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Now we’re wrapping up our time in Torremaggiore, so let me walk you through the past couple of days now that we’ve settled in! On Sunday, we were given a tour of some of the most historic places in town, including a very pretty local cemetery. Inside this cemetery, Nicola Sacco is buried (part of the infamous Sacco & Vanzetti duo [google them]). We saw the house that Sacco was born in, and went inside some of the oldest churches around Torremaggiore. Also, we met Sacco’s 88-year-old niece, who spoke very passionately about wrongful death sentences. Seriously google it. Monday, we taught for only an hour and a half, and I was with a 4th grade class that I had previously worked with. This has become my favorite class to be with, and I’m hoping to see them once more before we leave. We taught the students about American Football, and sang some songs with them! After leaving the school, we headed to a farm/facility where buffalo-milk mozzarella is made! We saw the buffalo (I got to pet one!), and got to try samples. Buffalo milk can only be used to make mozzarella, and production begins at midnight every night, so it can leave the factory at 6:00 and be in stores by 8:00. After this, we headed to a local winery where we got to see the vineyards, learn about the production process they use, and (obviously the most exciting part) we got to taste the wine. The grounds were beautiful and they also had pizza prepared for us. It was really turning out to be a great day. Following this, we went to the newest olive oil facility in Torremaggiore. It is very modern-looking, and uses a special variety of olive that is only grown in three towns in this region. The oil itself has a stronger flavor, and (if I’m being honest) it’s really immaculate. Once we left this new facility, we went to the oldest olive oil factory in Torremaggiore. The process they use was similar to the modern one, just with older machines. They are struggling to keep this factory open because of how much more efficient the modern machines are, but for now they continue to produce olive oil a few months out of the year when the olives are ripe. All of these excursions were offered to us by the school ‘district’ we’re working with, and it was such a nice display of the culture that Torremaggiore has to offer. The next day, Tuesday, we went to a high school in a neighboring town (San Severo) that focuses on the arts. We got to see the classrooms, explore the school, interact with students (they attend high school until age 19-20 here, so they weren’t that far off from our ages), and the students performed a mini-concert for us, as well as some of us singing alongside them. When I say that for them it was real-life high school musical, I am not kidding in the slightest. I cannot even imagine how crazy it probably was for them to have a horde of Americans storm into their school and start singing everywhere we went. These students definitely think that American high school is a completely glamorous time, and is everything the movies makes it out to be. We tried to explain that it’s really not like that, but after seeing us sing there wasn’t much hope of changing that thought process. We finished up at the high school around mid-day and had some time to explore San Severo. We went into a few shops and a cafe, and enjoyed being in a slighty busier atmosphere than the small town we’re usually in. Following this, we attended a ‘panel’ at the high school in Torremaggiore, where they presented on the Italian school system, and asked us questions about how teacher preparation programs work in New York, in addition to how schools work around the state and country. One interesting comment they made was how when taking teacher certification exams, the highest scoring individuals get to essentially pick what school they work at; there’s no interview process and the principal has to accept them. It is nearly impossible for principals to fire teachers here, and there would have to be a serious incident to warrant it. It was super interesting to hear what the Italian teachers were curious about, because it prompted discussion about which elements are better from each nation. On Wednesday, we went back to our elementary schools to teach. I was with a class of 5th graders to start, and for the first thirty minutes or so they were incredibly docile and silent. Then, their teacher walked out to take care of something else and their personalities blossomed. It was such a night-to-day transformation in their attitudes, and really shines a light on how a teacher’s disposition can affect the entire atmosphere of the class. I taught them the terms for different weather conditions, and they were shocked by some of the pictures of snow in Buffalo that I showed them. I may or may not have shown them pictures from Snowvember to really drive the point home. By the end, this class was giving us hugs left and right, and it was amazing to see the way they had opened up over the course of an hour and thirty minutes. After this class, we went to a first grade class that we had been with before. We taught them about American Football, and did head, shoulders, knees, and toes with them. They did such a great job learning the body parts, and had a lot of fun when I would surprise them and mix up the order of the body parts in the song so they had to actively listen rather than memorize a procdedure. Wednesday afternoon, we took the bus to San Severo, and went shopping. We went to a nice cafe and then to a few shops. I ended up buying a massive amount of clothes (so much so that I’m going to have to leave some of my American clothes here) and only spent €55! It was super successful and a great adventure to get out and about. Today, we once again taught, and I was with two 5th grade classes back-to-back. I’d never been with either of these classes before, so I was able to repeat the same lesson twice, which made for a nicely flowing day. With these, students we began with a bilingual song to introduce everyone’s names, and then read them the book we wrote before coming to Italy. They were very curious about the differences between American Football and Italian ‘Football’ (read: soccer). Afterwards, I taught them weather vocabulary and had them draw up some fun little reference sheets to keep. They were similarly amazed by the pictures of snow I showed them. Following this, I taught them a song about the idiom “it’s raining cats and dogs”. Fun fact: I learned this song in kindergarten and not only do I still remember every word, but I was able to pass it on to a new generation of students across the world! My kindergarten teacher would be so proud. (mental note to self: send her a card about this) These two classes were also adamant about having me sign as many of their belongings as possible. Some of them had full pages in their journals dedicated to documenting my favorite things, like the sports and activities I’d said I like, my pet’s names, etc. It was really heartwarming to see! I was also very impressed with their English skills at this level, and it was awesome to note the progress between the 4th graders and the 5th graders. This is the point where their foreign language skills begin to really take off, and some of the middle schoolers I talked with tonight were proof of that; they could communicate with no problem when they weren’t too afraid to speak English in front of native English speakers. The affective filter has a profound effect (thank you EDU 310) and the biggest difference between most of the student’s communication abilities has been simply how comfortable they actually are to speak out. Along the way, I’ve really been able to grow my skills as an ESL (English as a Second Language) teacher, and particularly develop the ability to use music to bridge the language gap. Getting in front of a classroom and singing is all about confidence, not singing ability. Although I have a music background, I haven’t thought about using music in the classroom that much since I began studying elementary education. Now, I plan to bring songs into my classroom while student teaching next semester, and particularly when I (hopefully) ultimately end up moving into the TESOL (teaching English to speakers of other languages) sphere. This evening, we went to the castle in Torremaggiore where we were toured around, shown two videos, given a concert, and allowed to dress up in medieval-Italian garb. The display of culture that the people of Torremaggiore have put on for us has been very welcoming, and I’m so happy to see everything that they have to offer. The parent’s of the schools brought us hordes upon hordes of food for dinner, and we got to mingle with different people from the town. Acting as pseudo-dignitaries does get overwhelming at times though, and we can never walk around town without someone wanting to talk to us because we’re ‘the Americans’ and everyone knows we’re here. In fact, the students at the high school saw us getting on the bus the other day, and rushed to school to tell everyone they know that they had seen the Americans. At this point, we only have a few more days left in Torremaggiore before heading to the opposite coast, and it will be sad to leave. Although it took some getting used to, this small town is a wonderful place to be, and will definitely be missed.
1 Comment
Lindsey’s Mom
1/18/2020 01:23:07 am
Love reading your blog Alex! Sounds like you are having a great time!
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AuthorCiao! My name is Alex and I’m a senior in the Childhood Education program. I love experiencing different cultures, trying new things, and traveling; this trip will bring my foreign country total into double digits! I’m thrilled to be able to work with students of a different background than myself, and hope to go into TESOL in the future. I can’t wait to bring my Italian experience into my own future classroom! Archives
February 2020
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