MaritaUndergraduate
Exceptional Education |
MaritaUndergraduate
Exceptional Education |
My last week at ISS! Grant and Connor had their last day Wednesday and my last day was Friday. It has been a unforgettable wild ride. On Wednesday we had Sports Day. Now, I am one who loves any kind of sports day, field day, etc. I had been hyping up the sports day for weeks now and the day finally came. Unfortunately, the weather moved the event indoors. My mentor teacher and I came ready to participate but we were the only ones who came in decent footwear. We were hoping to participate in the teacher event at the end but the number of underprepared teachers significantly outweighed the number of prepared teachers. Absolute bummer. I luckily had the run against hunger event on Friday to look forward to. On Friday, we had a whole school run. The run was called “Corsa Contro la Fame”, the race against hunger. All grades participated in one of three different courses. There was a short course intended for the early years, a medium course intended for the primary years, and a long course intended for the big kids. Of course, you could choose which course best suited you. Everyone in Grade 4 except one did the medium course. One student challenged himself to do the long course. I ran with one of the grade fours the whole time and we cheered everyone on as they ran past us. By the end of the run we had a group of four or five fourth graders finishing together. We all high fived each other and drank a lot of water. The one student in the long course had 5 more minutes of running left so we all stood at the end of the course to cheer him on as he was finishing. At the end all the kids surrounded him and were telling how great he was. They are such supportive classmates. We had a lot of fun doing the run and supporting each other. As a final goodbye gift for the students I made them bird nests and paper cranes. I made a nest from paper and foil cups, filled them with chocolates, topped the nests off with two paper cranes and a note from the cranes. Symbolically the nest represents the classroom and the cranes represent me and the student. We have been growing together, me as a teacher and them as a student, and we are going to fly off on our own and do our own amazing things. The kids really liked the cranes. I called them up one at a time to get their note and nest and each student gave me a hug after I handed them the nests. On Wednesday evening, after having a goodbye aperitivo with Grant and Connor, I went home to a dinner party made for me. My host mother had invited every person I had made a connection with in my two months here to this dinner. I had no idea it was going to be so big. She mentioned having a few people over like she does every Wednesday. I thought it was just going to be the regular two or three extra people. I never knew who was coming through the door next. My host mother and brother had gathered some of my favorite people all together to celebrate my time with them. My host brother invited three of his many friends who I had made a connection with. One of the gentlemen I had met in my time here has a wife who is a pastry chef and she had made vegan desserts for our party. Then My host mother's boyfriend and another woman at the table served different types of limoncello they had made from scratch. They ended the night with intensely precious gifts. I admittedly had a small moment where I shed a few tears. It was an incredible evening. Meow even got a big piece of meat for dinner! When no one was looking she stole a big slice of deli meat someone had on their plate. She ate the slice in record time.
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Week overview... This week the students had an end of unit math assessment on the money unit. On Tuesday, we did a whole class of all the math concepts they would see on the test. I took the questions from the test and used different numbers to make the review. There are a few students who are often very distracted by each other and do not pay attention in lessons. As a result they do not know the information and ask for help on problems we did in class or ask questions I had already given the answer to. I gave the whole class a warning that if they did not pay attention to the review they would not be successful. Disregarding my warning the same students were chatting during the review. I gave these students a second warning and as a result one of the students refocused herself. The other two continued to be distracted so I separated their desks. The review was very important for them to do well on the test so I put a lot of effort into keeping them focused where during an average lesson I would not have taken so many steps to keep these students on track. During the review, as we finished a problem I asked the students to give me a thumbs up or thumbs down to show they understand the concept. I received thumbs up for almost all the review questions except for one of the very last multi step problems. We did a second problem similar to the original. After a second example, I received thumbs up from all students. On Wednesday the students took the test. The class has an issue with cheating. My mentor teacher gave a warning before passing out the test to not cheat. The students who have trouble focusing also have an issue with cheating. They often look at the person next to them and copy the answers. When grading the math tests my mentor teacher and I noticed certain students did exceptionally well on the test but struggled all unit. These students had the correct answer for all the questions but showed no work to prove they were the ones that got to the answer. My mentor teacher pulled these students aside and gave them a talking to. On Thursday, my host mother visited my classroom to do an acting workshop with the students. Both the fourth and third graders are doing units of inquiry that involve acting. My host mother is an actress and she teaches acting. She did a fun workshop with the kids where they learned about what it takes to be an actor and did some acting games. The students had a great time and wanted her to come back to do more workshops. I made a card and had the kids sign it for my host mom. It was a great class visit. On Friday, we had our weekly assembly. My class performed a play they have been working on in Drama class. One student was not in for the end of the week with a family issue so we were down a cast member. The kids reminded me that I am a STUDENT teacher therefore I am the best option to step in as Peggy the Dancing Unicorn. The students thought it was so funny I played Peggy. A few of the girls helped me find a fluffy sparkly skirt to wear. The performance was a hit with the entire PYP. Thoughts through out the week... I have been considering how I can be a better teacher, especially when it comes to teaching reading and writing. I am a big believer in the science of reading and focusing on phonics to learn how to read and write. I have taken it upon myself to teach myself how to read and write in Italian using the science of reading. This will likely have to be a summer project and I do not think I will be able to get past a kindergarten reading level teaching myself but I think this will help me understand the process of learning phonics better. I understand at a surface level the process of learning to read and the reasoning behind teaching reading in a particular way but I have never experienced this learning process. With more personal experience with this idea of the science of reading I will hopefully be a better teacher. I had a breakthrough with two students this week. There are two boys who sit next to each other and are by all means, perfect students. They are well behaved, they do all their work, they almost never need help or reminders. They are really good kids, but because of this, they often go unnoticed and I often forget they are there. I can always count on them to give the correct answer in math or work peacefully in a group, but I have no deeper relationship with these students. The one student, we will call him J, is more outgoing and likes to talk so I have a bit of a deeper relationship with him besides calling on him in class. The other student, we’ll call him V, is more quiet and is not as willing to speak up in class or in group settings. I had the opportunity during ‘golden time’ to play soccer with these two boys. J was between playing goal and playing with other kids, so he was in and out of the game. I played with V the entire period. He taught me some cool soccer tricks and we practiced scoring on each other. Towards the end of the period J had returned with another student who wanted to play 2 v 2. V picked me as his partner instantly. We absolutely dominated the other two students, we are a soccer dream team. When we were walking back into the school he talked my ear off the whole walk. I had never heard this student speak so much. We got back and the kids got their backpacks together to go home. I am usually the one that initiates the goodbye between me and V, but this time he said goodbye first. I realized at that moment that we could have had this relationship this whole time I have been in the classroom, I just never gave him any one on one attention. The next morning he came into school and complimented my shoes and even came up to my desk to talk to me at one point. J and I have also strengthened our relationship but it was not the turning point I had with V. I realized the kids that need less attention can easily be forgotten. I could have gone the whole placement thinking V was shy and wanted nothing to do with me when really I just never gave him any individualized attention. Even the “good” kids need your one on one attention and care even if on a daily basis they do not need you to hold their hand throughout the day. This breakthrough has been one of the most eye opening and rewarding moments in my placement thus far. One of my students is obsessed with Benji the Bengal. His favorite animal is tigers and when I showed him our mascot he got so excited. I told him Benji likes to watch hockey and eat chicken wings. He has even made his iPad background the Buffalo State logo with Benji front and center. He also really likes drawing and has drawn me at least three different Benji the Bengals. Please enjoy Benji the Bengal. This weekend my host family took me to an American Diner. They had been telling me about this diner since I arrived. The diner was 1950s America themed with old cars, hamburgers, and milkshakes. They had a lot of vegan options including a vegan apple pie. The food was good but the apple pie was a far cry from a classic American pie. It was more cake-like than pie-like. Still it was an awesome lunch. Please enjoy the least chaotic photos I got while at the diner. On Saturday evening, we had a Eurovision viewing party. We got a bunch of pizzas and beers and watched the final of Eurovision. It was very fun to watch as an American who had never heard of Eurovision with Europeans who cared a lot about their country winning. It was an absolute blast. I was able to vote because I have an Italian phone number, however, my man from Cyrus did not end up winning. Connor and I were screaming for Finland to win but they came in second. I spent Sunday recovering from the week and weekend by going on a walk and drawing some of my favorite scenery and taking photos of my favorite views. Finally, your weekly picture of Meowlena.
This week, we had Monday off from school. Tuesday, the students had the day off but the teachers had an ‘inset’ day. This is similar to a professional development day. We were sent an itinerary for the day on Friday last week. This included staff meetings, planning time, and lunch. Tuesday morning was filled with staff meetings. The PYP coordinator was not in so my mentor teacher hosted the staff meeting. All the early years and primary years teachers came to the classroom. We discussed finalizing an order for next year's school supplies, a school wide math fluency workshop, Seesaw (like google classroom or blackboard), and any issues the teachers and students are currently experiencing. The order list for next year's school supplies was very interesting to sit in on. Each teacher had a long list of supplies they would like in the classroom to help teach, however, by the end of the discussion all the teachers decided that more playground equipment and outdoor toys would be the best use of school resources. Many of the teachers do break duty and see how bored the kids can be. The outdoor play area is very nice but it is small and has minimal playground equipment. When all the PYP is outside the area gets very crowded and arguments break out regularly. The teachers think if they had more to do they would end up arguing less. We had another meeting where a high school math teacher was proposing a math fluency program that would be used for all PYP. The program was called Numeracy Ninjas. In this program students would complete a weekly fluency worksheet where they would earn belts for getting correct answers. I found this to be a very interesting conversation to hear what the second grade teacher had to say versus the sixth grade teacher had to say. They both had different questions and concerns regarding their students and their developmental level of those students. By the end of the discussion the teachers were able to agree on how they will use this program for all students at all grade levels. Finding a program that can be used for both second grade and sixth grade is not easy but these teachers were able to work together to make the program work. There are many pros and cons to the IB system and one of these pros is the collaboration between teachers. This system requires a lot of teacher collaboration, which depending on your staff, can be extremely beneficial and productive but also a huge source of tension between the staff. In this case, the teacher did not all see eye to eye on the Numeracy Ninjas. However, the staff did not argue with each other over the program, they asked questions and made modifications to the program so all the teachers and students benefit from the program. I have sat in on staff meetings that resulted in verbal fights and others that were completely unproductive because no one wants to work together. This was one of the first times I have seen a staff meeting where the teachers' productivity solved their problem. I have been teaching the money unit in math. On Wednesday I taught a lesson titled ‘calculating with money’ where students had to find the total and the difference between different amounts of money. The math program had the students doing the subtraction with a method I was not familiar with and also did not understand the meaning behind the method. When I was trying to teach the method I really struggled with explaining in a way that was easy for the students to understand. After the lesson I felt I had bombed it and so had the students. We did not understand each other. I asked my mentor teacher to explain the method to me. She gave the logic behind why the math program was asking the students to solve the problem using this particular method. After her explanation I felt I could have taught the lesson more effectively. What I learned from this was, if I do not understand a lesson provided to me in full then I will not be able to effectively teach and explain the learning to students. My mentor teacher, being very understanding, simply suggested I do a reteach tomorrow on this skill. She explained that even she still has to do reteaches because not every lesson is going to make sense for all the students. I created some review questions in the explicit instruction format with a question I did thinking aloud, a problem we solved together as a class, and a couple problems students solved on their whiteboards independently. The students ended up really liking the reteach and many were excited they understood and asked to do more questions. I asked the students to give me a thumbs up or a thumbs down to rate how they were feeling about this topic. Every student gave me a thumbs up and I felt much better about my teaching. The students really love my animal stickers and the notes I leave them. They have started leaving each other these notes or asking me to give one to someone who was kind to them. I have leveled up my notes by bringing in my ‘zoo’ to class. I explained to them that they could tell me when someone did something outstanding and I would make them a letter. On Friday, one student had a birthday. His father is a teacher at the school and they come in with two trays loaded with giant pastries for his classmates. The kids' eyes lit up when they saw the giant pastries. However, after they started eating, they realized there was no way they could eat the entire pastry. They were absolutely huge pastries so we ended up cutting them in half to the size of a normal pastry. One of my favorite things about elementary teaching is celebrating birthdays and holidays. The whole class made sure the birthday boy felt very special by letting him lead the lines, pick the game they play at break, and sing happy birthday at lunch. I really enjoyed the way the students celebrated their classmate, even if he is a classmate that often causes trouble in class. There is a lot of fun with birthday celebrations in elementary school. You can do little things like give out stickers or write the students name on the board for their birthday and the students will be ecstatic and feel so important. The same student who had the birthday hid a mystery motivator in my computer when I was not looking. I found this extremely kind. This weekend my teacher was away on a mini trip with some of the other teachers for a race some of the teachers were running in. She asked me to look after her cat while she was away. She has a very eclectic cat named Eleana. We had a great weekend together playing and getting a lot of pets. Enjoy these photos of her. On Saturday during the day, my host mom took me to a BBQ out in the country where her fiancé lives. I truly could not tell you where we were, but it was absolutely beautiful. We had Italian BBQ, which was very good but it's hard to beat an American BBQ…
After that, we visited a nearby city and walked around the vineyards behind the fiancé's house. It was a beautiful evening. This week, my mentor teacher gave me almost full reign of the lessons for the week. She provided me with an outline for the week but left the lesson planning and teaching to me.
The school does not have a reading program they follow, for example Scholastic or Fundations. Teachers use a free online program called A to Z reading to find topics and worksheets. I have been placed in many different schools and have used many different reading programs at these schools, but I have never seen a school that has not bought into a reading program. In past placements the reading program the school bought into always had each day planned and prepared for the teacher with topics, presentations, worksheets, etc. The teacher's job is to relay the information provided to them to the students. Here, we pick a topic, for example adverbs, and then I make a presentation, worksheet, etc for the lesson. I enjoy the opportunity to make my own reading lessons and have to research each reading topic to find the correct information and the best way to present this information. I think I was able to create engaging presentations and worksheets for the students and the students enjoyed the lessons. While I appreciate the creative process of making my own lessons, creating a lesson from scratch is extremely time consuming, especially for someone who is still learning how to create lessons in the IB system. I am not always confident I have presented the information in the best way or that the students understand 100% of the information, I am learning a lot about the lesson planning process and what goes into the reading lessons I am usually provided with. Math not going bad but not going great. I had one day this week where I felt confident in the lesson after and I knew the students had learned and benefited from the lesson. The other days of the week I needed to do a lot of reflecting and self evaluation at the end of the lesson. Math is a difficult subject to teach for me. I quite enjoy the subject but find it difficult to relay the information in the most explicit way. The math program provides each lesson with a video of someone teaching the teaching slides. I have been watching these videos to help me prepare for each lesson. This has given me the specific language to communicate the math information. I am met with the additional challenge with teaching the money unit in an international Italian school using a UK based math program. The entire unit is taught using pounds and pence. The students are familiar with the Euro system. I am familiar with the USD. For lack of a better word, the situation is a bit trippy. I quite enjoy the topic of money, making this a particularly interesting unit to teach. The students absolutely love the pretend money. I have been brainstorming how to create a fun real life money lesson into the unit using fake money. Interestingly, ISS does not have scheduled science and social studies lessons. Science and social studies are interwoven into the unit of inquiry. In the US science and social studies are often a forgotten or skipped subject on a day to day basis but not completely left out of the schedule. Adding in science and social studies into the unit is easier for some units and more challenging for other units. In our current unit ‘all the worlds a stage’ adding science has been difficult. Social studies is a bit easier to integrate into this lesson. In other units like energy science is the main focus and social studies takes a smaller role. Learning to add the science and social studies into the everyday lesson has been a great skill and I will be continuing this practice to a lesser degree back in the states. Science and social studies usually have a designated time in American schools but only about 50% of that time is actually used to teach science and social studies. On Friday, I was having a bad day. I was tired and nothing was going my way. I felt off the whole day. I am not sure if the students could pick up on my mood, I try to turn it up positive when I am with the students but it is not always possible to be authentically positive all the time. I had the first two periods where I had to teach math and language. I am finding the money subject in math to be difficult to explain and I never leave a math lesson feeling I had taught the material in the best possible way. On this Friday I especially felt I had absolutely bombed the lesson. Language was better, so I made a Kahoot! on adverbs vs adjectives and the students always enjoy a Kahoot! We then read some poems from a book I found in the library aloud. The students took turns reading each poem aloud. They absolutely loved reading the poems which was a nice positive way to end the lessons. After the two lessons I was drained and felt bad about my teaching. I helped my mentor teacher get the students ready for drama and then we headed to the staff room to work while the students were at drama. Unfortunately, I had left my power adapter at home and had no way to charge my computer. This was adding extra stress because I knew I only had a few battery percentages to send some emails and edit some lessons before my computer would die. Admittedly, I was on the verge of tears by the time I had sat down to open my computer. When I opened my computer a piece of paper had fallen out. A student had left me a mystery motivator in my computer sometime between the end of language and leaving for drama. She used the fish sticker I had given her on a quiz on the hidden note. The note was written in the same format as the notes I leave for them.I do not know if she noticed my mood and was motivated to leave the note or if it was a coincidence she would leave me one after leaving my mentor teacher earlier that week. She left a very personal message that I really needed at the moment. Whether coincidences or an act of intuition, her little act of kindness helped me get through the rest of the day, genuinely, in a better mood. Everyday I am exposed to many, MANY, different cultural experiences. I have, up until this week, really enjoyed my time as a foreigner in Italy. I have embraced every difference, challenge, and experience. Now a month away from home, I wish I could be in my own house, in my own bed, with my own food, with my own car, in my own country just for a little bit. I do not want to leave Italy, but I wish I could have an hour back in my own home so I can drink Tim Hortons, eat a PBJ, and nap in my own bed. I have started listing the things I am excited to do when I am back in the US. Some of these items include driving my car, drinking free tap water at restaurants, flushing a normal toilet, and walking down the street at a fast speed. Friday I was having a rough day. Nothing was going my way and I was missing home. For the first time on this trip, I was crying in my room. I just needed to let out my negative thoughts and the stress of the day. My host brother came into my room and caught me crying. Both him and my host mom were so supportive. My host brother talked with me and we went on a very scenic walk to different parks in the city. My host mom asked if I wanted to eat out or at home and what I would want for dinner. She made all my favorite foods and gave me a huge portion of dinner. I felt so much better. As much as I miss home, my host family knows how to make me feel at home. Please enjoy some more pictures of Meowlena. I was trying to take a nice photo of her but my host brother interrupted to bother the cat and I got a very funny photo. This week I did a lot of teaching. We have finished the book we were reading in class and have moved on to the poetry unit. Within this unit the students are learning about the different types of poetry and the figurative language used in poetry. On Monday, for UOI, we watched a clip from the Broadway performance of The Lion King. The students took notes on the costumes and makeup, two of the five elements of theater. After taking notes we discussed the students' observations as a whole class. The second task was for them to create a costume for a character in the Lion King. They drew a picture, wrote a description, and listed the materials they would need to make this costume. This activity is to get them thinking about what materials they may want or need to create their own costumes for their own performances at the end of the unit. The students very much enjoyed discussing the costumes and creating their own. This first day of the new poetry unit, Tuesday, went very well. All these students have done a poetry unit in the past so I did not need to do a long introduction to what poetry is. On this first day we also learned about the many different types of poetry such as limericks, free verse, or haiku. After we went over the different types of poetry the students had the chance to write their own poems using one of the formats we discussed. Most students opted for an acrostic poem but each different format was tried at least once by the students. The bell rang while they were finishing. When we had a little extra time at the end of the day the students requested they read their poems to the class, they were all very proud of their work. Day one of poetry went very well. Wednesday was not as successful as day one. This was the first day I introduced figurative language. I taught them about personification, metaphors, and similes. They listened to me while I taught from a PowerPoint all engaged but they all had a mildly confused look in their eyes. I asked the students to raise their hands to give me an example of one of three types of figurative language we had discussed. The first few students gave incorrect examples. If I were to teach this lesson again, I would not have let so many students give wrong examples. The wrong examples seemed to confuse the student more. I reexplained the concept and had a few more students attempt to give examples, this time only about 50% of examples given were correct examples, an improvement but they were still struggling with coming up with their own examples. We then moved into doing a Kahoot. In the Kahoot, the students were given a sentence that was either personification, metaphor, or simile. I read the sentence aloud and the students picked their answers on their iPads. This class really loves to play Kahoot. I reviewed the Kahoot data after the lesson. Almost all students answered with 60% accuracy. A few had scored slightly higher. This data told me that this was a concept that was both tricky for the students but that I also had not effectively taught the lesson. Knowing this, I planned on reviewing these concepts in the next day's lesson. For the remainder of the day, I would point out personification, metaphors, and similes when they came up in readings or conversation. Two students correctly pointed out similes in conversation unprompted. Abstract concepts like figurative language are difficult to explain to young people in a way they can understand. Before teaching more types of figurative language or abstract concepts, I need to research the best practices to convey these ideas. For Language on Thursday, we learned about adverbs, why we use them, and how to use them properly. We started by review what we had learned so far in our poetry unit, with emphasis on personification, metaphors, and similes. The students who I had called on for the review were all able to correctly tell me what each word means and give me an example. The focus of the lesson, adverbs, is not a new concept to these students. I taught them with a PowerPoint before giving them an activity to do independently. They were all able to complete the worksheet alone with an average of 80% accuracy. A few of the students who struggle in English needed to make some corrections. Friday went well. The students read through a script together as a class before I gave them an activity. I had the students go to a script treasure hut. They had to circle the list of characters in one color, underline the scene in another color, and box in the setting in another. This was in depth script study where they had to read the script thoroughly and identify each aspect of the script. With some guidance all students were able to complete the task nearly perfectly. Here are some examples of the student worksheets I made and they filled out for language and the Unit of Inquiry. Each week, PYP has an assembly were grades 2-6th all meet. In this assembly there may be a musical presenter, a read aloud, a lesson on internet safely, etc. During this time one student is also recognized for their good work for the week with a certificate. On Thursday, each student writes a name of a student that has shown one of the IB characteristics during the week. These characteristics include; being open minded, a communicator, a risk taker, kind, etc. The teacher reads the name and reasoning aloud for the class and that student gets their name on the board and a point. As the names are read aloud students earn me points. The student with the most points, or votes, will be recognized at the assembly. Teachers, normal, can not be voted for, however, my students found a loophole. I am a STUDENT-teacher, and therefore a student and they could vote for me. When all the votes were tallied I had the most votes! The students wanted to recognize me for being caring and a risk taker by taking over more and more of the teaching duties. All the students celebrated and they all ran up to give me a hug once the votes were counted. They were so happy to have voted for me. I thought I would be taking the opportunity away from a student but my mentor teacher liked that they all were willing to recognize a teacher's hard work and when a teacher shows these characteristics. At the assembly, the kids had made me my own award and all signed the back with sweet messages. At the end of the assembly they all came rushing up to me to say congratulations and ask if I had read their message on the back. This group of students are some of the most supportive students I have worked with. They are excellent at celebrating each other's accomplishments and holding each other accountable. I really enjoy working in this supportive environment. Here is my award. I am the beast teacher. Earlier this week, my host brother had a big group of friends over to watch an important soccer game. He introduced me to all of his friends and a few spoke English well and wanted to chat further with me. The one friend and I spoke for a few minutes, in our conversation he asked me how I like Italy and what the US was like among other typical conversations I have with people I have just met here. He also informed me that I was incredibly lucky to have my host family, and that there is not a better pair to be living with. He told me his host brother is the best guy he knows and that I am seriously very lucky to have him. This was incredibly sweet to hear. I knew I was lucky to have such a great host family, but it was great to hear someone who knows them better and for a long time tell me how lucky I am.
And here is your weekly photo of Meowleena! Week four was the week of spring break. I went on a mini tour of Italy with my best friend. My closest friend since preschool flew into Florence the Friday of break and we spent the next nine days traveling over Italy. We spent a few days in Florence exploring the sights and nightlife. Florence is always a fun city. We spent one day in Pisa to see the leaning tower and the quad. Seeing the iconic tower in person is rather surreal. The tower, Duomo, and Baptistry are an absolutely stunning sight. I find it so incredible that people hundreds of years ago built these beautiful buildings. The carvings in the walls are smooth and perfectly carved. The buildings are all incredibly tall, made from marble floor to ceiling. The majority of our trip was spent in Cinque Terre, five medieval fishing towns, now a large tourist attraction. Since we went in April, there were very few tourists so we were able to enjoy the cities with fewer people. The weather was unfortunately cold, windy and a little rainy. The weather did not stop us, however, from hiking between the cities. We are both fairly avid hikers and were somewhat prepared for the trails. We did not anticipate how steep some parts of the trail would be or how difficult some of the terrain would be. These unexpected parts were a fun challenge. The steep rocks we climbed were incredibly rewarding to look down on after we hiked to the top. Every step we took gave us a stunning view of the hillside and sea. The breathtaking view distracted us from the tough trail. At the top of the hill between Vernazza and Monterosso al Mare, we stumbled upon a stray cat hotel. Someone had built small homes and left out food for the stray cats on the hill. This person had also named the cats and had their names carved into a piece of wood above where the cats ate. The cats were very friendly and the cat hotel was a lovely surprise at the top of the hill. When we finally made it to Monterosso after hiking all day, the weather had taken a turn for the worst. The wind was cold and the sun was completely hidden behind the dark clouds. This did not stop us however from taking a dip in the sea. We stood on the beach in our suits contemplating whether we were making the right decision by getting into the water for quite a while. After some back and forth we counted down and ran into the sea. The water was shockingly cold and once it was above our chest we ran out because it was far too cold to be just wading in. We dried off in the cold wind and watched a little boy try to use a piece of driftwood to surf, he was clearly unbothered by the freezing cold water. We went out to dinner in Monterosso. By the end of dinner we were both delusionally tired from the hike and were a giggling mess on the train ride back to Riomaggiore. We slept like rocks that night. We spent the next day recovering from the hike and by laying out by the water and exploring the shops in town. The next day we hiked between Riomaggoire and Manarola. This hike is the shortest in distance, but we quickly learned it was also the steepest. This hike required a lot of our strength to climb the uneven rocky trail. This hike was also incredibly rewarding to finish. We celebrated with gelato in Manarola, both discovering new flavors that became our favorite from the whole trip. Cinque Terre is unbelievably gorgeous. The hill sides are completely carved with terraced farming, growing grapes, lemons and oranges, and other vegetables on a smaller scale. Cinque Terre was one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. As a finale to our vacation, we did a cultural immersion with my host family. My host family was very excited to have another American stay in the house for a few days. My host mother and brother welcomed me back with open arms and dried fruit. They were both very welcoming of my friend. We all chatted for sometime before dinner. We continued to chat over dessert. For lunch on Saturday, after wandering the city, my friend and I went to a small restaurant in town. As we were being sat, my host mother and her fiancé walked into the restaurant. We had a fantastic lunch together, my host family was excited to have my friend try all the different classic Italian foods and wine. By the end of lunch my friend was stuffed and had a few more glasses of wine than she anticipated. We then went to my host mothers favorite coffee shop for an after lunch expresso. It was a wonderful adult Italian hangout. In the evening we hung out with my host brother and a few of his friends, which was a different experience. Meowleena missed me very much while I was away, she spelt on my bed everyday I was gone. I am reminded of how incredibly lucky I am to be in the situation I am in. My host family are some of the most warm and caring people I have ever met. I could not imagine spending two months with anyone else.
I am also so lucky to have my lifelong friend visit me while I am away. While I am not very homesick, I do miss my friends back in the states. It was great to see one of my closest friends. This week I had the opportunity to teach a lesson in the Unit of Inquiry. My mentor teacher tasked me with finding examples of different types of theater, for example musical theater, one man shows, circus, etc. I then showed the students sample videos of the different types of theater and taught a lesson where the students wrote their observations and shared the similarities and differences of the different performances. Writing this lesson was very different from writing a typical lesson plan in an American classroom. The students are in the “tuning in” stage of inquiry so the lesson structure is more loose and student interest led. The goal of the lesson was not in the format “student will be able to ____ by ____” but showing them what theater is, finding their interests within the topic, which will guide the remaining unit. The lesson went very well in many ways. The students followed the directions well, completely all aspects of the lesson, and showed interest in the topic. I felt my lesson was effective and the students were able to achieve the goal of observing different performances and making observations about the performances. If I were to reteach this lesson there are many changes I would make. I used too many examples and the lesson filled two periods. By the end students were losing interest and were not participating as enthusiastically. I would pick between five or six examples next time, not 10. I would design the lesson using a hybrid of an IB lesson plan and a NYS lesson plan. I am still unfamiliar with how IB lessons are designed and facilitated. Because of this the lesson was a bit disorganized. If I had retro fitted aspects of the lesson planning I am familiar with, I would be a more effective teacher.
On Wednesday we had a half day. In the morning for Math, my mentor teacher made a treasurer hut for the kids where they need to solve math problems to find the hints that lead to the treasurer. While she was hiding the clues and treasurer, I distracted the kids by playing a game. The game I know as “Down by the Banks” has an Italian version, which we played. Before the game began, we had a student come in for a day visit. She is considering coming to the school for the next school year. She came in when my mentor teacher was outside setting up the treasurer hunt so I welcomed the new student. I had everyone go around and introduce themselves. I let the studnet be pretty silly during this time which seemed to help the new student relax. All of the students were incredibly welcoming and excited to have a new friend. After some introductions we played our game which the students were great sports about. After the game they began the treasurer hut which they absolutely loved. They had a lot of fun running around together, solving problems, and finding clues. They were sure to included their potential new classmate in their hunt. I was very impressed with how welcoming and friendly the students were towards the new student. The new student had come in the classroom very shy and not wanting to participate in the game. After we had our silly introduction circle she was joking and talking with all the students. She enthusiastically participated in all the classroom activities for the rest of the day. It was great to see the children be so kind towards a new student. I think this student is going to have a great time at the school with her new classmates. During my down time, I have been exploring what special education is in the IB system. While I have a few days off from school, I will continue my research into IB special education. This week, my host mother took me to a drum circle! She asked me on her way out the door if I would like to join her in where she was going. I have been trying to say yes to as many experiences as I can, so, I agreed. We picked up two of her friends anad drove out of the city. The one man was from Minnesota and had been speaking both English and Italian since childhood. He would become my translator for the evening. The woman was from Siena but also spoke English and Italian. I was able to have great car conversations with the new people. When we arrived, the building, which was a marble shop by day, rehearsal space by night, was filled with elderly people and many differnt types of percusion intruments. Everyone was happy to introduce themselves and welcome me to their group for the night. A woman handed me an instrument and we played together for the majority of the night. Music, luckily, is a universal language, so I did not need to understand what was being said, I just had to listen to rhythms and copy the spunky lady next to me. I had an absolute blast. Hitting things with sticks is objectively fun and I got to do that for two hours with a room full of older Italians who were also having a blast whacking the drums. I hope to go to future rehearsals. I have noticed that Italians are extremely welcoming. Everytime I am introduced to a group of strangers, everyone is eager to introduce themselves and shake my hand. Whether a group of fourth grade students or old men at a bar also always feel incredibly welcomed. I do not find this willingness and eagerness to meet new people in America. I myself am not super comfortable with introducing myself to strangers so openly. I have learned now how good it feels to be so welcomed to a group, I will continue this open minded introduction when I am back in Buffalo. I am finding myself not homesick but I definitely am developing a bit fomo for my friends in the US. My sister's 21st birthday was this past weekend and my friend's birthday is this coming weekend. I was not able to celebrate with them. Another friend of mine recently has taken a job in the city and will be moving out of Buffalo before I am back in the country. I am very sad I will not be able to go to the going away party and see her before she moves away. I wish I could be in two places at once. In other unrelated news, my host families cat, Meowleena, has really warmed up tp me! She used to run when I approched her. Now, she is excited to see me when I come home. When it is just her and I at home she is happy to get cuddles and pets from me. When my host brother is home, she prefers him. The first week has gone, for the most part, great! I look forward to coming to school each morning and seeing the kids. They have made me feel so welcome. My mentor teacher is a very wise teacher and great to have a casual conversation with. For my first full day of school, my mentor teacher was out sick. There was a series of subs that rotated in and out of the classroom to teach the different subjects. I was the consistent person in the room. This was both positive and negative. Myself and the sub heavily relied on the students to maintain the classroom routine. This situation also forced me to quickly get to know the students and for them to quickly learn to trust me. By the end of the first period I had students arguing who was going to hold my hand in the hallway. All students have shown an interest in me and I have been able to make a one on one connection with each student. This day did not make me feel confident in my understanding of the school and classroom structure. For the rest of the week my mentor teacher was in. I was able to observe how she runs her classroom, how she interacts with the students, and her expectations of the students. Unfortunately, I got very sick after lunch on Thursday and had to leave for the rest of the school day. I was sick for the rest of the night. After a goodnight’s sleep, I was able to come back on Friday. I was too excited to read aloud to the kids I did not want to miss anymore school!
I was able to teach a language lesson on Friday. The class is trying to finish the current book they are reading so they can start reading new theatrical texts which connect to their unit of inquiry. I read the story to the students and asked them supporting questions. The students were incredibly engaged with the story, they beg to read the story. The school lunches are incredible! Many of the students and staff complain about the quality and options but in my opinion, the school lunches are worlds above US school lunches. One aspect of the Siena school lunches I really appreciated was that they ate with reusable trays, cups, silverware, plates, and bowls. There was no ‘one use’ serving and eating tools. There is still a lot of food waste, kids almost never finish their plate, but there was no plastic waste! I wonder now if there is legislation around school lunches in Italy like there is in the US. In the US we have rules regarding fruit and vegetable servings, portion sizes, and sweets. Does Italy have similar regulations and what are those regulations? Do private schools, like ISS, have to follow those rules? I adore my host family and all their quirks! My host mother likes to tease me for my breakfast. I will eat leftovers from dinner standing up over the sink. I quickly chug coffee and scarf down food all while running out of the house. My host mother thinks it is so strange that I do not sit down and set the table for a proper breakfast. She does not ask me to change my ways, she just thinks it is odd I would eat leftovers for dinner standing up. I told her standing in the kitchen is an upgrade from eating in my car, which is where I normally eat breakfast. I am learning to appreciate and value meal time and the scarcity slowing down and eating a proper meal, even in the morning. Another incredible week in Siena! The first week in Italy has been magical. Our first official night was in Florence, where Grant, Connor, and myself shared an airbnb. This was a great bonding experience for us three. The jet lag made me want to sleep late, however the busy traveling allowed me to fall right to sleep. We were in Florence for three days. While there we explored the Il Mercato Centrale, the academia, the river, the best view of the city, and I explored the city center on foot. The city is stunning with history everywhere.
We arrived in Siena on Wednesday, by bus. The ride was a scenic route through the Italian countryside. I met my host mother at the bus station. She is an enthusiastic and charismatic lady who was extremely welcoming. Her son has been a blast to hang out with. The first night we had a big dinner with my host family, her boyfriend, and her friend. Everyone was excited for my presents at the table, asking me many questions about America. I have a beautiful room to myself with a bathroom and a balcony. I am spoiled. On Thursday we took a tour of the city. The tour guide directed me to a stunning park with gardens, a restaurant, and a small farm. The farm has an incredible view of the city above. I spent a few hours there laying with a goat reading and writing in my journal. I do love the city but the grass was grounding to lay in. My new favorite spot in Siena. After a relaxing time in the gardens I proceeded to get very lost trying to walk back to my host family. I took a very long walk through the country until I realized I was walking in the completely wrong direction. I eventually found my way home and took a very scenic route through the outside of the city. On Friday, we went to the school! On my way into the school I ran into my mentor teacher. She was very excited to meet me and greeted me with a big hug. She said she and the students are very excited to meet me. The school is very minimal and modern with lots of outdoor spaces. The staff is very friendly and welcoming, they seem very excited to have three new helpers at the school. I was able to see a photo of all the students, the class is very small. Through conversations with the staff, I am already picking up some of the differences between the international school and a Buffalo school. The main difference I am interested in for Monday is the classroom management and behavior techniques of the school. As I currently understand, there is little to no school wide behavioral program. I am staying open minded and enthusiastic about the different school system. I have a lot to learn from the International School of Siena. Please enjoy some photos from my first week in Italy! An unrelated food review. Thus Far, I have not had a disappointing experience with food in Italy. It is actually quite easy to be vegan in Italy. All places I have visited have offered at least one vegan option. My favorite meal so far has been tomato soup. Tomato soup in Italy is not like Campbell's canned soup. The sound is chunky and has a stronger oil and garlic flavor. The thickness of the soup is perfect for scooping up soup on bread. I can never have canned tomato soup again. The other food I have fallen in love with is mushrooms. I am typically a mushroom hater, however, the mushrooms native to Florence are delicious. I had a few pasta dishes made with these mushrooms and they have turned me into a mushroom lover. All the food is incredibly filling and leaves me full for a very long time. |
AuthorHi! I'm Marita Miller an exceptional education student at Buffalo State student teaching in Siena Italy. Follow my journey! Archives
May 2023
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