Wednesday, June 25, 2014

City with a View

The past two weeks I've been traveling around Italy with my dear friend and her husband. We hit all the important cities for a first time trip to Italy, such as Florence, Rome, Venice, and of course Bologna! 

The best way to view the city is from up above. So we climbed the Cupola in Florence and Rome and the Towers in Bologna. 
3 euros and 498 stairs up to the top of the Torre Asinelli. Such a beautiful view of Piazza Maggiore. 
10 euros and 463 steps to the top of the Cupola of the Duomo Santa Maria dei Fiori.
                                     

7 euros and an elevator ride plus 321 stairs up to the Cupola of Saint Peter's Basilica. 

Monday, June 9, 2014

End of School

School has ended which means Summer has started! 

It has been a wonderful academic year. I started working for a new school in the fall as the native language English assistant. I had the opportunity to work with the elementary school, middle school, and high school. Working across the board on all ages definitely kept things interesting and I got to see what age groups I really enjoy working with the most. 

Every grade as their ups and downs but in the end I have to say high school was my favorite age group to work with. Working with the elementary school was a blast and the kids are so adorable. They love you for really no reason at all. They come up to you with big hugs, little presents, and lots of drawings they've made you. However if I were to work them all day, every day, I think I would go crazy because they are so little and need direction and help in everything they do. The teacher I worked with is amazing with the kids and she definitely deserves a lot of credit for her work. 
As almost everyone knows middle school is a rough age group to work with. I had never really worked directly with middle school kids before and I had heard people say that it's difficult. This year I had a taste of what it's really like and what everyone says is true. These kids think they're older than they are, but don't want to take responsibility for anything, and are too cool to be smart. Many lessons felt like pulling teeth. All teachers who choose to work in the middle school must be saints. 

In Italy high school lasts 5 years, not 4 like in the States. So what would be our 9th, 10th, and 11th grade still need quite a push and some encouragement to get them to study, do their homework, and really care about their work. But the students in their last two years are almost adults and so when teaching you can go more in-depth, expect good results, and joke with them. 

For the last day of school, the whole school (around 500 students) walked up San Luca to the Sanctuary of the Madonna di San Luca. The church is located up on one the Bolognese hills and you walk up 666 porticoes to reach the top. As we were walking, one of my students told me that the porticoes are like a snake and the sanctuary at the top crushes the snake's head.
Now that school is out and the weather is nice, Luca and I are able to spend our weekends at the beach in Castiglioncello. We've been enjoying lying out in the sun, relaxing, and reading. Let the summer roll on! 

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