More Classroom Observations

Before I write about the brief visit to Venice I thought I'd share some observations I've been jotting down about what goes on in my school. In no particular order:

1. The children bring water bottles and are allowed to drink from them whenever they like.
2. School begins at 8:30 and there's a snack break about 10:30, followed by a 20 minute recess outdoors. The snacks are usually brought from home, and consist of bread or some packaged "junk food" item, and sometimes a juice box. However, there is a vending machine just outside my classroom, selling half-liter bottles of water for only .30 Euros (about 50 cents....much cheaper than in the U.S.), and various other carbohydrate snacks. I have never seen a piece of fruit eaten at snack time. There is also a vending machine selling all sorts of coffee (tiny plastic cups of freshly made espresso) and hot chocolate, again, very inexpensive.
3. At the back of the classroom is a huge roll of soft paper towels (softer than what we use at home to clean up) which the children use to blow their noses in....and there's a lot of nose blowing!
4. In my class the desks are in rows but grouped in twos. There are 2 Guilias (Julia) sitting together in the front row, and just behind them are 2 Giovannis. I think that may just be a coincidence, I haven't asked the teacher.
5. Until 5th grade, the girls wear pink smocks over their clothes (apparently to keep them clean), and the boys wear blue smocks. I'm told this is each school's option, but by 5th grade the smocks are "history."
6. Every child has several kinds of pencil boxes. The girls seem to all have pink ones, and you can guess the popular color of the boys' boxes. These boxes may contain regular pencils, colored pencils, pastel chalk, highlighters, watercolor markers, erasers, and so on.
7. Workbooks are stored in bins or cubbies in the back of the room. The kids use their own paper when writing, but for certain projects are given tracing paper, something I haven't seen since childhood.
8. The classroom has one map of Italy and one World map. I should have brought a large U.S. map, but wrongly assumed every classroom would have maps of all the continents. Oh, well.
9. In a classroom in a nearby school where our study abroad group meets every Tuesday afternoon there's a crucifix above the blackboard, but I haven't seen one in my school.
10. There is no Italian or EU flag in the classroom, so no pledging of allegiance in the morning.
11. The science book teaches about evolution. As far as I know, nobody takes issue with this.
12. Unless the students are taking a test (for which the adjoining desks are separated), there is a good bit of noise in the class. When the teachers have tolerated all they can, they let the kids know enough is enough by using a voice that projects in a volume and pitch such as I've never heard in America! They all seem to have that particular talent. It's impressive and effective and used sparingly. Of course, they also are masters of what I call "The Look." It could reverse Global Warming!

That'll do it for now. Next time I'll describe our short weekend in Venice and will attach more pictures. Busy day tomorrow and Thursday. In class on Thursday I will tell my class about SC and my home area of New England. I've brought the kids some Maple Sugar candy and some decorative (fake) Maple leaves as they appear in the Fall. I wanted to bring them a treat that's uniquely American. Also, I'll talk about Clemson Elementary School. The principal there gave me a short CD the kids have made about their school, so I'll show that in class. I'll also talk about an aspect of American culture that they probably never hear about: the role of African Americans in our history. I have a set of cards (about the size of playing cards) called Great African Americans. Each one has a photo (or drawing, if the person lived before photography) on an important African American on one side of the card and an interesting summary of that person's accomplishments. The teacher was especially keen to use these. I think it's so important that we expose these children to Americans other than Pop Stars!

Over and out for now.