Netherlands Exchange 2016-17

Friday was a day spent mostly in classes and talking with students.  First thing in the morning we went to another site, where Thomas teaches and is hosting Matt (another American).  He had arranged to let us sit in on two classes: an English grammar for business and a Marketing and Communications class.  Both were very interesting. We the were introduced to the Business@School program.  All students in the Netherlands do internships as part of their education.  For some it is difficult to find places to do their internships and for others, like those who have physical handicaps it can be even harder.  The Business@School allows students to carry out an internship with a business or organization remotely, working from the school in the Business@School offices.  It's fascinating how much emphasis placed on internships here, even at such a young age.  I think it can be really beneficial for students to get real experience early one.  I think ...

Thursday was a full day and that's why I'm a little late getting this posted.  We started with a visit to Liesbeth's site where I made some friends with some students.  In the cafeteria I introduced myself to some military students (like ROTC).  Two of them spoke English very well and they were very happy to talk to me, in fact very excited.  Lots of young people learn their English while gaming online.  Those that do are very good and speak well; maybe our ESL teachers should start a section of gaming ... ESL-G???  (that's G for Gaming, a bad joke for my ESL teacher friends) Then Liesbeth had set up a meeting with Lily who coordinates an entrepreneur program.  Matt, one of the other Americans joined us also.  Lily explained that her program draws students from other disciplines for an extra nine months of study.  They aren't necessarily planning to go into business, but the program teaches them valuable skills such as communication and ...

This post is to help anyone, but mainly my new Dutch friends, understand my role at Reedley College: This is a short video about the academic support centers at Reedley College.  We have three centers, the Math Center, the Reading and Writing Center and the Learning Center.  I coordinate the efforts of the Learning Center.  While the first two centers are subject specific, the Learning Center provides academic support for most subjects at Reedley College to any student for free.  The support (tutoring) is provided by trained tutors and supplemental instruction leaders.  We hope to use this video to improve our promotion efforts, attracting more students to our services.

Our day started today with a leisurely 3-hour drive to the town of Oss in the south of the Netherlands.  The ROC Leijgeraaf college hosted many of the U.S. visitors and their hosts for a day of learning about the program of their college.   This means we got to see the others that visited Fresno and Reedley last October.  It was very nice to see them again. First a little bit about the Dutch countryside: The Netherlands is very roughly the size of Fresno and Madera counties combined.  We just about drove from top to bottom.  Where I am staying is about 30 miles from the northern coast and we went to just about 35 miles from Belgium, which is to the south.  So we saw a lot of the country today.  While the houses changed just slightly in color, the design was similar.  The view changed very little.  Large green spaces, farms growing forage for animals mostly, with some small wooded areas in between, lined the highway most of the way. ...

Today we met up with other the American visitors and their hosts in the program and traveled about 45 minutes to a memorial museum called Westerbork.  It is the site of WWII concentration camp where Jews were held until transported to other camps such as Aushwitz.  102,000 people were "processed" through this camp and eventually exterminated in death camps in Germany and Poland. Click here for the Kampwesterbork website ... We had lunch near the memorial and I tried one of the most typically Dutch foods there is, kroket (the plural is kroketten).   Click here to learn more about Kroketten ... After lunch we travelled a short distance to the Orvelte Village - Museum.  This village is actually inhabited but also has buildings from the 1800s.  It's a real Dutch village that is quaint and charming. There are shops that sell collectibles and a bakery where I purchased some apple pie (of course it was Dutch apple pie; it was made here ...

This afternoon we took a bike ride out into the country. Take a look at these three videos.

I actually slept through the night and was awoken by my alarm this morning.  I'm getting adjusted to the time difference I think.  Liesbeth starts her work day at about 9am and she lives only 5 minutes from work.  This means I have plenty of time in the morning to have a cup of coffee (she has a great coffee maker that grinds the beans and makes the coffee automatically).  It's so good.  I can do this first think like I do at home.  Then I have time to shower and have some breakfast before we leave. We started the day with a tour of her office building and introductions to many of the people who work there.  Her college, Noorderport, actually has 20+ locations all around the city, not one big campus like we have.  Each location houses it's own special programs/vocational programs. We then went to another location which is actually part of the structure that houses the local soccer team's stadium.  This location houses several programs,...