End of School

School has ended which means Summer has started! 

It has been a wonderful academic year. I started working for a new school in the fall as the native language English assistant. I had the opportunity to work with the elementary school, middle school, and high school. Working across the board on all ages definitely kept things interesting and I got to see what age groups I really enjoy working with the most. 

Every grade as their ups and downs but in the end I have to say high school was my favorite age group to work with. Working with the elementary school was a blast and the kids are so adorable. They love you for really no reason at all. They come up to you with big hugs, little presents, and lots of drawings they've made you. However if I were to work them all day, every day, I think I would go crazy because they are so little and need direction and help in everything they do. The teacher I worked with is amazing with the kids and she definitely deserves a lot of credit for her work. 

As almost everyone knows middle school is a rough age group to work with. I had never really worked directly with middle school kids before and I had heard people say that it's difficult. This year I had a taste of what it's really like and what everyone says is true. These kids think they're older than they are, but don't want to take responsibility for anything, and are too cool to be smart. Many lessons felt like pulling teeth. All teachers who choose to work in the middle school must be saints. 

In Italy high school lasts 5 years, not 4 like in the States. So what would be our 9th, 10th, and 11th grade still need quite a push and some encouragement to get them to study, do their homework, and really care about their work. But the students in their last two years are almost adults and so when teaching you can go more in-depth, expect good results, and joke with them. 

For the last day of school, the whole school (around 500 students) walked up San Luca to the Sanctuary of the Madonna di San Luca. The church is located up on one the Bolognese hills and you walk up 666 porticoes to reach the top. As we were walking, one of my students told me that the porticoes are like a snake and the sanctuary at the top crushes the snake's head.

Now that school is out and the weather is nice, Luca and I are able to spend our weekends at the beach in Castiglioncello. We've been enjoying lying out in the sun, relaxing, and reading. Let the summer roll on! 

Tid Bits #1

The weeks are flying by- I can't believe it's pretty much the end of February! 

With time passing, spring is approaching. It feels pretty much already late March here with the highs in 50's and sometimes even the 60s! As strange at it feels, I can't complain about this warmer weather. On Mondays I have to leave early in the morning to get to work on time to teach at 8:00 am. Last week I think I caught one of the last mornings with the town lights still lit in the morning- It was a beautiful eery scene so I couldn't help but take a picture of the main square in Castel San Pietro. 

Speaking of work. On Fridays I take the same back bus to Bologna as one of the students in 7th grade. She enjoys talking to me, so we sit next to each other on the bus and I listen to all her stories about school and studying and getting bad grades. Yesterday she asked me if I get to go home every few weekends. And our conversation when a little like this: 

Me:  "You mean if I go back to the United States every few weekends?" 

Her: "Yeah, don't you visit your family?" 

Me: "I can't go back for the weekends- it's far away and expensive" 

Her: " Well, then when do you see your family?" 

Me: "I go back once a year. Either for Christmas or during the summer" 

Her: " You celebrate Christmas in the United Sates?" 

I also had a moment of great satisfaction when I went to do a private lesson with another student who is in middle school. The week before his mother told me he just got his report card for the term and his grades were below average. He had an English test that week and wanted to make sure he was well prepared. So of course I helped him prepare for his test and when I went back this week and asked how it went.... he got an A+ ! 

Our puppy, Macchia, is slowly becoming more adventurous around the house. We took her to Poggibonsi so she could spend some time with another dog, Zorro. Unfortunately Zorro didn't want to have anything to do with a new puppy in his territory. 

Macchia is so funny. She has quite a character. We think she spent some time with cats in her first few months because often she seems more like a cat than a dog! 

Of course last Friday was Valentines Day. Valentines Day isn't very big in Italy compared to the United States, but Luca knows that it's somewhat important to me, probably because it's always been a recognized day for me. He got me a bouquet of Ranunculus which are one of my favorite flowers and prepared a three course meal along with a bottle of Rioja! 

An English Teacher

It's been a year and half now that I've been teaching English as a foreign language. About two years ago I thought that I would want to be a teacher and considered looking into a Master's Program and the University of Minnesota. So I volunteered at an Italian middle school, and after two lessons I decided this was definitely not the job for me. Ironically only a year later I was back in Italy taking the TEFL course to get my certification to teach English. 

My first 6 months of teaching, were at a very small school with about 5 teachers, run by a guy in his 30's. The majority of my classes were conversation groups and I had only a few classes focused on grammar. It wasn't very serious, and my position didn't require any preparation. However I probably should've prepared and studied more, because despite being a native English speaker, it doesn't mean you know everything about your language. For example, one day I told my class there is absolutely no difference between using will or be going to for the future. Only later to find out that there is actually a big difference. 

Will  is used for predictions, promises, or decisions made in the moment. Be going to is used when something is already planned, organized, on your calendar. For example: The phone is ringing and your mom says " someone answer the phone!" and you say " Ok! I'll do it!" -- a decision made in that moment. Or: your friend invites you out for drinks tomorrow evening and you say " I'm sorry, I can't, I'm going to the cinema with my boyfriend" It's already been planned.  So having said there was no difference many of students were very confused and thought they had been taught a lie in every other English class, only later to probably find out that I was a terrible teacher who didn't know her material. 

I have learned however, that even if you really don't know the answer, as a teacher you can never say " I don't know" As soon as you say you don't know, you lose any trust with your students and they will question everything you say. So you must be convincing and sure of what you say. Which for me is difficult because I'm a big blusher. And as soon as I don't know something I blush, and I give myself away. 

So my first 6 months was an important learning period for me and I grew a lot as an English teacher. It was good to start at a school that wasn't very serious, with a few classes, to get my foot in the door, make mistakes, learn from them, and gain experience. 

However, come Autumn, it was time to find a teaching position at a better school that would offer me more hours, and pay better. So I went around to different schools and quickly found a new position at a much larger school that has been around for over 30 years. 

I began to teach children as well as adults, and was working all different levels. It was a good balance to work with all ages. The atmosphere was very different from the previous school, and I now had to prepare the majority of my lessons from scratch. Having to prepare lessons for various levels made me feel more confident and when students asked questions not related to the topic we were discussing I was able to answer them.

Teaching is great when you've taught a lesson and you know it went well. Your students understood you, they were interested, engaged, it was light hearted and they laughed. Or teaching can be really stressful and frustrating when you've prepared a lesson and you teach it and everyone leaves with a blank stare on their face and a headache. So you approach the topic at a different angle and they still don't get it. Then you question whether or not your'e a good teacher, you ask yourself what you're doing wrong, and you get disheartened. 

These past 15 months have been a huge learning curve, and I'm hoping that as I approach my 2nd year of teaching that I can only improve as a teacher and keep on improving. But in the meantime I can say that it has definitely been a challenging, exciting work experience.