La Bella Lingua and Eat Pray Love reflection

I read La Bella Lingua by by Dianne Hales prior to embarking on this trip and I read Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert while on the trip. La Bella Lingua tells the story of how the Italian language shaped the country and how important it is to the people. The author tells of her love affair with the language and how learning it affects her. Se makes clear how when you lean a new language she possesses it and with her new language she truly learns to the language. I do agree with her that you have to have exposure to the language to fully have a n appreciation and understanding of the people. This book made me realize how beautiful the Italian language is and how even though it is only spoken in Italy still, its a language worth learning. Dianne captures the heart and soul of Italy by telling of the food, the rich history, and of course the language. The book was a nice introduction that got me so excited to come face to face with the places and language she writes about. It is true that Italians talk loud and fast, spend a great amount if time, money, and effort on food, and are proud of their countries rich history. Through living with a family, decoding Italian menus, and exploring places such as Pompeii and the Roman ruins, I feel like a got a small (yet so rich in culture) slice of the pizza that makes up the beautiful country on Italy. Before leaving for the trip my mother bought me a copy of Eat, Pray, Love. The main character is recently divorced and sets out for a self discovery journey to the country of Italy to focus on pleasure while battaling depression. I firsts thought the book would just be a way for me to pass time on long place and train rides but I found Elizabeth and mine Italian experiences overlapping quite a bit. Elizabeth's path was a little more depressing than mine but I ironically read the chapters about her traveling to Florence, Venice, and Rome the same time that I was in those cities. She tells of her interactions with Italian speakers that I can relate to, like how they use their hands when they talk. And how she eats gelato every day (yup did that). What i found the most interesting was reading about her thoughts on the cities. Her thoughts on Venice were similar to mine: an overly touristy place that is sinking but behind all the soot and dirty canals is a city that has so many stories to tell. Both women in both books empathize how even the most simple words sound more romantic and are more enjoyable to say in Italian such as towel (asciugamano) or handkerchief (fazzoletto). Reading both of these books helped make me have a greater appreciation for the romantic culture that Italy has. Italy- its language and people hold so much history that is worth exploring. 

Overall Reflection

Seeing and immersing yourself in another culture truly helps you understand your own. Through comparing a contrasting the American/ Italian school system I questioned aspects from both sides. Something I admired about Italian elementary schools was how well the teachers collaborated with one another. Since there are two teachers per class that stay with the same group of kids as they move up through Elementary school, they seem to truly complement each other and know where one teacher lacks the other teacher has a strong point. It goes back to how it take a village to raise a kid. I noticed how it was the relationship my host sister had with her two teachers and mom that added to her impressive English skills. Italian classrooms face similar struggles as American classrooms such as a wide range of ability and discipline. I do believe how the students get a break in the middle of the day to go home and eat lunch with their families helps with their attention spans. Overall, being around the students of the Gasparotto school, reaffirmed my passion for teaching and how as a teacher you get the opportunity to provide the fundamental knowledge that is going to stay with the students for the rest of their lives. When I was teaching the fifth graders one day, I stopped to have the English teacher ask the students if they were truly understanding what I as going over. She responded with "yes, they're following and can understand you, keep going they want to know more." The feeling I had in that moment has to be the same feeling rock stars get when their on stage or when a doctor competes a successful open heart surgery. That you're succeeding at your career passions.

I loved every minute of living with the Luvisotti's. Living with such a caring Italian family is how I got a taste of true Italian culture.  I went to water polo matches, sampled amazing desserts, went to their favorite pizzeria, witnessed parenting moments, went for afternoon espresso, shared stories about life experiences, went through family photo albums, played in family monopoly games, and learned what it was like to be a big sister. I leaned so much from Daniela about parenting and how to do everything you want to do before you settle down and have kids. She taught me that serving your family good food is important and you don't have to always be in a rush to get somewhere. Little Agnese taught me how to have a lot of energy and how to have fun even despite language barriers. Her English improved so much while I was there! She read my thank you note to the family aloud my last night there as the whole family was in tears thinking of the impact we left on one another.


I've also learned how traveling is the one thing you spend your money on that truly makes you richer. During my travels I met two teachers, First was the 88 year old women I sat next to on the plane from KCI to New Jersey. She shared with me touching stories of how her old students found their way back into her life down the road. Education really does come full circle. You can learn as much from your students as they learn from you. My own elementary school teacher commented on a Facebook post that got me sentimental thinking about the lifelong impacts teachers have on their students. (Jack Haupt and Linda Jackson were two of my favorite teachers)

Another teacher I met on the train from Siena to Rome. She noticed my KU Education luggage tag and we got to talking about her career in the Kansas City area school districts. What I learned from her is how we are able to share out experiences (especially travel expereinces) with our students. I can't wait to teach my students about ancient Rome and the lost city of Pompeii now that I've been there. 

Some journal's

short overall thought

As a teacher, there's no better feeling than seeing your students excited about learning something. . My heart was so full this day when the kids wanted to show me the cheer they made up "just like the KU cheerleaders" and give me "coffee Americano" (aka plastic cup with a Starbucks label). This experience goes to show that despite a huge language barrier, there is so much to learn (and be excited) about a new culture.
🇺🇸🌎🇮🇹 *And just for clarification: no the 4th of July parade does not go across the entire country and we do not eat bacon every day (I wish)

Lessons I taught/ Thoughts on teaching English

Fourth of July Lesson:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/10ZFdYjIcZ61IhsF7df5dU-z2ZS5l3iphixlW8pYxcsQ/edit?usp=sharing

After the presentation I had them draw pictures of how they would choose to celebrate the 4th of July

Intro/Food lesson:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1-fqfXQSRw0WOGJOsX7MYhsZEDDWKhYkqRa9xIYa2AOo/edit?usp=sharing

Did the memory game with printed our pictures of the food vocabulary

Compare/Contrast America/ Italian 5th graders"

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-E2UjyHu3qhImfIBWKGLynJyv67LvdKtKgurG4n0HKM/edit?usp=sharing

I had letters from American 5th grade students talking about which food and holidays they liked and what their favorite part of school was. Italian students had to listen for the vocabulary words then mark if they agreed or disagreed with the student. We learned that 12 year olds in both Italy and America love pizza!




Thoughts on teaching English:

Teaching English was not as easy as I thought it would be. I had to rely heavily on visuals and on my coordinating teacher to translate for me. I had to talk very slowly and repeat things many times. I felt as if my teaching was like a sifter where I throw a lot of information at them and hope at least some of it sifts through into new knowledge, When teaching concepts I had to focus on simplifying things and then elaborating and making sure to clear up and misconceptions early on. Overall, I thought teaching about American culture was much easier than trying to teach the language itself. My Italian teacher would make sure they were understanding what I was saying and I would provide the information on American food, holidays, schools, etc. I do believe that learning about the culture of the language your studying is vital however. I also was lucky enough to work with a 5th grade class who could hold a conversation in English.