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The past couple days have been absolutely incredible. We arrived in Torremaggiore on Tuesday night and got settled into the Bed & Breakfast that we’re staying at. We were served our first meal here, which was multiple courses and completely amazing. Wednesday, after breakfast we headed to City Hall and got to meet the vice-president, and some of the members on a council for the partnership with Buffalo. Torremaggiore is an official sister city of Buffalo, and has been part of an exchange relationship since the early 2000’s. Here we took pictures in front of both cities’ flags. After leaving city hall, we walked across a square in the center of town to one of the primary schools that we’re working in. As we walked up, we could hear children shouting, and saw them lining the courtyard in front of the school waving Italian and USA flags. A group of students performed the Italian national anthem and the European Union anthem; then, they played the American national anthem for us. The way that the students, teachers, and community welcomed us with open arms and were so excited about our presence was so moving. It made me stop and think about how truly amazing it is to be able to have experiences like this. The kids were treating us like we were celebrities, and waved at us constantly every time they saw us. We distracted every single classroom we walked past, it was great! I’m sure the teacher’s really appreciated the way we could consistently keep the entire school off task by waving and saying “ciao”! After the parade and celebration was finished, we went inside the school where they had food and pastries waiting for us. They also popped bottles of champagne, which was absolutely insane for us to see. If teachers and administrators in America were to enthusiastically pour champagne for college students, it would be completely out of line. However, it was nice to mingle with some of the teachers and enjoy the local foods they’d brought. We walked around the school next, and went into some of the classrooms to see what they were like. Since there was such a large group of us, we went fairly quickly from room to room, but got to see the students learning different subjects. Next we walked to another primary school in town that some Buff State students are placed at. This school had lots of technology, and we popped our heads into a class where students were learning their letter sounds. It made it really exciting for the next day, since my research is on phonics and decoding strategies. In the afternoon, the entire town has a ‘siesta’, and most shops are closed. Schools here run for 5 hours per day, from 8:00am to 1:00pm. They go to school 6 days out of the week, and have Sunday’s off. Siesta is great except for when you have no food and everyplace is closed, the hangry attitude starts to come out and it isn’t quite so fun anymore. In the evenings, we have 3-4 course meals prepared for us by the owner of the bed & breakfast. Thursday, we had our first day in the classroom with the students. I started the morning in a 4th grade classroom, and did an activity to introduce myself and have them introduce themselves in English. This day I was with an English teacher, so she could translate instructions as necessary. I learned a lot of Italian in the first hour and a half, and the students were very curious about America. It was really amazing to see how excited they were to learn English and practice their speaking. Finding ways to communicate with everyone and bridge the language barrier was so fun, and by the end of the first class the students were yelling my name across the room to ask me more and more questions they’d thought of. After this class we followed the same teacher to a first grade class. Their understanding of both English and Italian were much lower, but the students were working to learn colors and the names of school supplies. Again, I introduced myself and had them do an easier version of the same introduction activity. The students loved to run up to me and show me that they knew how to count from 1 to 10, and tell me what colors different things were. All of the students were so excited to have someone different from them around, and were so happy and polite the entire time. Then, on Friday, we walked to the middle school where the students were performing a concert. This was an event for all of the current 5th graders from the elementary schools to see all of the different instrument offerings. They played some American music (read: Wrecking Ball by Miley Cyrus) and some Italian music. It was fun to see the middle school students and learn about the Italian school system. We saw two middle schools in the town and interrupted a few classes to say hello. Today, we went back to the school I was at on the first day, and started the day with a different fourth grade class. I began by introducing myself and then taught them a “hello” song with lyrics in Italian and English. This let them all sing what their name was, and helped us to know who everyone was. Afterwards, we read them a book that we wrote about American Football. The students were sooo curious about it! It was super interesting to them that soccer isn’t very large in America, and that there’s a lot of similarities between our traditions with football and their traditions with soccer. Afterwards they asked question after question about American culture, and wanted to know about Trump, if things were expensive, what people did for fun, and my personal favorite: ‘why do you wear glasses?’. Next, we went to a different first grade classroom, and repeated the beginning of the lesson. However, I only taught the song in Italian, and didn’t teach them the English version yet since they’re so much younger. The teacher of this class only spoke Italian, and it was a true testament of how much I’ve learned so far that I was able to communicate with her with only minor difficulty. With this class, we also read the same book, and they were asking questions as well, although not as much as the last class. Then, we played Baby Shark with them and they sang along and made the hand motions. These kids were absolutely loving it! We’ve learned that a lot of the viral songs are big here also, and the kids will go wild if they hear it. After our singing and dancing extravaganza, I had them write their names and draw their favorite things on a piece of paper for the last little bit of time. This allowed me to wander around and ask about different things, and learn the words for different objects. At the end of it all, the teacher told the students we might be coming back to that classroom a different day, and they went crazy! They were jumping up and down with excitement, and gave lots of hugs and high fives on the way out the door. It’s so endearing to have children become so attached after such a short period of time, and I’m so happy to see how enthralled they were by everything we did! Later today, we’ll be going out with some students from the local high school. Here, students are in high school until they’re 19-20 years old, so they will be closer in age to ourselves than American high school students. This particular group attend a school for students wanting to continue on to university, and it will be fun to see how their English comprehension is and learn about Italian culture from others the same age as us. Stay tuned for how the night goes!
6 Comments
Julie Henry
1/12/2020 12:52:50 pm
Alex, you are such a great writer. You had me laughing at the airport/train station/WC story. Sounds like you are really getting the most possible out of your time in Italy. Can't wait to read more. Enjoy!
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Bob Freese
1/12/2020 09:23:57 pm
Great story!
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Keli Garas-York
1/13/2020 07:08:35 pm
What a wonderful welcome you had! Thanks for your engaging blogs :-)
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Pixita del Prado Hill
1/14/2020 08:14:13 pm
Hi Alex, what a wonderful description of your interactions with the children and teachers. I loved reading about all that you are teaching and learning. Enjoy your time in Italy!
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1/16/2020 02:42:19 am
"In the afternoon, the entire town has a ‘siesta’, and most shops are closed. Schools here run for 5 hours per day, from 8:00am to 1:00pm."
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Rakia Akter
1/16/2020 03:19:56 pm
Hey Alex! Your days are so jam packed, I enjoyed reading about your interactions with the students in the school. I’m learning so much, an 8-1 school day seems ideal! I wish we had siesta’s here in America, everyone can use a midday nap/break (mostly nap).
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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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