Classroom Experience

Ok, so the main reason for this study abroad program is so that I can participate in a school and gain a broader mindset about education. My first couple of days in the classroom were not so great (but it has definitely improved since then!). I walked into the school right on time, into a crowd of students and everyone staring at me. One of the teachers grabbed me and asked something along the lines of "Are you the American?" in Italian, as soon as I said yes, I had teacher surrounding me. I was finally introduced to the school psychologist, Cristina, who speaks English very well and helped me get situated in a class. I introduced myself in Italian then English then the students went around introducing themselves to me in English. After that, I sat in the corner of the room and tried to look attentive as I fought dozing off. The second day was very similar, minus the introductions, until the end of the day. A woman, who I assume is the support teacher for a student with disabilities, had me come with her and the student to the computer lab as the rest of the class did book work. We struggled conversation, since she speaks no English and was frustrated with my lack of Italian vocabulary, then I pulled up Google Translate. With this tool, I was able to tell her that I am there in the school as a teaching tool for them, I want to be useful, I want to help. The very next day, Cristina came up to me and told me that I will be doing my lesson the next week, and will be needed a day or two in the fourth grade English classroom sometime during my stay.

My third day in class was an all day field trip to a theme park in Rimini, Italy in Miniature. It was a really great trip because it gave me the opportunity to get to know the fifth grade teachers and some of the students better. I was also able to watch the students behavior on the trip and compare it to their behavior in the classroom, and that of American students on field trips. The students here were very excited, but well behaved. They listened to their teachers, almost more so than they regularly do in class, and all stayed together. I saw no discipline problems throughout the day, even the teachers seemed a little less worried about the students behavior.

Back in school-- my lesson went great with both classes, 5A and 5B. I wrote some English and Italian phrases on the board and told the students that they were to say these phrases only in English when speaking to me, for practice. The phrases included good morning, please, thank you, I don't understand, please repeat, etc. When I was teaching or explaining the directions for the activities, I spoke slowly and used my hands to help explain things as best I could. Most of the students seemed to understand what I was saying for the most part, but just to make sure Cristina or the English teacher, Salvatore, repeated what I said in Italian. First I explained Independence Day then Thanksgiving Day. I spoke about the history of the holiday, the traditions and the food that we typically eat. After explaining each holiday, I had the students compare and contrast the American holiday to a similar Italian holiday by writing a few sentences in Italian and drawing a picture. Next, I had to students get in groups to create their own holiday. They had to come up with a name, history, the traditions and the traditional food for the new holiday, and write it all in English. The students loved this assignment! They were all so creative and I could tell that the students enjoyed being creative and goofy for a while. Finally, the students were able to get a little crafty with my last two activities. They had to do little paint pictures of fireworks using straws (original plan was for them to blow the paint to look like fireworks, turns out blowing paint creates fat paint blobs, so they just used the straws like paint brushes..) and make the hand turkeys that every child who ever participated in an elementary class in America has made at least once. They loved it! It was hard for me to imagine, but most of the students (possibly all of them) and many of the teachers had never seen a real turkey, so they had no clue how to make their hand turkey look like one! While I was astonished, the teachers seemed a little creeped out that American children make cute little pictures of the main dish for Thanksgiving dinner. haha...

I have participated in so much, this post could go forever, but I think I should end here for now...