Insegnamento a Roma

    This past week was an exceptionally busy week of teaching! I started my week substituting different lessons for a few teachers and was then asked to teach three off campus lessons at a  company for businessmen. All the while, I started teaching my own class of students, which I will continue to teach on a weekly basis, and then finished the week by teaching conversational classes on friday! I spent the week traveling to few different locations to teach, since the school has four campuses, but I was told this week that I will now be based at the Prati campus, which is in my neighborhood and only a 5 minute walk from my apartment! Originally, I was told that there wasn't a need for new teachers in Prati, so I've been taking the metro to different areas of Rome to teach. Now that I started my own class in Prati, it looks like I'll be spending most of my time there, which is so convenient! I've taught all levels of students from beginner to advance and I usually have anywhere from 2 to 10 students. The ages have ranged from 18 to 60, but for most part I teach young adults. 

    The other teachers at the school have been so hopeful in teaching me all the ins and outs of the school and it has been so fun to meet people from all over. Many of the english teachers are American, but also English, Canadian, Scottish, Irish, and Australian. I almost had a panic attack at one point this week because my teaching schedule is constantly changing and I was asked to teach at a company for businessmen very last minute, and I didn't even have a full 30 minutes to prepare three lessons before I had to leave for the class.. I told one of my colleagues,   

  "Well it looks like I'm winging this one."  But one thing I've learned about living in Italy, is that nothing is organized and professional like in America, everyone is late, and everything is last minute. So I've learned to be flexible and go with the flow. I'm learning so much about teaching and my Italian students are all fascinated by me, since I come from the exotic land of California! Haha! They are always commenting on my strong accent! Ha! They often say that my accent is stronger than other Americans, but I think it has more to do with the inflection of my voice, like the way I tend to change my tone when I'm excited. 

  

   I absolutely love teaching, but now that I've started my own lessons with students, I feel a little overwhelmed, since I'm the one responsible for insuring that they will pass to the next level! However, I'm becoming more and more comfortable with teaching and I'm sure I'll learn even more on how to teach as I go.