Eve
Graduate
Elementary Education |
Eve
Graduate
Elementary Education |
Avvenutra numero uno: Jill and Eve vanno a MontalcinoOn Saturday, March 19 we went to Montalcino. Fun fact: the bus schedule online in Italy does not always match the schedule at the bus stop. The bus might not actually stop where it is said to stop online. The bus number might not be listed at the bus stop, but the destination will be. One may rely on the kindness of locals to navigate the intricacies of the Italian bus schedule. Now, I recall facing travel obstacle courses in Italy in the past, but it has been a while and I thought that maybe, just maybe, it would be simpler this time around. Not so, not so. Jill and I left our apartments early in the morning only to miss the bus and spend 90 minutes camped out at a pasticceria. I ordered a croissant with about half a jar of Nutella stuffed inside it along with a cappuccino. Overtired and packed with sugar, we made some travel plans for the Easter break and then huffed it back to the fermata (bus stop) that listed a bus to Montalcino at 10:22AM. We only knew about this bus stop because a man, cooly smoking a cig against a stone wall, turned to us and asked "Dové via?" and proceeded to point us in the right direction. Thank you, kind sir. #chillvibes. Fast forward to Montalcino. The airbnb is comfortable, clean, and has a phenomenal view of the countryside. My goal is to make it to this business called Pura Crocus. It's a very fine saffron production business. I happened to meet a friend of a friend who highly recommended we meet with Massimo, the owner. We walked to Pura Crocus only to find out it was closed; they are out to eat, says the elderly man farming land next door. Come back in an hour, he says. So, we do. Gates are still closed. Wait. An older couple arrives, opens the gates, and exclaims that they, too, wonder about the location of Massimo. The man apologizes to me. No worries! We begin to meander back to the city and after 10 minutes we hear beep beep. A car pulls up. It is Massimo! He says "Eve?" and gestures to get in. Now before you say "Wait, wait, you are getting into the car?" Yes. Like I said, Massimo is a friend of a good friend! And this is how I travel. I meet people, I take recommendations, I go for it. Thanks, Jill, for being such a fun travel companion! Off we go to Pura Crocus where Massimo gives us a tour of the business, tastes of the products like saffron with honey, a bit of saffron beer, and we learn about the growing and harvesting process. Fascinating! His farm is on a UNESCO site in Montalcino. Massimo is incredibly proud of his business. His body language and voice expressed joy for the work. Oh, and the older couple that showed up earlier? They were in one of the marketing videos hand picking the stigmas from the flowers. It was a unique experience and I'm glad we latched on to it. Massimo also recommended a fantastic restaurant where we sampled a variety of local wine and dined on classic Tuscan cuisine. Grazie, Massimo! Aventurra numero due - La prima settimana di scuolaLast week on Tuesday (day 2 in school) I hit the ground running after the PYP coordinator, Mr. Gilbert asked if I had a lesson ready since my mentor teacher was out sick and was being covered by a substitute teacher. Well, by golly, I did! In fact I had four. The week prior Mr. Warner, my mentor teacher, asked me to put together a few language lessons. I decided on spoken word poetry for a few reasons: 1) it would fast track my getting to know the students since poetry is expressive and collaborative 2) I was interested in immediately applying arts integration and Universal Design for Learning in my lessons, and 3) spoken word is popular in the USA, so it’s a great opportunity for a little cross-cultural exchange. I chose Tamara’s Opus by Joshua Bennett. A fabulous piece where the poet expresses his sincerest apology for waiting so long to learn sign language in order to communicate with his sister, Tamara. His performance is beautiful. Over the course of four lessons students identified poetic devices, analyzed tone through voice, movement, and visual aids, voted on poetic devices to use in their poems, and chose topics they were most passionate about in that moment. My goals were 1) get to know my new students through writing and performing poetry 2) introduce different modalities to explore poetic devices and tone 3) afford the opportunity for students to perform and critique their work. The last goal ties to their upcoming 6th grade International Baccalaureate PYP independent project where they will be publicly presenting their work, therefore, they need public speaking practice. I enjoyed this mini-unit tremendously. Through spoken word I learned that my students are funny, conscientious, risk takers. Ever hear a poem about stoat? Well, I have, and I nearly cried laughing. Are you wondering if I taught these lessons before? I haven't. I love poetry and knew that students needed to practice speaking in performance mode, and so I chose spoken word. They chose whatever they wanted to write about as long as they wrote at least 10 lines of poetry with five poetic devices, specified an intention, and used tone to deliver that intention. Many chose to use movement to express poetic devices and amplify vocal choices. One student decided to write a poem based on his PYP project topic, space! To critique, students peer reviewed each other using a glows and grows checklist, and then we all provided glows and grows after final performances. Overall, it was an outstanding first week. Today, I kicked off a book study for Akata Witch by Nigerian-American author Nnedi Okorafor. After reading the prologue aloud, building one character map, and engaging in a group discussion, I asked the students to give truthful feedback about the book choice: thumbs up, sideways, or down. Most showed thumbs up, or nearly all the way up! [Breathes sigh of relief] At the end of this week I will provide a reflection on what we accomplished. Lettere dei Burattini (Letters from the Puppets)Come stanno tutti? (How is everyone?) We are sorry we have not been able to write as much as we want! Ms. Everette has been busy planning and preparing for school so we haven’t been able to use the computer. Poindexter usually types because my flippers barely reach the keyboard, and when they do, the typing looks like this oiwjhetipunq i2j4ht oijoipjwejk n ranw. So, I talk and Poindexter types! Next week is drop everything and read week at school. Students and teachers stop and read at the same time each day for about 10 minutes. We will participate in a dress up day where we get to dress up as characters in a book! Ms. Everette is very excited to dress up, and we all hope to visit a first grade class to do a read aloud. Here are some photos of us in Siena, Italy. It is a medieval city that became rich and powerful between the 13th and 15th centuries. That was about 800 years ago! The tall tower is called the Torre del Mangia, and the area where all the people are standing is called the Piazza del Campo. In the summer there is a famous horse race called the Palio. Horses from each neighborhood in Siena race to win! The neighborhoods are called contradas in Italian. Every contrada has a special symbol. There is even a dragon contrada! Il drago! Unfortunately, there is no manatee contrada. In 2019, a horse won the race without the rider! [LINK] Un abbraccio! (hug!) Manny and Poindexter
4 Comments
Shannon Budin
4/2/2022 04:12:55 pm
You are a brave and adventurous woman! You sound like a world traveler too-- remind me to be like you when I grow up!
Reply
Nancy
4/3/2022 08:34:02 pm
I'm so glad that you and Jillian had that experience with Massimo. You have sparked my interest in another trip to Italy.
Reply
Tamara
4/4/2022 08:21:27 pm
What a great lesson! And I approve of your poem choice :)
Reply
Jill Gradwell
4/12/2022 03:34:21 am
Eve,
Reply
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorEve is a palindrome. She started out as a theatre artist, and now she is a combination theatre artist-teacher. She is grateful for the opportunity to finish her degree while studying abroad in Siena, Italy. It is her second time studying in Siena. Eve enjoys long meandering walks, daydreaming, creating new projects, and chilling with her husband, Dave. Archives
May 2022
Categories |