Kuna Teacher Experiences Life Abroad as a Fulbright Award

Recipient

By Allison R. Stormo

Christy Hall has spent most of her life just a few miles from home. Except for the four years she spent at the University of Idaho, the elementary education alumna has been in the Boise area. But, now she is spending nearly a year teaching in Scotland.

“I was a wreck all day long after saying goodbye to my family,” she said.

The 1996 graduate was awarded a spot in the Fulbright Classroom Teacher Exchange Program for the 2012-13 academic year. She received her master’s in early childhood education from Boise State University.

Hall is on leave from her position as a first-grade teacher at Reed Elementary School in the Kuna School District, where she has been for 14 years, to teach primary students (4- and 5-year-olds) in Bathgate, Scotland, at Boghall Primary School.

In turn, her exchange partner, Lee Buchanan, has taken over Hall’s classroom. Not only has the pair traded classrooms – they will be trading lives. They live in each other’s homes and drive each other’s cars.

“My parents will be her parents for the year,” Hall said.

The journey to get to the point of an exchange was a long one. Fulbright applicants first fill out a 27-page application, submit recommendations, an essay and evidence of permission to enter the program from the superintendent and principal of their school district. Teachers who qualify remain on contract with their home school districts, and maintain their salary and benefits while on leave.

If an applicant passes the first stage, they are then interviewed. If selected, the commission goes through an extensive, three-month matching process to find a suitable exchange partner. The team looks at personalities, subjects taught, a school’s size and demographics as well as teaching philosophy. The applicants’ cities, style of living and family environment also are evaluated.

“It is harder to find a Fulbright match than it is to find your soul mate,” Hall said.

Hall was accepted into the Fulbright program the second time she applied. The first time, she made it through the initial screening, but a match was not made.

When Buchanan and Hall learned of their match in the spring, they started talking via Skype weekly for months. They shared details about their lives, schools, professions and families.

“We cannot believe how perfect a match we are,” Hall said.

Both women are single, about the same age and neither have pets. It was a good time for each to go on such a journey. They also worked through many details on how to open their homes to each other for a year. As many in the program have, they created legal agreements similar to rental agreements as well as added each other to their insurance plans.

“We feel like we have trusted each other and feel comfortable doing that.”

While the women may have found a kindred spirit in each other, they have had to make a great deal of adjustments in their new classrooms.

“It is harder than I ever thought it would be,” she said. “It is a very humbling experience.”

In the months before leaving, the commission offered those selected for the program online training with their international counterparts which included videos, papers and homework as well as on-site training in Denver and a mentor teacher, which each participant is required to have. Each teacher will need to adapt their education styles and learn the culture in their host countries.

“They tell us, ‘You are experienced, confident teachers, and that is why you were selected. But you will be a brand new teacher.’ ”

Hall says that even though she has been teaching for 16 years she feels like a first-year teacher. She is teaching students younger than she has previously. She teaches Primary One which has 17 students who are 4 and 5 years old.

It is a challenge to teach in a new environment. “I’m trying to figure out how to teach based on how I used to teach without the things that I’m used to having in my classroom.”

Still, she has been able to experience new aspects of her career such as directing a Christmas play.

Hall has enjoyed the support of other teachers from the United States selected for the program who are placed the United Kingdom. She has been able to connect with them and travel throughout Europe on her breaks, including to London, Spain and Paris.

“This is coming at a really good time at my life. I needed some excitement.” She added, “I want to thank the University of Idaho and the faculty of the College of Education for giving me the foundation for this amazing career and life.”