Monday 1st April 

Eagles-

Continuing work on the house. We are moving on to the Living Room. Introducing the vocabulary of common living room items.  Tonight, me and lisa prepared the lesson for our classes, we printed off vocabulary sheets for the lesson on the Living Room to ensure that children could see the words written after we spoke them as well. The classes went back to the normal groupings and the behaviour of the children overall was a little bit better.

Starters – 

Tonight I was using the story of Kim’s Birthday – which I have previously done with the class in Pompei. The children seemed tired and bored at the beginning of the lesson so I decided to and get them more awake and excited to learn by introducing party games and objects from in the UK. So for example- I asked the children if they knew what a balloon was and then showed them I had balloons for us to blow up and tie for our class party for Kim. The children immediately showed full attention. After they blew up their balloon I asked if they knew what to say in English to someone if it was their birthday. After we talked about that we wrote on our balloons ‘Happy Birthday Kim!’ and threw them around the classroom. The children were in a better mindset now to read the story and complete the tasks which they did very well. Afterwards I explained how to play: musical chairs, musical statues and other party games in English. They really enjoyed getting to move around and play in the classroom and use the words they had been learning to play the games. With this class, I think I am making the most progress in developing a good professional relationship with the children. I feel that we are all opening up to one another and the children are getting a lot more comfortable around me in the classroom so that they are not embarressed to make mistakes.

Tuesday 2nd April 

First B2 –

Tonights lesson was on travel and writing home or documenting your travel experiences by letters, emails or blogs.  We discussed the use of differnet language in writing depending on who we are writing to. For example- colloquial language to your friends such as “Hey you guys”. The teenagers work in pairs to write a piece of travel writing to either a friend or family member. We also discussed Gap Years, which came up in some of the travel writing. They had not heard of the term or the concept of a gap year. After I explained i then asked the class if any of them would like to do a gap year at some point and only one of the students raised their hands. I was a little surpised because I think it is an extremely commmon thing in Scotland to either take or want to take a gap year, to work or travel or try something different. They were surprised when they asked if I had taken a gap year and when I told them that I did not want to go to University because I wanted to work so I didn’t go to university until everyone my age from school had graduated the year or so before. 

Wednesday 3rd April

Eric (Business) –

Today we were looking at Employment and the important aspects that employers look for in a potential employee. We discussed what was important and not as important when hiring for a business.

Eagles  – 

Tonight we worked on the Living room again and revised vocabulary of items found in the living room. Tonights class I only had three children which I found a lot easier to cope with in terms of providing the best support I could for the children who were struggling. Two of Lisa’s boys asked to come through to my classroom to get away from the noise of the others in their classroom. In Italy it doesn’t seem as though schools have the same behaviour management procedures in place that are so important in schools in Scotland, because of this, it is really hard to know what you should and should not do to try help children to behave in a way that will benefit their learning.

Thursday 4th April

Pet 3 – B1 –

Comparing life in the UK and USA.

Different case studies looking at the differences in home life and school life in the uk and usa and then we compared to life in italy and the different things we think of each of the countries and why we think that… I really enjoy working with the class because I feel that it is improving my self-confidence in working with teenage students. This is something that in the first few lessons I was apprehensive about and I now feel I am getting more confident and comfortable in lessons.

Friday 5th April

Ket A2 

I’m not feeling very well

Today we were learning new vocab about illnesses and problems, about hospitals and staff. I feel that I organised the lesson well and ensured there were plenty of engaging and fun activities for the children to work on between the essential work they need to compelte in their handbooks. One of the games we played used flash cards of the vocabulary that they were learning. I am glad I prepared myself for plenty of active games with this class because they were a lot more engaged than they usually are. I feel that this made the lesson more memorable and enjoyable for all. 

Saturday 6th April 

Movers A1

Where? There and then

We were learning about using the correct terms for giving directions. This movers class has a lower ability than my other Movers class and I feel that it has taken time to accept the difference between the classes and change the way I approach lessons with this class. The children have a lower level of understanding and so I now ensure that the children have more time to discuss the topics before trying to respond to questions and have discussions.

 

 

Culture!

 

Wednesday 3rd April

Cooking Lesson with Ida-

Today we cooked another traditional dish from this area, Salsiccia e friarielli! (Basically sausages and broccolli) It was a nice and easy dish to make and so for the rest of the time Ida gave us a lesson in Italian focussing on being in a restaurant or cafe. The lesson she gave was really useful for the types of things I usually try to say in the restuarants or cafes and now I feel more confident in speaking after having more practice.

 

Thursday 4th April

Anniversary Party-

We were invited to join Daniela’s parents 45th Wedding Anniversary Party. The party was at their family home and was a brilliant night involving singing and dancing and congratulating the couple! The food that Danielas mum prepared for her party was beautiful and there was so much that she had spent days prepraring before the night. 

Saturday 6th April

Vietri Sul Mare – 

We decided to go explore the first place along the Amalfi coast after lessons, called Vietri Sul Mare.

It was a beautiful seaside town overlooking the sea. We walked around and looked in the homemade ceramic art shops. It was a wonderful afternoon out in the sunshine relaxing, although when we went to get a train home, we were stranded at the train station because the trains had gone on strike and we didn’t know about it in advance.

Thankfully, we have such a caring boss here in Italy, and she drove all the way to Vietri to pick us up.. On a Saturday night.

Sunday 7th April

Pompei Ruins- 

We finally got round to visiting the biggest tourist attraction near us.. The Pompei ruins!!

The site was a lot bigger than I expected, and even though I knew it was a town that was wiped out by the eruption of the volcano Vesuvius somehow, I didn’t quite understand the amount of people that were affected by the events in 79 AD

The ruins… for their age and for withstanding volcanic eruption are in incredible condition and you feel as though you have stepped back in time as you walk the cobbled streets. The whole experience was so enjoyable until halfway around the site when inside of the well-preserved homes was glass case containing a preserved body of a victim of the eruption. Of course, I knew many many people were killed in a horrific way in this site but until seeing that first body solidified in time, I didn’t really take in the enormity of the effect Vesuvius had on the beautiful town. After this, I also saw a dog, small child and man holding his baby further around the site. It felt emotional walking around and considering what everyone must have thought on the day that this happened.

Kebabs!

As soon as arriving here in Italy, I have felt extremely welcomed by Daniela (our boss) and her whole family! Last week we talked about what foods we liked eating at home and one of the things mentioned by someone was Kebabs.. We spoke about the differences and how in Scotland they are usually very greasy and not very appealing to most people. Daniela suggested getting a kebab takeaway from an Arabic shop she knew of. So after our Pompei experience we all went to get a kebab for each of us and her family.

We ate together at Daniela’s parents house and afterwards her mum tried to keep feeding us with food she had made throughout the day, fruit and Italian style artichokes.