I finally started to feel like a real teacher today. I taught my very first full lesson to two separate sections of English. Granted, it was a lesson about something I feel totally comfortable talking about, myself, but it was still my first time in front of the class as the teacher. My cooperating teacher even left the room quite a few times and it was almost as if I had my very own classroom. It felt incredible. Right now I truly feel like teaching is definitely the right path for me. The students seemed so receptive to all of what I was saying and by the end of the class we had already established quite a fine rapport. They all wrote poems about themselves (based off of the poem I wrote and provided as a model) and I cannot wait to read them.
The students at Marymount International School lead such interesting lives. While many of them hail from the eternal city, many come from all over the world. I have students from Italy sitting right next to students from Jerusalem who are sitting right behind a boy from Hackensack, NJ. (I actually have the boy from Hackensack’s little brother in my drama class too… what a small world!) While I fully anticipate this whole experience to provide me with the opportunity to see what it means to be a teacher, I know that during the process I will also be obtaining such a great amount of culture and worldliness. One of my students today asked what languages I know and seemed shocked to learn that I am only fluent in English. I wish the American education system required fluency in multiple languages. Perhaps I will continue practicing my Italian even after returning home. It is interesting nonetheless to be able to compare various cultures from across the globe.
I am also helping one of my cooperating teachers direct the musical this semester. The show is called ‘The Boy Friend’ and we had our first set of auditions yesterday. I can already tell that in whatever school I end up teaching I will definitely be getting involved with the theater programs. I had so much fun even just sitting in on auditions—I can’t wait to be able to work with the students on the production.
I’ll be sure to keep blogging with updates of the school. It is nice to have this blog as an outlet of emotion where I can document how I am feeling during certain days or after certain lessons. I fully anticipate every lesson not going as smoothly as this morning’s, but it will be nice to look back on this post after a particularly faulty day and remember the feeling of euphoria right now.
It is hard to believe that we have been in Italy for over a week. In some ways it feels like way more than that, and in others it feels like a lot less. I was proud of my ability to communicate with the lunch workers at the school who speak no Italian today during lunch and am definitely becoming more acquainted with all the little streets in Trastevere. I have become a regular at the pastry shop Alyssa and I found the other day and will probably gain approximately 30 pounds at this rate. The cannolis and aragostina are like nothing I’ve had before—I’d be willing to skip lunch and dinner if it meant more room for them! I also ate a delicious arancini e melanzane suppli (or what looked/tasted like a suppli anyway) for dinner last night from one of the hidden gems of Trastevere. It was basically a fried rice ball with some type of cheese and a good amount of eggplant mixed in. For only 3.50euro I got that delicious meal as well as a slice of pizza—the best in Rome so far.
We also booked our first adventure out of Rome last night. Because the weather has been so beautiful and we are all a little stressed with the first week of teaching, we decided not to make our first trip a 3 day trek. We opted out of going to Venice for now, but instead decided to plan a trip to Pompeii, Capri and possibly Sorrento. I am so excited for this because my family is from Sorrento and I have heard such wonderful things about Capri, especially if it is as nice this weekend as project. I also can’t wait to learn/see all of the history behind Pompeii. I remember reading about Pompeii and Mt. Vesuvius in those Eyewitness history books as a kid. Now the history will come to life! We will be staying in Rome again Friday night—to experience the wonderful night life of Roma again—and then catching an early train to Pompeii on Saturday. It is definitely going to be a fun weekend, I’ll be sure to blog all about it.
Funny stories of the day (or previous days):
Not knowing how to make two separate pages into one double sided copy
My computer not connecting to the school’s projector
The 6th grader’s tableau performances
Car ride home with my cooperating teacher (she was nice enough to give me a lift to the best bus stop!)
Jokes about ‘the jersey shore’ in class
Sprinting across Ponte Girabaldi to try and catch the early 280 bus
"Mr. Persico, what languages do you speak?"
Words of the Day:
the check: il conto
take out: portare via
I would like/may I please have: vorrei
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