Connor
Undergraduate
English Education |
Connor
Undergraduate
English Education |
This week was getting situated at the International School of Siena and getting to meet my mentor teachers and the school community itself. The school holds kids from Pre-K to Grade 13 (18-19 year olds), with relatively small classes. I'm primarily working with Grade 12 and 13 at the moment, and those graduating classes are about 14 and 8 students, respectively.
(As a sidenote; my graduating class in Orchard Park was almost 400. I don't think 400 students could fit in the whole school at one time). My mentor teacher, Kate Van Forst, has a background in English education , having worked many years in New Hampshire and then around Italy in Florence and Rome. So it's nice to have some sort of commonality, as she's done the International Baccalaureate Program before. From the International Baccalaureate Organization website: An IB education aims to transform students and schools as they learn, through dynamic cycles of inquiry, action and reflection. Teachers enable and support students as they develop the approaches to learning they need – for both academic and personal success. Education in International Baccalaureate® (IB) World Schools:
She also teaches a class called the Theory of Knowledge, which is a philosophically based class on who we receive and retain knowledge; the students are doing a unit on ethics and morals in this class. I don't quite know what I'm teaching yet, but I'm excited on that front. They also have me part time with the Social Studies students when I'm not with Kate, so I go to work with the Grade 12 students in that! The students were doing small class presentations on different aspects of the Weimar Republic, so I got to help one student with getting the information since she was on her own. Fingers crossed I get more opportunities like that! Every day so far has been very exhausting (8:30a to 4p school days), but I'm sure with getting my tolerance up for the days, the fatigue will eventually settle and it'll be over before I can notice. Not many pictures this week, but I have gotten to enjoy Italian Cola, so I would share that if anything (I think they like to make assumptions with me being an American because they always give me ice and a lemon. I'm not complaining, but still). I also got to see Young Frankenstein in totally Italian, which was not weird, but definitely not what I was expecting. At least slapstick knows no language barrier.
1 Comment
Dr. Budin
4/19/2023 06:11:43 pm
Connor, I am so impressed with all that you are doing and seeing. What a great experience. Thank you for sharing on your blog. Keep up the amazing work.
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AuthorHello! My name is Connor and I am thrilled to be on this journey of teaching. I'm from Buffalo, born and raised, and am starting this experience as an English Education major. Looking forward to meeting my students and seeing all that Siena has to offer for the next few months! Archives
May 2023
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