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.