Work Week

This past week I taught English at Cate’s school which was a nice break in the routine and also a great way to give back to my host community. Typically, third or fourth year high school students take a week or two off of school as part of a school-sanctioned “work week” to gain work experience. Getting work experience during the year is also incredibly important to Italian students because, unlike in the U.S, there isn’t the same opportunity or expectation for Italian students to get summer jobs or internships. This week, most of my class worked in various schools throughout the region (normally at nursery schools or primary schools), but there were a few people who found work in a gym, library, or other local business.

Cate’s school is in the center of Carpi and serves grades K-8. The school itself is quite small, there are only one or two classes per grade, and I got to help out with the 5^th-8^th grade English classes. There’s a new English teacher at the school (the original teacher is on leave) so I wasn’t the only one learning the ropes this past week. The new teacher recently finished her collegiate studies and seemed excited to finally get a chance to put her knowledge to use!

The day normally consisted of three hours of lessons and then an hour or two grading tests/homework.  While the teacher gave the lessons, I assisted her in some explanations, and answered any grammatical/pronunciation questions that the students had. I also got the chance to give a presentation about Vermont in Cate’s class. I talked about the geography, history, typical foods and pastimes, etc. all in English, and it seemed as though most of the students understood.  But, one of the nicest parts of the week was my schedule. I only taught for 5 days, that’s right, I had Saturday off!!!!! 

The students were great to work with and seemed to be genuinely interested in me. I thought it was funny that the kids begged their teacher to leave some time at the end of the class period to ask me questions and learn more about life in the U.S. Overall, the work I did this week was really gratifying; I felt like I was able to generate some enthusiasm in the students and hopefully it made learning English enjoyable.