Italian Schools and Universities

Now that school has started for kids in Italy, our class is visiting quite a number of schools this week. This morning, we headed back to the Manin Middle School at the central district office building. We split into three groups of five and all attended different classes. My group sat in on the History and Geography class. I was excited at first because history and geography are two of my favorite subjects.

But, boy, did it get boring quickly.

Aside from the fact that everything was in Italian, the teacher leading this group of 20 fifth graders liked to lecture a little too much. Honestly, I was shocked that the kids were handling things so well. I don't remember having a lecture like this in 5th grade. In fact, I don't remember really getting a lecture like this until high school maybe. Then again, I went to a school for many years where I learned out of booklets instead of from a teacher teaching the class...

Sitting in the back of the classroom, you definitely notice a lot more things. I noticed some of the boys in the back, picking on a young boy, whom Manka said seemed to be having trouble catching up. The stuff they were doing--like putting their hands on the boy's books--stuff that little boys in 5th grade do to annoy other kids. The teacher didn't pay any attention though, and in fact, seemed a bit of touch with what goes on in a classroom.

She had the class follow along as one of the students read out loud, which would've been a neat experience except that many of the students did not have school supplies. If I were a kid in her class, I would've fallen asleep through this experience.

The school itself was extremely diverse. I spent a few minutes talking to Melissa and Elena, who were Chinese. It was nice to put my Chinese to action.

After the visit, a bunch of us went to the Santa Maria Maggiore Church right outside the school. 'Twas pretty massive. A few pictures below:

At the University of Rome campus, ...

In the afternoon, we headed to the University of Rome to speak with some graduate and doctoral students who are in a masters program focusing on immigration. It was interesting because while all the grad students were interested in immigration, but not as a many of them focused on education.

Our conversation at the University of Rome was mostly just an open forum where we could discuss some of the challenges that immigrant children face. We stayed a bit longer afterward to talk with the grad students to get their thoughts on our research.

Tomorrow, we have to present on our topic at the Rome Center and still have a bit of work to do on our PowerPoint. Alright, I'm going to bed. Completely exhausted...I keep writing random things in my blog as I'm struggling to stay awake to write this. More tomorrow!