The adventure continues. A new component was added to the team repertoire as Michelle tutored a student who had failed her English exam. Working one-on-one at the Galileo High School, Michelle assisted her student in the proper use of various verb tenses. Initially withdrawn, her student soon opened up and a successful session quickly went by.
Other members of the team continued their work at the Linguistic High School, with either students or teachers, helping them improve their knowledge and understanding of this often-confusing language. Martha and I continue to work at the church school. I have listened to Martha's work on verbs, sentences and pronunciation as I await the arrival of my students. I am thankful that she chose to work with the less advanced students. Here ability to connect with her students and her passion to teach come through with each lesson. I cannot imagine a better person for this group.
As for me, I had two students this morning, Salvatore and Roberto. Changing work schedules continue to shift my students between the morning and evening classes. I spent time with Salvatore talking about his work installing solar panels around the world. He has clients from China coming in this week. A trip to Shanghai may be in his future. Working one-on-one with him I can see and hear his confidence increase almost by the minute. This is why I am here. Roberto is 40 and is a sometimes-employed electrician and bartender. Although his English-speaking ability is a little less developed, he eagerly spoke about his four tattoos which were designed and inked by his friend, who is Monopoli's best tattoo artist, Antonio Todisco (Macko Tattoo). As all of my students now know, I love maps and they are my favorite teaching tools. Roberto took my map of Monopoli and gladly added the name and location of Monopoli's best tattoo shop to my heavily-marked-up map which already showed Monopoli's best restaurant, gelato, pizzeria, beaches, etc. I have found that regardless of a person's ability to speak English, they will always tell you with pride about the place they live in, their city and their country. After a wonderful, almost "vegetarian" lunch at Portofoca we returned to the hotel by various routes.
This evening at the church school it was pretty much business as usual, with the exception of EK filling in for Valerie after she twisted her ankle on some uneven pavement earlier in the day. Philip began our session with seven students by talking about his metal, reusable water bottle and why there doesn't seem to be any discernible local recycling effort. Recycling eventually led to waste disposal and how the Mafia controls the waste disposal business (particularly in Naples). We were assured that the Mafia no longer operates in Monopoli, not since the conviction of "Easy Gun" ten years ago. The Italian vs. US penal systems were compared--and then it was 8:00pm. Once again we have been fortunate to find the correct sequence of topics to take us magically through the entire session.
- Jeff
Other members of the team continued their work at the Linguistic High School, with either students or teachers, helping them improve their knowledge and understanding of this often-confusing language. Martha and I continue to work at the church school. I have listened to Martha's work on verbs, sentences and pronunciation as I await the arrival of my students. I am thankful that she chose to work with the less advanced students. Here ability to connect with her students and her passion to teach come through with each lesson. I cannot imagine a better person for this group.
As for me, I had two students this morning, Salvatore and Roberto. Changing work schedules continue to shift my students between the morning and evening classes. I spent time with Salvatore talking about his work installing solar panels around the world. He has clients from China coming in this week. A trip to Shanghai may be in his future. Working one-on-one with him I can see and hear his confidence increase almost by the minute. This is why I am here. Roberto is 40 and is a sometimes-employed electrician and bartender. Although his English-speaking ability is a little less developed, he eagerly spoke about his four tattoos which were designed and inked by his friend, who is Monopoli's best tattoo artist, Antonio Todisco (Macko Tattoo). As all of my students now know, I love maps and they are my favorite teaching tools. Roberto took my map of Monopoli and gladly added the name and location of Monopoli's best tattoo shop to my heavily-marked-up map which already showed Monopoli's best restaurant, gelato, pizzeria, beaches, etc. I have found that regardless of a person's ability to speak English, they will always tell you with pride about the place they live in, their city and their country. After a wonderful, almost "vegetarian" lunch at Portofoca we returned to the hotel by various routes.
This evening at the church school it was pretty much business as usual, with the exception of EK filling in for Valerie after she twisted her ankle on some uneven pavement earlier in the day. Philip began our session with seven students by talking about his metal, reusable water bottle and why there doesn't seem to be any discernible local recycling effort. Recycling eventually led to waste disposal and how the Mafia controls the waste disposal business (particularly in Naples). We were assured that the Mafia no longer operates in Monopoli, not since the conviction of "Easy Gun" ten years ago. The Italian vs. US penal systems were compared--and then it was 8:00pm. Once again we have been fortunate to find the correct sequence of topics to take us magically through the entire session.
- Jeff
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