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It has come time for the ever-dreaded realization: we’re now back to reality, and that means we’re not in Italy anymore. We have been home for six days now, and I have missed Italy every second. I haven’t been able to stop talking about my experiences, looking through pictures, or crying about being home (okay, that one is an exaggeration). I wish I was still teaching in a classroom in Torremaggiore, singing with our students in an 11th century castle, boating around the beautiful Isle of Capri and enjoying the cool breeze under the sun on the Mediterranean Sea, tasting the salt on my lips from the splashes of water on the boat ride, gazing up in pure awe at the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City, and visiting historical monuments in Rome I’d only dreamt about. It was all over much too quickly, yet it was still one of the most enriching experiences of my life. It’s left me counting my blessings on multiple occasions this past week. Now that I’ve caught up on sleep and somewhat readjusted to a routine, I think that I sometimes forget I’m not still in Italy. I’m still using copious amounts of olive oil on everything, subconsciously clutching my purse in public to avoid potential pickpockets, and wondering where Signore Grassi’s painstakingly delicious four course meals are. I’d adjusted to being stuffed with all that pasta, bruschetta, potatoes, bread, pizza, and fresh mozzarella, what felt like constantly, that I’m hungry all of the time now! Eating like a normal person again has been a change. Small bits of the Italian language have stuck with me, too. I’ve found myself (more than once) at work, replying to someone’s question with, “sì”, or saying “grazie” instead of “thank you”. This happened when I returned from Chile, too, so I’m not at all surprised. It’s comforting, if anything. I miss everything about Italy. Most of all, I am missing all of the wonderful students and teachers at San Giovanni Bosco. Everyone was more than welcoming from the moment we arrived in Torremaggiore. We were welcomed into the classrooms with open arms. My time in the school has only solidified that I am meant to be a teacher. The opportunities to teach, observe, interact with the students, ask questions, and collect information for our research have contributed significantly to our growth as educators. In the same way, spending time in small-town Torremaggiore became even more special when we began to know people. Recognizing faces, hanging out with friends on multiple occasion we made as a result of the Buffalo-Torremaggiore Association, and interacting with kind people in shops, cafes, and various places around town – just to name a few ways this special town made me feel so at home. I left a large piece of my heart in Torremaggiore. I am so thankful for the both new and strengthened relationships within our Buffalo State cohort as a result of this trip. As a combination between the El. Ed./Ex. Ed. Department and the Music Department, we mostly started off as strangers. Through weekly class meetings, working together on developing research projects and discussing plans for our trip, we began to get to know each other. The true bonding, of course, occurred on the trip – finding our way around Rome, packing tightly into busses to Torremaggiore and other places around Italy, teaching and collaborating with one another, working off each other’s energy, laughing endlessly together, singing together (whether we were as good as the Music Ed. majors or not), making Finding Nemo references to lighten any stressful situation, and essentially just being with each other at all hours of the day. Dr. Ceprano’s granddaughter, Claire, a student at UB, joined us on the trip, and she immediately became a great friend of ours – yet another blessing to count. Speaking of blessings, this is the second opportunity I’ve had to take part in an IPDS experience with Katie, someone I’ve found true friendship with in and out of the classroom. We associate all of our greatest teaching experiences with each other, both international and in Buffalo – our co-teaching lesson in Chile, our day with the fourth graders in Italy, and our co-teaching lessons in Block 1 last fall – and I think that’s a strong contributor to why we’re such great friends. IPDS is so much more than simply traveling – relationships are formed and strengthened, revelations about yourself are made, and your eyes are opened to the infinite possibilities in this beautiful world. Our three-day excursion to Pompeii, Naples, Sorrento, and Capri was a wonderful way to wrap up our time in Italy, especially immediately after Torremaggiore. When we checked out of our Bed & Breakfast after nearly two weeks, I was not yet ready to check out of Italy as a whole. There is always so much more to see and learn in a country so rich of culture and history. I still remember where I was in Chile last May when I received the official email that I had been accepted to the Italy program. Double blessings in that moment – enjoying Chile while trying to process that I’d be traveling to Italy several months later! Now that this irreplaceable chapter has come to a close as quickly as it was opened, I will forever grateful be for this experience. Some of my very favorite moments: Above: boat ride from Sorrento to Capri (we were almost blown off the boat from the crazy winds!) Below: looking back after going through the cave on the Mediterranean Sea I’ll be back, Italy. You have my heart forever.
Ciao only for now.
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Early on Friday morning, we packed up the last of our things and headed off to the first stop of our three day excursion around Italy, Pompei. After two weeks spending time in classrooms and reflecting on our teaching experiences, it was the perfect way to wrap up our time in a country with so much to explore. The opportunity to walk through the ruins of Pompei after almost two thousand years was unbelievable. We were fortunate enough to have a guide take us through, or we would have inevitably missed significant stories hidden within the ruins. Mount Vesuvius smothered the city in ash in 79 AD – leaving the city undiscovered for many centuries – until 1748. It would take three days to walk through the entire city, but we covered what we could in the two hours we had. Our next stop was the city of Naples, where we spent the evening exploring and learning, and shopping, too, of course! There are many places in Italy that we visited that I wish I had prior knowledge of, including The Veiled Christ statue at Museo Capella SanSevero. There are many parts of European history that Americans are unaware of, and truly it’s sad. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to take any photos inside the museum, but this is the website that highlights all of the important statues and pieces of art, including The Veiled Christ and Anatomical Machines: http://www.museosansevero.it/en. I hope to spend some time within the next months reading about anything we saw in Italy I feel that I could learn more about. History is infinitely more interesting when it’s relatable to an experience – not just being read out of a textbook. After a long day, it was time to head to Sorrento and check into our hotel. Hotel Michelangelo was a beautiful hotel, and perfect for a two night stay. Saturday morning would begin the best day I’ve ever had (without exaggeration). The Isle of Capri was planned for Saturday, but I had only a small idea of what to expect. Little did I know how serene and gorgeous our views would be, leaving me breathless everywhere I looked. We took a boat ride (it wasn’t a yacht, but it sounds cooler to say we yachted across the Mediterranean Sea!) from Sorrento to Capri, which took about 20 minutes. The wind speeds out on the water combined with our boat speed had us hanging on to avoid flying overboard (and some pretty scary hair by the end of it)! We still had a beautiful view, as difficult it was to take pictures without our phones flying out of our hands. Pictures truly could not capture how gorgeous our surroundings were – how blue the water was, the way the sun reflected on the water, the enormity of the island as we approached – it was unreal. After arriving to the island and spending some time by the shore, we took an hour long boat tour around the island. I was surprised by how long it took us to get around the island. Most of this ride was fairly calm, but for part of it, the waves were insane! I know that many of us were also hoping to be able to go into the caves, including the Blue Grotto, but unfortunately the water tide was too high. We were still able to go up close and (somewhat) see inside of them during our ride around the island. Our boat tour was followed by a trip by bus up to the top of the mountain, where we would find even more extraordinary views. We walked around for a bit before grabbing lunch. It was great being on the island during the off-season (winter), rather than when most tourists visit (summer). We still had beautiful weather, 60s and sunny. It was the perfect day. On Sunday, we returned back to Rome to fly out early Monday morning. Katie, Katie J., and I paid one last visit to the Trevi Fountain to see it lit up at night and grab some last minute souvenirs. Our alarms were set for 3:00 AM the next morning, which was painfully early! Twenty-three hours of travel later, with a layover in Frankfurt, Germany, we made it home safely! I’ll post one last time in the coming days after I’ve had some time to get rid of this jet lag, look through the hundreds of photos I took, and reflect on these last three life-changing weeks.It’s my first day home, and I am already missing Italy and our entire cohort like crazy. I’ve really been trying to hold it together today!
The past two days especially have left me feeling incredibly thankful, inspired, humbled, emotional… simply euphoric. We had our last day in our classrooms yesterday, and today we said goodbye to the school. Yesterday (Wednesday) was one of those days in the classrooms that left me never wanting to leave Torremaggiore, but also reminded me why I love teaching! I had the opportunity to observe a fourth grade teacher (who is also a published author!) with Dr. Ceprano, Mrs. Tredo, and Katie. It was very helpful having Dr. Ceprano there, as she was able to translate for us what the teacher was teaching and discussing with the students. The teacher also often came over to us to explain her motives for each of her lessons a bit deeper, so we were able to understand and contribute to these conversations as well through Dr. Ceprano. We arrived in the morning after she had just begun a dictation lesson with the students, in which she dictated sounds, words, sentences and phrases in Italian, and the students wrote what they heard. It was essentially a “spelling test” for tricky sounds. Following these dictations, she took time to write each on the board, allowing students to check their own work. She pointed out irregular spelling and sound patterns for the students that are easily missed. I interpret the overall goal of this lesson as an effort to help develop the accuracy of students’ writing and spelling in Italian. Even in the middle of this lesson, I immediately took notice of the pure energy and excitement in the classroom. The students were all consistently engaged – answering questions, participating, focusing on their work – and noticeably enjoying it, too! This teacher has clearly ignited such a love for learning in her classroom that is not always as apparent in the US. The students, in the midst of their excitement, were very talkative and eager to participate, all talking over each other. Being from the US, we are so conditioned to immediately put a stop to this (especially while teaching), as it’s perceived as distracting or rude. This is more than common here – in the classroom or during any conversation. People just naturally talk at the same time, and this simply a cultural difference that took me a bit to realize. Following her dictation lesson, she moved into poetry about winter with the students. They explored different rhyming patterns from different authors (AABB/ABAB), and considered poets’ purposes for writing, such as igniting emotion. She even touched on citing poems when using someone’s work for educational purpose. The teacher gave us some time with the students, and Dr. Ceprano thought this would be the perfect opportunity for one of us to conduct a write aloud with the students. I had already taught a few write alouds this past week, so I let her take the reins! She wrote a short message in English on the board about winter, asking the students to predict the next word as she wrote. The students did a fantastic job – I was so impressed with their levels of English! Katie and I were there to help the students during this, but they did very well on their own. After it was written, we all repeated it as a group, and then only the students. Some students even volunteered to read it all by themselves! We discussed key words and sounds in English, just as their teacher had done previously in Italian. For example, the words “great” and “deal” were both included in a sentence, and we underlined the “ea” in each word to show that the same two letters can make two different sounds. The students requested that we play a game in English, so Katie and I led an activity to practice action words (jump, dance, wave, smile, hug, clap, turn around, etc.). This was completely unplanned and unexpected! We wrote a few new words on the board at a time, teaching each one individually. We’d then simply say the word and ask the students to show us this particular action. Katie and I even acted a few out, and the students had to tell us which action word it was. (Of course, we asked them to raise their hands, but they were so excited that there was a lot of shouting out! Again, it was such a lively, energetic class!) After a round or two of practice, we erased the board, slightly increasing the challenge of remembering the words. The students had a blast jumping around, dancing, laughing, and showing us each of the action words. After we finished, the students wanted our autographs and we took some group pictures. It’s hard to leave when you have students following you out the door saying, “Nooo! Please don’t go!” The two hours that we spent in that classroom were two of the best I’ve ever had in any school. After leaving the classroom, we walked outside into the front courtyard, and some students were out dancing around to music with their friends and teachers as a break from classes. It was a beautiful morning, and they were able to just be kids for a bit and enjoy some time outside of the classroom! Again, when do we ever see this in the US? This is a day I will hold in my heart forever. This morning was our visit to the Municipal Building to meet the mayor before heading over to the school to say goodbye. Yes, we met the mayor! From what I could understand from his Italian and through a teacher’s partial translation, he is very grateful for the connection between our two cities. We thanked him and the others from Torremaggiore that were present for being such wonderful hosts. The students and teachers then once again gathered out in the front courtyard of the school, just as they did on our first day in Torremaggiore. This goodbye to our classes was emotional for all of us. It is terribly difficult to leave such a wonderful, welcoming, organic school. (I have a video of all of the students waving goodbye as we walked outside, but sadly it won't let me upload it. I will try to figure it out and share soon!) Grazie, Torremaggiore. Thank you. Thank you, San Giovanni Bosco Elementary School, for placing us with such incredible mentor teachers, for planning cultural and fun activities for us throughout the week, and for making us all feel so welcome. Thank you, my second and third grade classes, for having so much excitement to learn about Buffalo! Thank you, Signore Grassi, for a wonderful, comfortable stay at B&B Cavour. Thank you, Buffalo-Torremaggiore Association, our professors, our cohort, and everyone we have met in this lovely town. Grazie. I hope to visit again someday, or to see some of you in Buffalo! Off to Pompeii, Sorrento and Capri this weekend, and then back to Rome on Sunday to fly home. Busy weekend ahead of us to wrap up our time in Italy!
As I noted previously, I am working on an additional research project while here in Italy, Reading and Writing Aloud in Classrooms Around the World: IPDS Chile and IPDS Italy. Disclaimer: I’ve been adding to this post little by little over the past week, and updating dates, times and tenses, so it’s a mix of many experiences! Through our research as a part of the IPDS Chile program this past May/June, I have learned how beneficial interactive read alouds are for both the students and the teachers in classrooms around the world – especially in Chile, given the large class sizes. Chilean students demonstrated engagement during our instruction, and Chilean teachers perceived this approach to be beneficial for future use in their classrooms. During this past week at San Giovanni Bosco, I’ve spent time exploring another approach: the write aloud method. I have had the opportunity to observe how students in Italian classrooms respond to write alouds, which demonstrate proficient writing to students, support comprehension and offer practice with sight words and spelling patterns in English. I was also able to interview two teachers about the current approaches they use in their classrooms. I have two main research questions: Are write alouds an effective approach for Italian classrooms? How do read alouds and write alouds together support a balanced literacy program in various class sizes? After Krissy and I finished teaching last Tuesday, while we were observing our teacher, it just so happened that she was doing something very similar to a write aloud! I was excited that both of my research projects were already being supported my first day in the classroom (both music and literacy). I got some great observational notes about what she was writing on the board, the way she spoke, what she was asking the students to do, and their responses to these tasks – all as she taught about the months of the year. For example, she wrote on the board: “I mesi formati da 30 giorni sono: NOVEMBRE – APRILE – GIUGNO – SETTEMBRE” (The 30-day months are: November – April – June – September). The students wrote this in their notebooks, just as she wrote, while softly saying it aloud to themselves. This was repeated several times with different variations (31-day months, the number of months/weeks/days in a year, days in a leap year, etc.). Side note: The teacher used a flip chart with the months of the year as a visual, each broken down by saints’ feast days each day, which I thought was interesting, given this is a public school. It’s much different here than in the U.S., as Italy is a very Roman Catholic based country. It seems that all (or most) students experience religion in schools. San Giovanni Bosco has a religion teacher working in the school as well. I’ve had two opportunities to teach write aloud lessons in English. On Wednesday, we returned to our second grade class, and started off again with music and song. We reviewed the first half of our book with the class and focused on the vocabulary word “snow”. Each student received their own copy of our book on paper, which they were able to write in and eventually take home to keep and continue reading and practicing their English. We guided the students to circle the word “snow” anywhere we saw it in the book, going page by page as a group. I then wrote two sentences from the book on the chalkboard, and left blanks where the word “snow” was located. After the students had these sentences written on their papers, we went back as a group to locate the sentences in the book and find the missing word. Students were more familiar with “snow” and these sentences after hearing me read them, writing them themselves and re-reading the sentences as a group. This entire lesson was difficult with having limited Italian to use. The teacher helped with more complex directions in order for the students to remain on the same page, but I tried to use visuals as much as possible when I gave directions in English (or “Itailglish”!). I think hearing me say the words as I wrote them on the board (and repeated) helped them to correctly write them on their paper. Though many students’ levels of English are less developed, learning to write in English can effectively support their lingual growth. On Friday, we were in a third grade classroom – one that was already familiar with our book, as Angela and Katie had read it to them the day before. After an introduction with music and vocabulary practice, I moved into a write aloud. I used one of the final sentences of the book (“We love to have a winter wonderland in Buffalo!”), and focused on the vocabulary words “winter” and “wonderland”. I know how much the students enjoy drawing, so I had them divide their papers in two (with help with directions in Italian from the teacher!). We wrote the sentence on the bottom together and underlined our vocab words, leaving space on top for a picture later on. I read it the first time as students listened, broke the sentence apart and asked them to repeat, and then we read the whole sentence fluently as a group. After reading the book, emphasizing this page, using the vocabulary cards, and practicing through rewriting the sentence, the students were more familiar with “winter” and “wonderland”, a similar learning pattern from my prior write aloud lesson. I then gave the students some time to draw a picture of how they imagine a winter wonderland – snow, snowmen, trees and houses covered in snow, people dressed in warm clothes – all of which they saw in the book. I was impressed by their pictures! There was some real talent in that classroom for 8 and 9 year olds. It was wonderful to spend time with them. I’m looking forward to gathering all of my observational notes, reflections, photos and feedback from the teachers to begin to further interpret what I’ve learned. I will go through and make comparisons with Chile and explore how reading and writing internationally fits into a traditional balanced literacy program. Write alouds are most effective when used every day, but they have still shown to be an effective tool. I am truly overwhelmed by how much I have learned about teaching writing in the classroom while in Italy, from my professors, mentor teachers, and of course the students – more than I could ever begin to include in a single post!
Yesterday, our group took a trip to a beautiful lake near the coast of Italy in the town of Lesina. It was more or less a day to explore outside of small-town Torremaggiore, but still have a relaxing, enjoyable Sunday. Once arriving, we walked along the side of the lake and out onto the pier to learn a bit of history while we were there. Mario, our tour guide, explained to us that there was an earthquake followed by a tsunami in 1910 in this area, overtaking the town through intense flooding. There is a cross in the middle of the lake in remembrance of all the fishermen that died during the storm. This lake is connected with the Adriatic Sea about a mile from where we were, making for a lake that is part fresh water and part salt water. After taking some time to enjoy the view, we headed over to lunch at the canal where the Adriatic Sea and lake meet. We had a delicious seafood meal (my favorite!) of mussels, shrimp, pasta and sea bass. The pasta and shrimp were mixed in a chickpea sauce that I’d love to figure out how to replicate! We finished up the day by heading over to the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It was too chilly for me to take my shoes off and put my feet in the water, but some more brave souls ran right in. The waves were beautiful. I am so glad we made it over to the coast while in Italy! In and out of the schools we have been visiting, Italy has certainly been treating us very well. Eating four course meal after four course meal, I’m not sure I have felt hungry since we’ve gotten here! The owners of our Bed & Breakfast prepare us fantastic food every day. We’ve had meals including chicken wings and meatballs, all the way to mussels and octopus! Yes, octopus. More on this in a bit. Come to find out, Buffalo and Torremaggiore are sister cities! What are the odds that we’d be spending time in a small town that is generally not a touristy location, yet has a connection to our hometown? There is an association between the two cities that has been existence for about 10 years – originating with a relationship between Liceo Ginnasio Statale School and Hutchinson Central Technical (“Hutch Tech”) High School. The idea of this association is to encourage travel to both countries, and strengthen the interchange initiative to create opportunities for young people (mainly in high school, but college, too). We were lucky enough to have dinner with some people involved in this association the other night (Thursday), which turned out to be a fun time! There were mostly Italian boys and men, ranging from ages 18-25 – many of which have traveled to the U.S. (and Buffalo!) before. We all went out for pizza (I had an amazing veggie pizza with zucchini and olives), and thankfully they all spoke English fairly well! (Side note: When you order pizza, you are served a whole pizza! It’s normal for Italians to finish the entire pizza, but none of us from Buffalo could do it. I have no idea where all this food goes in Italians.) The hope is that we can all keep in touch, remain friends, and get together when traveling to Italy, or when they travel to the U.S. It’s someone to show you around, grab some coffee with, and teach you more about the beautiful country you’re visiting. They’re a wonderful, welcoming group of people! Students who couldn’t make it to the dinner sent along letters of welcome to let us know how excited they were to have us in Torremaggiore, and tell us about their experiences in Buffalo. They were all so sweet! Last night, we visited a wine cellar in San Savero (next town over) for a tour and beautiful dinner. We were able to get an inside look at the process of how their fizzy wine is made. After the tour, we made our way upstairs to a party that was more or less organized just for us – people actually bought tickets to dinner to be able to be in the same room as us! People of Torremaggiore were eager to meet and talk to the Americans. There was a live band, four course dinner (surprised?), and lots of good wine! We were all up in front of the stage dancing by the end of the night. Jess also turned 21 yesterday, and the band called her up on stage to sing to her. She received her own bottle of wine, and a cake all to herself! I am so glad she had such a wonderful birthday in Italy. It was way past our bedtime by the time the night finally ended, but we all had a great time! I think it’s a bit left unsaid, but we are fed very well here! Señor Grassi, the father that owns and runs B & B Cavour, is an excellent cook! We are truly getting a delectable taste of Italy while staying here. And, surprisingly, octopus tastes a lot like ham!
This morning was an incredible, unforgettable opportunity. There is a castle that sits a few hundred feet from our Bed & Breakfast, Castello Ducale (The Ducal Castle). Built over 1000 years ago, it now serves as a museum, public library, art exhibit, and place rich with Italian culture. The amount of history in Italy (all over Europe, really) is astounding compared to how long the United States has been in existence. The U.S. dates back to the early 1700s, whereas here we are hearing stories and seeing building, artifacts, monuments, and art from before Christ walked on Earth. It may seem a bit out of the ordinary to have a castle in the middle of a small town, but Europe harbors an incredible amount of history on every corner. The fifth graders of San Giovanni Bosco gathered in the castle with us for a music session to be led by the Music Education majors. The group of approximately 50 students sat in chairs in a large circle with the Music Ed. students and Dr. Renzoni in the middle, while the rest of our group (Elementary and Exceptional Ed. majors) stood behind the students to support and sing with them. We began with our “Hello” song, and each of us introduced ourselves through song. The idea of this gathering was to help the students practice their English, and have a fun, relaxed time, while teaching about the United States, too. Each time we began a new song, one of the Music Ed. students or Dr. Renzoni would model how it should be sung or how it should sound, and the students were then asked to repeat. Jimmy and Brianna sang the song about Thanksgiving that accompanies the book they wrote for their class, who happen to be fifth grade students. Many of the students were familiar with this song already, as they had learned it in days prior in the classroom. They created a beautiful melody, as the students were divided into three groups and sang in rounds. Following this, Angela and Krissy led “This Land is Your Land” with the students. I was absolutely amazed as the pure talent was shown through each of our Music Ed. students. The Italian students were engaged and enjoying themselves, and did so well with singing in English! There were even a few other songs that did not have lyrics – simply repetitious melodies, beats and sounds, and the entire room remained on the same page. Music is truly a universal language, and can powerfully eliminate language barriers.
Following our lesson, the students got out of their seats and swarmed each of us with papers and pens, asking us for our autographs! They were all running into each other and pushing each other to the side, hoping to have an interaction with us. We all had our superstar moment today! It was phenomenal. The students were so excited that we were there, as we saw on our very first day at the school for our welcome. We may not be famous in the United States, or even in Buffalo, but to the children of small-town Torremaggiore, we’re celebrities! They look up to us as teachers and role models, and I swear there is no better feeling in this world. We truly have a purpose, and these students have shown us this every day we’ve been here. First day of school! First day of school! I woke up this morning with all of the expected emotions for anyone’s first day of school: excitement, nervousness, eagerness… Essentially the same feelings I had prior to taking off on the flight to Rome last week at the start of this journey. We have our overarching journey in Italy, and we have small adventures sprinkled in, specifically our work in the schools and explorations of surrounding areas – creating the memories; the insight; the connections; the sparks of new ideas; the desire to keep learning and trying more. Yesterday was our day to meet everyone at San Giovanni Bosco, but today was truly our first day, in which we were able to get into the classrooms to observe and teach. This is what we came for, after all! We entered the school with an uncertainty of what to expect when we’d enter the classroom. Were we going to just start by observing? Teaching? Would the students understand us? Would the teacher be able to assist with Italian? We knew we just had to go in with an open mind and be as flexible as possible! We had briefly met the teacher and students yesterday, and when we walked into our second grade classroom today, we said “Ciao!”, and she gave us the floor immediately. Krissy and I have had lessons prepared for months now – both music and literacy based. The only tricky part with planning ahead is not knowing the students’ levels of English while writing them. All of our lesson plans, manipulatives, activities and songs are designed to support our research project: Music in the Classroom: A Tool for Second Language Instruction in Torremaggiore, Italy, and our main research question: How does the use of music in the classroom support vocabulary comprehension in ELL instruction? This was our time to just jump right in! Krissy, the Music Education major of our duo, jumped right in with our “Hello!” song we have all had prepared to use on our first day to learn names and begin to incorporate English. I supported her as we began it in English, and then switched to Italian in order for the students to make the language connection. The book that we wrote is entitled, “Buffalo’s Own Winter Wonderland,” in which we described the snow and cold temperatures Buffalo faces every winter (and fall and spring for that matter!). In order to support our research, we used the song “Winter Wonderland” to introduce this vocabulary. Krissy did such a beautiful job with getting the students up and moving and modeling “walking” (walking in place) in a winter wonderland. She later changed these up to do “running” and “jumping” to teach other action words in English. After a few rounds of singing, I introduced our book as much as I could with the Italian/Spanish that I know. Spanish and Italian are similar enough that I can speak in Spanish, and the teacher then tweaks it slightly to Italian so the students can best understand. Many phrases and words between the two languages are so similar that they’re able to be mostly understood through using one or the other, which is really convenient considering I don’t know much Italian! The students’ levels of English are quite limited, so figuring out how to communicate with them is certainly a challenge! Music is a wonderful tool for this, especially when it’s movement-based. I read our story to the class in English along with the classroom teacher, who read the Italian and further described details to support the students’ comprehension. There are certain vocabulary words that the book focuses on, such as “snow,” “winter,” “wonderland,” “cold,” “snowball,” etc. I used the vocabulary cards I prepared in advance, which have the Italian and a photo/visual, most of which were also used in the book. I held them up with the English word attached as I approached each word in the book. I repeated the Italian-English translation, and asked the students to repeat. The students were also more familiar with “winter” and “wonderland” after singing the song prior to reading, which strongly supports our research. Krissy ended with another song, getting the children up and moving again! I thought our first day went very well overall! We spent another hour or so observing the teacher. I'm also working on another research project for the NAPDS Conference in March, which focuses on extending my research from my past IPDS experience in Chile, but more on that later this week. :)
It feels so wonderful to know how excited the students are to have us in their classrooms with them. It makes this entire experience so much more enjoyable! I'm eager to find out what I'll learn this week. We’ve arrived in Torremaggiore! It seems that Italy does not get much more small-town and authentic than this. Approximately four hours outside of Rome, it’s a nice little town with cafes, shops, markets and schools. English is certainly not spoken here as widely as in Rome. Our bus ride from the city was fairly long, but it provided beautiful scenery along the way – mountains, grapevines, olive trees, etc. The town looked a bit deserted when we drove through yesterday, but this was because it was Sunday during a time of siesta (2-5 PM), and everyone was resting. There is a town-wide siesta every afternoon, in which everything is closed. It is a quiet time for people to enjoy lunch in their homes as a family and rest. The Epiphany was also on Saturday, so a long holiday weekend made for a quiet afternoon. We were immediately warmly welcomed at our Bed & Breakfast. B&B Cavour is adorable! There are four or five rooms in total, each very spacious. It is run by a father and daughter, who are so sweet, hospitable and accommodating. The daughter, Paula, speaks English fluently, which is helpful! They cooked us an authentic, delicious dinner last night, which we enjoyed as a group in the meal room. There were four courses, starting with some olives and cheese, ending with fruit for dessert. The second course was a tasty soup with little tortellini filled with sausage and cheese, followed by a third course of fresh mozzarella and sliced tomato drizzled with olive oil. It took us an hour and a half to eat dinner! Everything was wonderful. I haven’t caught the father’s name yet, but we all clapped for him last night after dinner. We all felt so immersed into the culture of Italy already with this meal together. It’s certainly a lot better than street food in Rome! Rome really is quite touristy-based, but Torremaggiore is giving us a real taste of Italy. We walked around last night to get a sense of the town and learn the way to the school. The streets were lit up with decorative twinkling lights, which I am not sure was from the Epiphany, or if they’re always up. A band was playing in the square, surrounded by people from the town. The atmosphere is incredibly authentic. Speaking of welcoming, today was our first day meeting administrators, teachers, and students in our school, San Giovanni Bosco. We weren’t sure what to expect, but the actual reality of today was certainly not nearly in the realm of what we could imagine. The school hung a large, colorful “BENVENUTI” (Welcome) banner in the gateway to the school. Students, faculty, parents, and even residents of Torremaggiore filled the front courtyard of the school to welcome our group from the U.S. Parents were taking pictures and videos of us, as if we were super stars! It was unbelievable! There was music playing, and students had red, white, and blue pompoms, U.S. flags, banners, balloons, and pins. They played the Star Spangled Banner for us on the speaker, followed by their national anthem. The energy and excitement from the students especially was overwhelming. We’re just a group of college students coming into their school to teach English and learn about Italian education, so we were of course all blown away and humbled by this welcome. We received a tour of the school and we were shown our classrooms, where we will begin tomorrow. We will spend this week in the school in the mornings from about 9-11:30, and the school has also planned activities for us almost every afternoon, including a welcome lunch tomorrow, guided tours of the town’s castle and old town churches on Thursday and Friday, and even attending a theatrical performance by the high school students next week! I am looking forward to what this week with our students will bring. We will have a better sense tomorrow of what we will likely be able to accomplish in the classrooms as far as what we have prepared, mostly based on their levels of English. At the very least, we’ll be able to read our book that we wrote for them, and teach them a small portion of “Walking in a Winter Wonderland” to complement our story. It will be very “go with the flow” this week it seems, which is okay! We are just as excited to be here as they are to have us! I am looking forward to what I will learn and be able to bring back home with me.
More updates soon! Ciao for now! Ciao from Rome! We’ve spent our first few days in Italy roaming around Rome (pun intended), and exploring all that this beautiful city has to offer. Our flight landed around 9:30 am on Thursday (which really felt like 3:30 am for us), and after only a few short, inconsistent hours of sleep on the plane, we went right out into the city! We checked into our hotel, changed our clothes, washed our faces, and got right to it! The goal was to not lose a day, as well as to adjust our bodies to the new time zone. A few of us headed straight for the Trevi Fountain. The last few days has showed me how absolutely unreal it is to see any of the famous historical sites in person. Looking at pictures in textbooks and seeing them in movies is one thing, but actually standing before them is hard to wrap my head around. We had our Lizzie McGuire moment at the Trevi Fountain, and each made a wish before moving on to grab some gelato. Real, authentic Italian gelato is incredible. I chose salted caramel, and I was drooling (not literally, but it was so delicious). The Spanish Steps were next on our list! We walked up and spent a little time in the church at the top. On our way back to the hotel, we stopped to the Basilica of St. Mary of the Angels and Martyrs. The churches in Italy are beyond beautiful. We ended Thursday night with a group dinner right around the corner from the hotel. It felt so nice to get into bed after! After a long day prior of traveling, barely getting any sleep on the flight, and a packed day of exploring, it has never felt so good to lie down! Yesterday (Friday) was by far my favorite day so far! We started the day bright and early and headed straight for Vatican City. We each bought a two-day ticket for the hop on/hop off bus, and it turned out to be a great decision! It’s been a super convenient mode of transportation around the city. Many places were closing a little earlier than normal due to the Epiphany being today, the 6th, so we started with the Sistine Chapel. Luckily, we were able to buy tickets ahead of time and skip the line. The complete tour takes you through a long corridor filled with paintings and historical maps and sculptures related to the history of the chapel, Rome, and Vatican City. We finally made it into the Sistine Chapel, and were all absolutely in awe. It was purely overwhelming. I couldn’t believe how detailed the paintings and stories on the ceiling and walls were – all done by Michaelangelo. Well, mostly. Michaelangelo only completed the entire ceiling and wall of The Final Judgement. It was unlike anything I’ve ever seen before (similar to most things on this trip!), and we weren’t able to take pictures, allowing us to completely take it all in. Our necks were sore from looking up so high at the ceiling and high walls for so long, but it was incredible. It was impossible to take notice of every single story told within the walls of the chapel. A trip to Vatican City is not complete without actually going into St. Peter’s Basilica! The line to get inside wrapped around the entire city (probably about a half of a mile), and yes, we waited. It only ended up being a little under two hours, but it was so worth it! The church was beautiful. The children’s choir was practicing for the Epiphany mass when we walked in – another special additive to an already amazing experience. I just cannot reiterate enough how spectacular everything is in Rome. Our day ended with dinner and some wine, complete with a view of the Colosseum right outside the window! Today (Saturday) was devoted to returning to the Colosseum to go inside and learn a little history along the way! We had an awesome tour guide. The Colosseum was built from 72 – 79 AD, and was actively in use until the mid-500’s. Once the final show concluded, people continued for years, probably centuries after, taking marble, stone, statues and other structures and materials from the Colosseum to use for other buildings. It was thought that the Colosseum had no use anymore, and was therefore continued to be destroyed and stripped of its valuables. This is evident immediately upon going inside, or even looking at certain areas on the outside. Still incredible!
After three long days of nonstop exploring, we are preparing to pack up and head to Torremaggiore tomorrow morning! It has been a lot of fun being tourists in Rome, but I’m looking forward to getting into an authentic small town and begin what we came to do: teach! I am excited for this change of pace and these new experiences that are yet to come!
You’ve been wonderful, Roma. Now onward and upward! |
AuthorCiao! Mi chiamo Christine. I'm a Junior in the Exceptional Education program, and I enjoy traveling, reading, and spending my summers as a camp counselor. I have been continuously inspired to be a teacher for as long as I can remember. ArchivesCategories |