Last but not least... Rome!!

Now there are a lot of tourist things that I accomplished in the last couple of days in Rome, but I also found myself realizing that this is the last place I will be to observe and take in the culture of this city. As we went on our first tour around the city to see all of the wonderful historical monuments that Rome is famous for we learned the story of the She Wolf and the boys that were raised by her to later become the founders of Rome. The She Wolf and the two boys are the symbol of Rome and all that they stand for in strength and determination.

Throughout this whole journey I have learned many things, but what has stuck with me the most is the understanding that culture and tradition have led to the mindset and respect that you see around Italy today. I am merely a bystander glancing into their lives and I will never be able to fully understand the determination they have to keep their culture alive within their children and families, but I know that I love just watching from the outside.

Rome was a clear example of taking history and restoring it to teach the past, we do this with children as well. We restore old knowledge to polish the new knowledge that we are trying to teach. If you enrich the students lives with things that directly relate to themselves and their culture, I believe that they would want to understand and know more about what you are teaching them.

We need to spend more time enriching students in determination because of reasons other than their testing. It is time to step back and look at things from another level, to take a look from a level of culture and understanding.

Siena

We now have reach the part of our trip where it is all about being able to observe the children and the culture of the city. We had a lot of time to relax and enjoy our surroundings, which is exactly what I took time to do. In our two days here I spent one night sitting in the main square just watching as the children played and enjoyed their time as their parents sat on the side line talking about their day. Sounds pretty normal right?

It is hard to imagines life without these small moments of time were laughter and childhood is all that matters. You are free to laugh and play as you grow. To me I have seen this situation many times in my life, but I always forget to take the time to actually observe it with open eyes. 

I know that I am here to take the time to observe the key aspects of this culture to be able to relate it back to my findings working with the children. But I also understand that I am here just taking a glance into their culture, and that everything I am learning is just the tip of the ice berg. 

Dinner with Contrada Della Selva. The cool thing about being in Siena is learning about the contradas. Separate little villages within one whole community that would compete against one another in the twice a year horse races. These little villages had their own churches and functions that they did on their own. It was the family that you were born into, and you had that community to support and help you when you needed it. Your contrada was your way of life in what you grew up learning and what you respected. 

Now of course thinking about having something like that back around the states, you can only think of the high hate rate you would have about contrada to contrada, but that is not the case here. You respect the other contradas for they are also in your community just a different part. Now that doesn't mean the competition rate was not high come race time, but other than that it was still community. 

Again this is where I started to realize how big respect of community and family fall into place within these cities and towns that I have been in observing. 

Observation time in Florence

Once again guys I must apologize for Internet that will not let me post my blogs! I have been documenting my notes on word and will transfer them into a blog as soon as it allows me to do so. It's a technology world and I'm just trying to get it to work with me!😝

Culture is most commonly misunderstood to be the same in all aspects for certain parts of the world, but I do not believe that is the case. One thing I have noticed moving around from city to city in the past couple of weeks, is that the cultures are very similar but each town has their own way of doing things. They are different in a way that makes them the same. The same goes for the United States. How many times have you heard, 'that's an American thing'. I hope you are as tired as hearing that as I am. I try not to generalize about Italy as much as people generalize about America, but it happens to everyone. In saying that as we are extremely different on some cultural things from state to state, or even from city to city that are a couple of miles apart. 

Locations have a lot to do with how culture is affected. In Aosta it was a widespread farming culture, which lead to fresh foods being a huge deal and agricultural focused schooling. When we relocated to Venice  we were able to see a whole new cuisine of adding more seafood and the culture of everything having to be imported in just to have daily things, a city on water is nothing like a city of farming! So why do we generalize the cultural aspects of things like this. Florence was a good mix of Aosta and Venice to me, but the main focus of the town was not agriculture or imports and fishing, it was art. A whole city dedicated to walking and breathing the art that influenced a country and the world for the most part. 

Sometimes I catch myself forgetting to take a step closer and look at the surroundings that I am around at the moment rather than generalizing on past experiences of the whole. I think we all catch ourselves doing that at some point! At this point of my trip I am finished with the observations in the classroom and have moved on to the next two portions of the class which is the focus of culture and cuisine. To be open to observe something so new to me, I have to pay attention to the smaller things in life. 

Without trying to generalize the whole in saying this, the smaller things in life here are some times the most important way to view things. All of the places I have been while traveling Italy have remained to focus on a slow pace style of life rather than rushing through things. From everything to taking your time while eating and having time to talk between courses, to enjoying nightly walks while eating gelato. I honestly don't know how I will be able to go back to a life style with no siesta in the middle of the day. I mean gave you ever heard of shutting down most of the town for a couple of hours from 2-4 just to go home and take a nap and then coming back? It sounds crazy but let me tell you it has been the best thing in the world. 

So enough of all of that, I just had it on my mind the past couple of days since I wasn't able to upload my daily post! My knowledge of opening up to the ideas of a different life style has grown beyond what I could ever imagine on this trip.. And I am still learning, but on to the fun things!!

In Florence I was able to meet David, because you have to meet David when you come to Florence... If you don't well that's just not okay. 

 

We were beyond excited to be able to take a few selfies with this amazing piece of art!

We also killed ourselves and our legs by climbing to the top of the Duomo, which was a total of 468 steps just to get up to the top! Then Greg and I went up the bell tower of the cathedral which was another 414 in one day... Go ahead you can call us crazy! I can assure you I have paid for it 😌  

This was the view from the top of the duomo! The bell tower which you see behind me is what we decided to climb next, I have learned that explorations is truly just the wake of bad planning!! 

We were able to watch many glorious sunsets from different locations such as the top of our private roof top! 

Pitti gardens, first off no husband would ever love me enough to allow me to build a home and garden this large just because I didn't like the castle I was given to live in the first time around! This was completely overwhelming with beauty, and just comes to show the amount of power and wealth were I'm some these families back in the day...

A really cool thing that we also got to witness totally by accident, was being in Florence for their Independence Day. They had a small ceremony where one representative from each branch of their military attended to take the time to thank each and every branch. 

 

Just like in the USA, we are beyond thankful for those that serve for this country and we take time to thank them!

Thankful for these fun experience that are guiding my way in exploration to better understand the cultural aspects of this city 😊

 

Creativity leading to Knowledge

I know I have once again been MIA for the past couple of days, but the internet here just does not want to work with me! I will just do a quick sum up of my week and then will talk about the amazing things that have happened today! Hang in there with me, this may be a bit of a long blog! :)

We arrived here Saturday and since then I have been very busy!

We visited another castle here in Vignola. which is where our hotel is located, again I still think that I was meant to be royalty. EXCEPT for the stairs, like how on earth did people ever go up and down on those things on a daily basis? Its not possible. End of story.

We also were able to go to go the Parmesan Cheese Factory to learn the how the year long process of making the real Parmesan Cheese is made. The smell was horrible and not my thing. But watching how mostly everything is still done by hand and the time and energy put into making sure the cheese is just right before it is sold was a pretty cool experience.

Along with the Cheese Factory we also were able to go to a Balsamic Vinegar Museum. We learned that there is a huge difference in the Balsamic Vinegar we are all use to and the correct versions of the ones that are made here and aged for a minimum of 12 to 25 years... I have also figured out that I like the true Balsamic on strawberries! Yummy.

I NEED ONE... I am talking about a Ferrari of course. I was meant to be a princess to live in the castles here, but I think my time period was off a little bit because I was also meant to have a Ferrari. This is of course my thinking after going to the Ferrari Museum here in Italy. Getting to look at every body style and the changes between the engines as they switch year models as well. I also learned that Ferrari made plane engines in WWll, which I found to be extremely interesting and did not know before.

Meeting the Mayor and School Day One!!

We traveled a short way to Marano sul Panaro a small city just outside where we are staying. We were able to meet with the mayor and discuss things that are going on in the town as well as in the schools.

Arriving at the schools in Marano sul Panaro was the most amazing experience in itself. The children created us with songs in the court yard, welcoming us into their school. This was the most overwhelming feeling of joy and happiness as this school openly welcomed into their classes.

We had a great lessons with Where's Walrus with two very different groups of students.

Today I opened my world to the child centered approach that lead me to wanting to become a teacher. The Reggio Emilia Approach. Creativity of the free mind can help children to create the process of learning and grow through self-expression and self-exploration.

In saying this I am not saying that I believe that the standards we have in place in the US are all bad, but in some cases they do take away the freedom of learning away from the children indirectly. In a pamphlet that they handed out to us today they had a section where the students talked about their school; one student quoted, "The school is beautiful and fun, you can play so much."

I believe that play is the best way for the younger students to learn, so for a student to enjoy coming to school to learn through play that is a beautiful thing in itself.

They take time in letting the students create their own knowledge of something, and then walk them through the process of how to correctly identify the right answer. In saying that they also do not believe in telling the students that they have the wrong answer yet they let the students try to figure it out in a different way.

Creating a sense of anything is possible through creativity and believing in yourself. One thing that we were able to see today that blew my mind was a project that the school and city let the students create. The students were told to create and design their ideal home. From the structure of the building to the things that were needed on the inside to make it feel safe and loving. Once the students finished their drawing the city took those to an architect and build the houses based off of the children design and sold the houses to raise money for the school. And the outcome was incredible.

Now of course this is not something that every town or school can do. Most do not have the money to build a neighborhood based off of children's designs but their are many other things that you can implement in your classroom for you students to believe in their work and have pride in their finish products. This is one of the most important things that you can instill in a child. To be proud of the work that they have done so that they will want to continue learning and want to learn even farther beyond your expectations as a teacher.

We are constantly learning.. Even outside of the classroom. So who is to be the judge that a typically classroom is the best learning environment?



ALSO, let me do a quick shout out to our amazing sponsor grandparents while we are here. I could not be more grateful for the time and energy these wonderful people have put into making this part of our trip run smoothly.

Bless their beautiful souls for wanting to deal with five annoying college kids all the time! They have fed us a traditional homemade four course Italian meal one of the nights that we have been here, where I literally ate till I could not breath! And they have also stopped at every single gelato place to buy us all some. Typical grandparents, always stuffing our faces :)

Playing catch up.. Past three days :)

Tuesday 19^th –  

Ciao Aosta!

                                                                                                                

Very short and sweet day. Got a little time to catch up on my sleep and relax a bit! I woke up to an even bigger market right outside my hotel, which could have been very bad for my wallet if I wouldn’t have told myself no a million times. We walked around and just enjoyed one of our last free days in Aosta!

We also got to stop in and go to our sister school here in Aosta, Universite De La Vallee D’Aosta, or University of Valle D’Aosta. We talked to the department head of the Education Program that they have there. It was a really neat to be able to talk about future programs that will be coming to this school to learn about the education system here in Aosta and how they implement their student teaching processes. It is very different from what we do in the US. Here the go for five years instead of four and they also only have only have 400 practicum hours in the classroom throughout all five years, compared to our 532 squeezed into two years. Sound like they have stress free semesters… meanwhile were over here killing ourselves to make it through.

I am very proud to be one of the first students to participate in this program and to help build connections for future students who attend this trip like the one we established at the university today.

 

Wednesday 20^th –

High school silliness all over again…

Today I enter a high school classroom as a future teacher instead of a student. This was a weird experience for me. I am very use to having my little ones in the classroom and being much older than them, but being very close in age to the students is very different. It was interesting to be able to discuss the differences in the educational systems with them instead of just observing the differences like I do in the early childhood classroom. I learned a lot about not just the differences in the school but the culture as well. The students do not work or play sports throughout schooling they dedicate their time only to studying and their schooling. They attending school from 8 to around 1:20 and then go home to study for their schooling. Of course you know how crazy that sounds to us… As a country we put so much emphasizes on working and playing sports if you have the ability. We believe that things like sports and working throughout school will help build character and will power. As a person that grew up working and playing three sports I am not totally sure if that is the case. I did gain certain aspects of responsibility but not everything.

Slow pace living and enjoying the moments is something that is respected here. I sometimes wonder if that is what we are missing not only in our school systems but in life as well. Are we too busy to notice what is going on around us? Are we too busy to just enjoy life?

We went on a nature walk after going to the high school which after contemplating rushing through life made me stop and take in the views just a little bit more. The walk was very fun to be that close to the top of the mountains again and also to see some historic bridges as well. History surrounds this place in so many different ways it is hard to grasp the full concept of it. 

Thursday 21^st –

Getting Sea-legs!

Today we finally arrived in Venice, after a four hour train ride… Not so sure about that but I did finish my blog catch up on the train, so that was nice!

I will say the train ride was well worth the wait. Venice is amazing, from the second we stepped off the train we boarded at water taxi and were riding the boat to the hotel. The fact that this whole city is made up of just islands connected by walking bridges is just simple amazing to think about, better yet to see. Since we got here later in the day there wasn’t too much to do but walk around just a little bit and grab a bite to eat. As I sit here now and type this up the rain is pouring down.. I can only hope that it will be gone by morning to get more wonderful pictures of this place and to learn more about their city. 

Monte Blanco AND First Day of Classes

I was so tired yesterday after my adventure that my blog just got pushed to the side, so tonight I will make it up for you guys and talk about both new experiences!

Monte Blanco

I bet you all did know I was a mountain climber, did you? Well this type of climbing I can do. Two different ski lifts and 300 stairs later I made it to the top of Mont Blanc in Courmayeur, Italy. 15,000ft and the highest point in Europe.. I couldn't believe my eyes. The view was breath taking. The climb was harder than expected due to the thin air and the cold weather, but what took me by surprise was at the top the weather was quite warm... I even saw some people almost sunbathing at the top.. not for me but it was warmer than the climb!

I do not really have much to say about the mountain because the site from the top is simply indescribable! I was simply speechless then and I am still speechless now!

THE DREADED FIRST DAY.....

Just like every student dreads the first day of classes.. not knowing what it would be like, not knowing who you will be friends with that year, or even what you will wear! Teacher dread the first day just as much.. what will we teach, how will our lesson go, will they understand me, and even worry about what the students will be like. 

Well today I had that nervous feeling times 10. I am in a entirely new culture and still trying to understand a new language...

But after all that worrying I had a completely amazing and perfect experience.

The schools are much different from those in the US and I was amazed at the ways these students were able to add art and music into everyday things and do it so well. All of the student spoke three different language, although not always perfectly, they spoke English, Italian, and French... which blew my mind. Can you even begin to imagine a world were every ten year old knew three different languages and were still learning more?

The students respected the teachers because all of the teachers made sure that they were treated as equals in their learning. They did not always give them the answer to the question, they maybe instead asked the student a question that would lead them to answer their own question. To me this may be the main difference to the ability levels in the students of the US and of Italy, The students were challenged to dig into their schemas and find their own answers, the teacher would help them put not quickly give the answer. They have a broader thought process than those of the students that the answer is given right away. 

The students took as much time asking questions and learning about me as I did trying to learn about them. They were very intuitive and wanted to know very interesting things about what our country looked like. The students found it to be profoundly hilarious that we didn't have any mountains where we were from. Mountains are something that they are very normal to them... and of course their mountain are nothing even close to what we would normal think of anyway.  

I got in with the students and did several art and reading activities in groups and we did a song and dance as a whole. So although we did work with the students this was more of an observation and getting a feel of their schooling day. I enjoyed my time working with the students and can not wait to do many more studies with them. I am loving learning more about the way they are learning in their schools. 

I think I was meant to be Royal....

From one norm to the other...

I started my day rising with the sun beaming in my room through my open windows and listening to the market start to scurry underneath. Somehow I was not mad about this awakening, because again I was able to look out at the view and suddenly find peace. 

The Market was a new adventure to me... the people bargaining and pushing things for you to buy on you telling you that you needed it now. The first few little vendors I was not able to get anything knocked down off the price... but as the day went on, with help from my Italian professor, I was able to get some pretty good prices on some neat things. 

The Market was busy with everything from clothing and shoes to fruits and vegetables. The variety and assortments of things was worth walking around and looking even if you were not looking to buy. The funniest thing though was seeing the American stuff at a much higher price than anything else.. I am beginning to think I should have brought things to sale. I would have made a pretty good penny up charging everything.

Andddddd thennn.....

I was meant to be royal... no doubt in my mind :)

Can you tell we visited a castle to day? I have fallen in love with the beauty of this place since the first second I laid eyes on the mountain tops, but this castle had nothing on that. I got in some of the most incredible shots. 

We went to the Sarre Castle which is overlooking the Dora Baltea River in part of the Aosta Valley. Part of the castle was built in the 12th century which made the architecture of this location incredible to still have original standing buildings. Of course the building has been through several restorations throughout its time, but has some much original details that just looking at it takes your breath away. I could not possible imagine what it would be like to wake up in a castle looking at this amazing view and having breakfast in the main court yard underneath the grape vine terraces. 

I am pretty sure I could have spent all day here just looking around and taking pictures.. you just cannot get this kind of beauty with age anywhere else and I am still in aw of it.

Day 2 of exploring is down... tomorrow I will conquer Mont Blanc stay tuned for pictures of the mountain tops ahead!!!

Ciao'