My Typical Thursday at Maria Luigia School

I have only recently begun my international practicum because the first portion of my program was in Florence for the month of September. In October, the Parma portion of our program began. Each Thursday from 7:50am to 1:00pm, I am at my international practicum placement.

My international practicum placement is at Maria Luigia in Parma, Italy. Maria Luigia is an K-12 Italian school. It is Catholic, and there is an option to board at the school; however, most of the students are local Italian day students. I am an Elementary Education major at BC and my previous pre-practicum placement was in a second grade classroom. In Parma, my students are in the equivalent of American seventh and eighth grade. I have never worked with this age group in the classroom, so it should be interesting! In addition to working with an age group I have not worked with before, I am anxious about not speaking proficient Italian as my students are only beginners in the English language. Parma is a small city in Northern Italy where a majority of the population does not speak English. I am only taking Italian class for the first time this semester. I know it will be challenging to communicate entirely with my students. This means that I have had to work on my nonverbal communication, which I think is a good teaching skill to have.

My schedule consists of five different English Language classes with five different groups of students. Three of my classes are my Supervising Practitioner’s and the other two are two other teachers at the school. Classes begin at 8am and the teachers immediately commence the lesson for the day after taking attendance. I have been surprised by the amount of responsibility I am given in the classroom. Beginning my very first day at Maria Luigia School, I taught through the entirety of periods of the five classes.

Each week, my Supervising Practitioner and I discuss the week’s progress and decide on a topic for me to present about the following week. Thus far, I have taught lessons on me and where I come from (California), California History, Earthquakes and Wildfires, and food. I prepare a PowerPoint presentation so that I can include pictures, text, and engaging graphics to go alongside my English spoken presentation. At first, I felt perplexed as I did not have specific lesson objective outwardly assigned by my teacher. I am accustomed to the more communicative and specific Supervising Practitioners I have worked with in Boston. In Parma, my Supervising Practitioner’s main goal for me is to engage my students in conversation. Therefore, with the goal of students learning English, I have more freedom and challenge myself to be creative with my lessons and put more of a “personal touch” on my lessons. I appreciate this opportunity as I have felt that teachers in the US are under pressure to teach to the test; thus, creativity can be constrained by curriculum mandates. I am looking forward to planning my presentations and future lessons!