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 :)