Slept great last night! Couldn’t even hear the band over in San Pellegrino. After 9 hours sleep I’m feeling pretty good! Today Frankie, one of the ladies from the USAC, set up an interview with one of the local teachers, Roberta. She was great enough to find an English teacher. This seemed silly at first, till I realized that I couldn’t really talk to a science teacher in italian...
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| Poster in English Classroom |
First off forgive me if I have some major holes in what I’m going to tell you. Between Roberta’s accent and Lexy’s shuffling feet I had a hard time hearing (I suppose that’s the joy of the acoustics in older buildings). The schoolhouse here in Viterbo is actually a converted monastery dedicated to Santa Rosa. They still have the original statue of her in the front entry way. The feel of the school is just like that of any older school, it made sense to hear that it was a monastery but it seemed to not have many differences. Roberta met us on the front steps. Her first question was if Lexy and I were students, or teachers! Looking around at some of the students on the steps, it was totally a legit question. This is the time of the year that the students are taking their exit exams. “High school” here lasts 5 years, students attend from ages 14 through 18. At the end of their time they take a verbal exam. All six subject teachers (not necessarily their teachers) and the president sit on a panel. The student prepares a project that incorporates all of the subjects. They give their presentation, then each teacher questions the student from their discipline. The first stop Roberta took us to was to one of these exams. We were lucky enough to be able to sit in the back while a young lady took her exam. These can typically last an hour. The exam is given in Italian, so other than tones I didn’t follow a whole lot of what was happening. I was very surprised by the girl though, she seemed so confident. Bit nervous, she was talking pretty fast even to my untrained ears, but her posture was pretty relaxed and she wasn’t fidgeting. There was one point where a teacher asked her to “describe a male who is her hero.” Yup, this was in English. It was funny to watch, I think she struggled more with trying to think of someone then with the actual language. The teacher fed her some people, saying father, brother, then told her she cold pick a female if she wanted. The student jumped on the father idea after a moments thought.
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| Auditorium |
We ventured out of the room, Roberta continued a tour of the school. She took us to a gym, pretty small by our standards. She explained that space is hard to come by, so they are lucky to have what they do. We saw a computer lab, which is used just like ours are back at NVHS. Pretty much any class will come in to use the computers. There was an “auditorium” where they have speakers come. It was full of chairs, however it was about the size of my classroom at home.
While we toured, Roberta told us about the school and how it works. First off, the students go to the same room, then the teachers are the ones that rotate. Instead of “periods” the students are exposed to a certain number of hours of each topic, totaling 32 hours in a week. The teachers rotate between classrooms, and even between schools. The students start school at 8 in the morning, then are released around 1 or 2. Now before my students start getting all excited, let me point out they attend school six days a week. Depending on subject they even have homework.
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| Teacher Record Book |
At the beginning of the year the teachers have to create a record of what they intend to cover. A syllabus really. Then at the end of the year they write a paper about what they covered, and how the students behaved. Both of these are kept in a file in the office on the chance a student who had failed needs the information. Teachers are also given a record book where they keep the names of their students, record their grades, and the attendance. Sooo, just like us, however ours are on the internet. There is supposed to be computers for the teachers, but Roberta says there just aren’t enough. I suppose some things are world wide.
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| School Hallway |
Santa Rosa was recently converted to a music school. Last year was their pilot year, and 27 students were included in this program. The students have to audition and then they are chosen based on that. It was a huge success last year, the students just played a concert up at the university not too long ago. I found this interesting, and familiar. Sounds an awful lot like our academies we’ve started in Washoe County.
Becoming a teacher is somewhat more interesting here in Italy. You study to become one, just like in the US, however then you are put on a list. When your name reaches the top of the list and a school needs a teacher, they call you. Teachers are underpaid here as well, so it really surprised me to hear that Roberta was on the list for 10 years. Talk about really wanting to become a teacher. There is no interview process for teachers, when your name reaches the top of the list, the head of the school that needs a teacher gets that top name. I asked Roberta if it was hard to fire teachers, and she said only if the enrollment is down. She’s never heard of a teacher being fired. I was very shocked at the parallels in systems hearing this.
Overall there were lots of differences, and lots of similarities. I really liked the verbal exams, that’s something I’d like to incorporate more into my classroom. It’s nice cause it takes away that reading comprehension part of the exam, and you can really find out what a student knows. And lets face it, our students really need to work on their verbal skills. It’d also be a great way to bring in other topics, well, the good ones anyway. Like math and history. (Love you Neer!)
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| Lunch! |
Tired of hearing about the school? Well, let me tell you. I’ve discovered cheese. Made it to that cheese store this morning and picked up way too much ricotta. Cost me a whole 1,95 euros. I wondered around Viterbo looking for a small market where Claire had bought some pesto that was fabulous, but I got totally turned around. I found a different little market and picked up some honey. That sounds so simple... Honey is not simple. I walked into a shop I’d been in before, and the cute shop owner speaks about two English words. I asked for good honey, and that just didn’t work. He wanted to know what it was for, what type of plant I wanted it from, how much, which I liked... Twice he tried to get his neighbor to help translate, but he was busy. Finally another lady that was in the store piped up. She was the sweetest lady I’ve met!!! She is from Germany, and spoke pretty darn good English. She didn’t translate a word I said to the poor shop keeper, but keep educating me on the honey. She walked me through about six different types, telling me what they were good for. She picked up the one I got and said it was for cheese. (Course when I got to the counter with it she then specified “hard” cheese... like a peckerino- good spelling, I know, these people don’t come with subtitles) While I was getting the honey, the two decided to educate me on other types of cheese. They really like mozzarella here, and they were telling me what kind to get. Apparently some kind that starts with “c” is made “dangerously” (I love their lack of English, they come up with the cutest things!) and to get the one that starts with “b”. Of course they used the actual names, but that’s about all I remember. I picked up some stracciatella while I was there. This stuff is fantastic. It’s the inside of a mozzarella ball that’s not completely solidified. Alfredo had this or something like it one day at the university, and I really wanted to have some again. I also think the way Claire says it is adorable, so I figured I couldn’t go wrong. The sweet German lady then told me to try some figs while I was here, and that they go great with ham. I’ve never tried that, maybe that will be next on my list. They certainly have lots of pork here. So, armed with ricotta, stracciatella, and honey I headed home. But didn’t make it. Stopped by the bread shop. If you go early in the day they still have lots of good bread! I got some panini con sala, these nice little round bun-like rolls topped with some olive oil and spices. I take back what I had said about the bread here not being good. I’ve had some good pizza (bread, not American pizza) that was topped with salt and rosemary that was fantastic too. This all composed my lunch today. With some left over pizza. Pure heaven.
Not sure what’s on the bill for tonight. Claire is up at the University so I’ll hunt her down later. This is the last weekend of Caffiena so I imagine there is lots of music in my future! I’ll keep you posted!
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