Blogs from Piedmont, Italy, Europe - page 10

Ciao and happy Thursday family and friends. A look into my teaching experience in Italian Scuola Media. The word I use most often during my solo teaching is SILENZIO! I think ofcourse you can take an educated guess for the translation of this word. A word similar to Spanish too! Your could say that Wednesday was my first 'solo' English lesson, as the teacher I work with, Francesca was out today. There was an official substitute in the classroom, however, since it was English class, it made most sense that I carry on with the lessons. Speaking of substitutes, in the Italian school system, it is common for a teacher who already works in that school to be the substitute. It works out well this way because as mentioned in previous blogs--teachers switch classrooms, not the ... read more

Ciao, I hope you are finding your week to be bellisimo (Italian for lovely/beautiful.) Here I am close to the end of the second week teaching in Italy and I will share with you my most memorable lesson of the Week. Francessca asked me to teach about the American school system in comparison with the Italian school system. I taught the lesson to the 3rd year class only because they are able to comprehend most of what I am saying. By 3rd year class I mean 8th grade middle school. Middle school grades are referred to as 1st year (6th) 2nd year (7th) and 3rd year (8th), rather than being consecutive grades in American schools. The 'grades' start fresh when the Italain students start at a new school (elementary, middle and high school.) I started out ... read more

Ciao! The first week of school is coming to an end, and I now have a better understanding of my schedule, how the school system works here in Italy, and my role as the assistant English teacher. As mentioned, I have 3 Teachers who I work with, and teach 18 hours a week. My schedule is different each day with some days having no break between lessons and some I have a long streched break between lessons. Today for example, I had one lesson at 8 am, a lesson at 10:45 am, and will have 2 lessons again in the afternoon. For my breaks in between lessons I typically come back to the flat because of the near location to the school, or grab a cafe with Francessaca or Susanna. It is normal to have multiple ... read more

What a wild whirlwind it has been the past couple of days between flying from Minneapolis to Torino, meeting the fellow travelers from my Greenheart Travel Group, and moving into my new host familia. I have been in Italy a wee bit over 24 hours and I can confidently say that the pizza here was love at first sight. My friend Jennie and I were rather tired from the 2 flights we had been on but I think jet lag has not got the best of me yet. I am waiting for that. So our flight went fairly fast with movies, sleeping, and eating. We flew Attalia airlines into Milan and I was happy to see that wine was a complimentary drink offered on the plane. Instead of pretzels/peanuts the Attalia airlines offer a small a ... read more

10. Travel Blog Wednesday 6th August 2014 to Tuesday 12th August 2014. Genoa to Torino (There are 44 photos in this blog - so keep going at the end to see them) Wednesday 6th August 2014. Up late, as the night before Tom had to go out at 2am and chat to the guys next door to us, asking them to call it a night. They were very loud, so not much sleep. Tom in for a quick swim, and we load up and reverse out of the narrow spot. Gaye gave great directions and all went well. The drive was easy being on the Autostrada. Total tolls from Genoa to Torino €15. Not a bad campsite – ‘Avigliana Lacs’ in the town of Avigliana – based between the large and small lakes. Campsite a little ... read more