I have officially started my teaching duties in L’Aquila. On Wednesday mornings I take the 6:45 coach bus from Rome to L’Aquila and I start teaching at 9:15. When I saw L’Aquila for the first time I was surprised at how much it reminded me of Upstate New York; I think the landscape looks very similar.
On Wednesdays I teach in a professional school. It is a vocational high school where students train to become chefs, waiters, bartenders, and work in hotel services. Teaching at this school will definitely be more challenging because they have an extremely low level of English skills and they are a lot more rambunctious. Nevertheless it will still be a great experience, and they are good kids. I spend Wednesday nights in a hotel, and on Thursdays I teach at a liceo classico (classical high school). The students at the liceo classico are more similar to my students in Rome. The students from all three of the schools have been so welcoming and are so exited to have me here as their teacher. They think it’s the coolest thing that I’m from New York, because when they think of New York they immediately envision Manhattan and everything they see on TV. I thoroughly enjoy working with the students from each of the three schools.
Cultural Notes: 1. L’Aquila is the capital of the central region of Abruzzo. In April of 2009 there was a horrible earthquake, which killed about 308 people. The city is still under complete reconstruction, and many buildings are not even visible behind the scaffolding. The entire medieval city center had been destroyed, and the liceo classico that I currently teach at was originally in the city center. Now all of the students and teachers moved to a school on the outskirts of the city.
2. There is no loud speaker in each classroom like there is in American classrooms. When an announcement has to be made, there is a woman that goes to each class and reads the announcement from a piece of paper; they call it la circolare. It took me by surprise when I saw this for the first time in Rome. It is so old school.
3. The majority of teachers call their students by their last names.
Highlights of My Week: 1. In Rome I met up with one of my Stony Brook professors who was here for a few days. It was so great to catch up with her and share a few of my experiences. In 2010 after she had observed one of my student teaching lessons, I remember she gave me advice on how to go about moving to Italy…and now, here I am. She is part of the reason why I am even here because she had written one of my Fulbright letters of recommendation…ti ringrazio professoressa!
2. After one of the lessons at the scuola professionale (the professional school in L’Aquila), a student puts a white plastic bag on his desk and whips out a bunch of linked sausages. The students gather around and start eating it and making sandwiches with it. It was so funny! I went over to take a picture of this scene because I found it hysterical, and they gave me a piece to try. I saw all of their anxious faces staring at me waiting for a response. It was delicious, and it made them happy to hear me say so.
3. At the scuola professionale one of my students called me over when I had the class doing a speaking activity in pairs. I was expecting him to ask me how to say a certain word in English, but instead he looks down at his notebook and says, “would you like to come and dine with us at a restaurant one night?” It was so sweet because it was a sentence that his teacher obviously translated for him, and when I gazed up some of the other students were smiling, nodding their heads in agreement as if it had been planned out. I told them that I would love to go out all together, so the class is organizing a little dinner.
Impara con me! nevischio- It’s flurrying (snow)
