Vietnam caught my attention.

Each sentence that I read in the proposed announcement convinced me more and more that my experience and qualifications were closely aligned with the needs and expectations requested by the participating host country. It did not take long for me to decide that this would be the focus of my Fulbright application. I do not use the word “focus” lightly. The application process for a Fulbright award is rather extensive and mandates a keen sense of focus to ensure that all of the information and entry fields are addressed. It requires the applicant to provide a very thorough and comprehensive statement of their background, experience and qualifications in the education arena. I cannot say for sure exactly how long it took me to compile the necessary information and develop articulate responses to the essay questions but, if I had to venture a guess, it would probably be about 1.5 to 2 months. Although this might seem like a significant burden in a time commitment to apply for an award, to me it wasn’t because I saw the significant benefit of a successful application. Because of the esteemed and highly competitive nature of such a process, I had intermittent doubts of my chances for success and at times pondered whether this real effort was worth the perceived chance of rejection. However, as a dear friend and colleague in my school district has stated to me on many occasions, “If you don’t apply, then the answer is definitely No.” So, I persisted and submitted my application, receiving confirmation on February 22, 2018 that it had been received.

Now, comes the hard part. Waiting. Waiting for the process of evaluating the piles of applications submitted for the various Fulbright awards to commence and eventually conclude with a notice to each applicant in regard to their status. I received that status e-mail on April 3, 2018 with the great news that my application has made it passed the first round and would be considered in the next and final round of the review process.

I had a general idea as to when the successful applicants would be announced but knew nothing more specific until I received the “golden ticket” e-mail on May 16, 2018.

I remember checking e-mail on a regular basis around that time and I happen to check just before I began presenting a lesson in class. Wow! No, more like WOW! I was in a state of shock and amazement, not ever thinking that my application would be singled out for a Fulbright award. The e-mail contained an attachment with a formal announcement from the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board.

  

Yep, it was official! I could consider myself among the fortunate few (well, few is a relative term there are over 380,000 in number) to now be considered a Fulbright awardee. The cherry on the sundae came approximately 10 days later with the formal press release on May 25, 2018.

           

I have applied for awards and grants in the past and, when successful, was able to learn a host of unique, innovative and creative instructional approaches and curricular strategies to improve my teaching as well as meet/network with other like-minded and equally dedicated educators. But this particular award truly was a transformative one – one that gave me pause to reflect on my decision to enter the profession of teaching (even when I had declared that there was no way, no how I would ever consider a career as a teacher). When I decided to enter the classroom, I had advanced degrees in physics, worked in academic institutions, written scholarly articles and presented at national conferences. Teaching was going to be a breeze, right? WRONG!                                                                          My first year of teaching was a whirlwind year…in a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad way. The students knew I was a first year teacher and each time I walked in the classroom, I could hear the steady, underlying tones that the swimmers in the movie Jaws would hear just before…well just before they were introduced to Jaws. Needless to say, it was a very hard year for me, and I entered that summer feeling depressed, confused, and frustrated. I did not want to return for a second year at Richardson High School and, in fact, seriously considered leaving the teaching profession. I prepared resumes and sent them out looking for something – anything – that would get me out of the classroom. No luck. As it would turn out, I was unsuccessful in finding another job. I was destined to return to the classroom for another year – a year I was dreading. It turned out that it would be a year that I was beginning to get my footing and ended the year with more smiles than tears. I often look back and believe today that things happen for a reason. Receiving a Fulbright award represented a strong confirmation and a gentle reminder of why I entered the teaching profession in the first place – to make a difference today and positively impact the minds of tomorrow. And for that, I will always be grateful.

            I would like to take this opportunity to encourage all of my educator colleagues to consider applying for Fulbright award. It could have the same profound effect on you as it did on me. If you have any questions about the Fulbright programs in general or the application process, please feel free to send me your questions through this blog entry.

Coming Up Next: This surreal experience, which began with the “golden ticket” e-mail of acceptance in May, now becomes reality with my scheduled departure to Vietnam tomorrow morning. As I will be either in the plane or sitting in an airport terminal for the majority of the next two days, my blog entry will resume early next week with a description of where I traveled to and how I got there.

Disclaimer: The blog, "Dr. H's Fulbright Experience", is not an official site of the Fulbright Program or the U.S. Department of State. The views expressed in this blog are entirely those of George Hademenos and do not represent the views of the Fulbright Program, the U.S. Department of State, or any of its partner organizations.

Who Do You Think You Are...Why, I'm Dr. H, a Fulbright Teacher

          Hello and welcome to the inaugural post of Dr. H's Fulbright Experience. As stated in the description of the blog, my posts will describe my observations and reflections throughout my journey to Vietnam as a Fulbright Distinguished Teacher. I am sure that you have many questions...What exactly is a Fulbright Distinguished Teacher? What will I be doing as a Fulbright Teacher? What is the process to be selected for this program? Why will be I going to Vietnam? What will I be doing once I get there? The questions are endless and, actually quite good ones. I will be addressing each one of these in upcoming blog posts.
          But, first things first. I think it is time to address the 800 lb. gorilla in the room - the one question that is at the top of each and every reader's mind - What is the deal with the blog title? Believe it or not, there is a sound explanation for the selection of a blog title. Well, here goes. While I was a college student in my hometown of San Angelo, Texas, I was an announcer at local radio stations. If you don't believe me, well here's proof!

          It started as a part-time job working on weekends and lasted for five years until I graduated and moved to Richardson, Texas to pursue graduate degrees in Physics at the University of Texas at Dallas. My love of music, combined with my love of talking, made this an ideal job for me. Because most songs, in my opinion, were more than lyrics set to a melody but rather a narrative that told a story, I thought that song titles would be an excellent backdrop for the stories that I will convey through my Fulbright experience. Therefore, each blog entry will be a modified version of a song title relevant to and consistent with the topic of the story described within the blog.
          Now that the blog titles have been explained, I would like to introduce myself and explain why a high school physics teacher in Texas is interested in serving as a Fulbright teacher and, most importantly, provide details about the scientific research conducted during my expedition.

Introducing…me

          I am currently in my 18^th year of teaching physics at Richardson High School in Richardson, Texas, a suburb north of Dallas. It is a Grades 9 - 12 high school with an approximate student population of 2,700 students.

I know that physics often gets a bad reputation among high school students as being hard, involving math, and quite frankly a class that they are forced to take. And these students would be correct. However, as I often tell my classes at the beginning of each school year, “the reason I love teaching physics is that each of you experience physics on a consistent basis throughout your life and I do not have to think long and hard to come up with examples and applications of every topic and concept covered in class.” I know that if I am successful in this regard, then perhaps some of my students might actually grow to tolerate and, who knows, maybe even come to enjoy physics. So, what am I like in the classroom?

How did I end up in the classroom?

          At the beginning of each school year, I am inevitably asked the same two questions by students. To the first question, “How long have you been teaching at Richardson High School?”, I respond this year with, “This is currently my 18^th year.” The second question I am asked is, “Did you always want to be a teacher? To which I respond, “No. No, no, no. Not no, but heck no!” When I graduated from high school, I didn’t know what I wanted to be but I knew what I didn’t want to be…a teacher. I did not want or even entertained the notion of me as a teacher. What makes this even more astounding was that everyone in my immediate family were teachers…except me. In fact, my dad was the Education Department chair at the undergraduate university I attended (Angelo State University). After multiple attempts of my dad trying to persuade me to reconsider my stance on teaching and pursuit of educator certification, I still was not interested. I wanted to pursue a career in medical research.

          Following my attainment of advanced degrees (M.S. and Ph.D.) in Physics from the University of Texas at Dallas in Richardson, TX, two postdoctoral fellowships (one in nuclear medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center in Worcester, MA and another in neuroradiology at UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles, CA), and a career as a staff scientist for stroke at the American Heart Association, I was able to live my dream in medical research but gradually realized that it was impacting my reality.

          My wife, Kelly, and I have a daughter, Alexandra, who has always loved school and invested her time in any and all extracurricular activities she could possibly handle. My time was invested in activities that I had to direct my attention to such as meetings, conferences, grants and drafting manuscripts for publication and not activities that I wanted to focus on such as attending recitals, performances, parent-teacher conferences and help with homework. I understand that there are priorities in life and for me, and they finally came into focus for me. I decided to change careers – change into the one career I thought I would never pursue – teaching. Seventeen years later, I still have not regretted the move. 

Coming Up Next: Now that you know a little about the who behind the blog, it is time for you to learn about the why. In the next blog, I will describe the Fulbright Program and explain what it means to be a Fulbright Teacher.


Disclaimer: The blog, "Dr. H's Fulbright Experience", is not an official site of the Fulbright Program or the U.S. Department of State. The views expressed in this blog are entirely those of George Hademenos and do not represent the views of the Fulbright Program, the U.S. Department of State, or any of its partner organizations.