my teaching experiences

Thanks to a collegue's suggestion I introduced poetry in the fourth class showing my students some scenes taken from Dead Poets' society.

And I gave them a composition to write where they have to find connections between the film and "Since feeling is first" by e.e. cummings, a poem I love. 

Happy Halloween to everybody!

I organized the first Halloween party for my little daughter..

and at school I gave a reading on Halloween in the first class, while in the second class we revised comparatives inventing similies connected to Halloween: the nignt was as dark as a bat's wing...and so on.

The first lesson with Michael was also very interesting, we learnt new phrasal verbs cutting out a Jack 'o Lantern!

So much to write about ...and I do not find the time! Always correcting, studying, preparing lessons!!!!   

The last book I read was "Grapes of Wrath" by J. Steinbeck. I personally don't like the Italian translation "Furore" for the title. It completely misses the idea of harvesting, which is a recurrent image in the book, becoming a leitmotiv and a powerful symbol of all the characters loose and wish to have back...the harvest this time is wrath.

The novel vividly paints a period, a generation. It remains in your memory forever.       

I was pleased to learn that  I've been assigned to Istituto Archimede in San Giovanni in Persiceto, 10 km from the village where I live.

www.isis-archimede.it

I am teaching the 5 F classes (from the first to the last year) of Liceo Scientifico tradizionale. I already had the satisfactory experience of Liceo Wiligelmo and I am looking forward to meeting my new students 

It last only one week, but what an intensive week!

I was really satisfied of my course on Testing for English teacher in Edinburgh.

I met a qualified teacher and a lively little group of foreign colleagues I still miss.

It was the first course of that kind at Edinburgh University, and I recommend it to other teachers. 

We learnt about theories of second language development, rating scales, testing the different skills and much more.

I'll surely use what I discovered in class in order to be a more precise and careful tester. It is really not easy to test students, now I fell more prepared.

A very good mark to IALS courses for teachers!!     www.ials.ed.ac.uk

I am reading "C'era una volta un beat" a fresh picture of the Sixties in Italy and the States. I make no mistery of my love for that period, that mood.

Still I have to admit I didn't know Fernanda Pivano. She is the transator, the "literature lady" that brought all the "beat generation" writers to Italy. I suggest to visit her website if you want to learn more about her.You'll also find a good selection of websites about American writers: www.fernandapivano.it

I decided to attend a refresher course for my English.

These last two years were quite challenging: pregnancy and my little baby's first year. I didn't have much time to keep up to date.

Now Maria Sole is older ..well, I guess I'll miss her madly.. but I wanted to do something for myself and my job - which I love. Moreover, next year I'll probably teach in a more demanding school..well..also teachers need to attend lessons.

I am going to Edinburgh for one week in August and it is going to be study and pleasure: I am attending a course in the morning and in the afternoon there will be plenty of things to do as I am staying in Scotland during the Fringe festival. I am going with a friend-tescher-colleague- university mate - and she has good friends in Edinburgh.

I've never visited Edinburgh!

My course is about "Testing for language teachers" and it is organized by the Istitute for Applied Languages of the University of Edinburgh, so I believe it is well planned.    

I am looking forward to starting it!     

Thanks to the advice of Mr Via, the Italian teacher I met during the exams, I got to know Joyce Carol Oates, a very famous American writer that - I admit - I didn't know. Quite ashamed of my ignorance I ran to the library and to a bookshop and now I am fully equipped to enjoy my first week of holiday reading some of her short stories.

For further information visit this website: www. jco.usfca.edu

This year, for the first time in my life, I am a "commissario esterno" for the Italian final examination tests in a Secondary School.

I was entrusted two classes at IPSIA Malpighi in San Giovanni in Persiceto, indirizzo linguistico aziendale. The second written test was English: the students had to read a job-ad, answer some questions about it and then write a covering letter plus a Cv to apply for the job. I t wasn't too difficult for the majority of them. I must say the questions were not correctectly asked: the students had to write an e mail to answer - the English ad said - whilst the Italian task asked them to write a letter..two very different styles!!!

One of the two classes is an evening class: the adults decided to study (fourth and fifth class in one year) because they all need the "maturità" for some reasons: they are nurses or policemen or employees and they must have their certification to go on in their career. I met the midwife who held the motherhood training I attended before the birth of my daughter and who also held the massage training for our new born babies!!! Very funny!  

This week the oral examinations are starting and we are continuing until the 4th of July. Then...holiday for everybody!

I also have some interesting important news..all in next blog!!!!!