Syracuse University anthropology major Ella Roerden came to Florence on the Discovery Program, meaning it was her first-ever college semester. She reflects here on her internship teaching English at a local elementary school called Madre Mazzarello in a neighborhood north-east of downtown about a 20-minute walk from SU Florence.
Madre Mazzarello is a private Catholic school formerly run by nuns that is now part of a coalition system. There are separate areas for babies and toddlers, but I spent my time with the students aged 6-9. I went there on Tuesday afternoons for two hours, spending the first seventy minutes in the third-grade classroom, assisting them with their homework. The third grade’s homework day is Tuesday, and the students often have English, Italian, math, and history or geography work. Oftentimes during that period students were not on their best behavior for the teacher present, but I was usually able to help maintain some semblance of order and worked often with kids one-on-one to help keep them on task.
For the last fifty minutes of my Tuesday shift, I joined my site supervisor, the English teacher Chiara, in one of the second-grade classes. We would usually lead the kids through a few pages from the workbook, working through it together on the board. The school’s English curriculum includes a lot of audio and video components, and some craft options to keep the children engaged learning English at such a young age. The second graders were usually pretty well behaved for us and were fun to work with.
On Thursdays, I went to the school for three hours, but it was a bit different than Tuesdays. I arrived at the school in time for the group lunch, with all five classes and the other teachers in the cafeteria, what they call the “canteen.” When I walked in, students would flag me down to sit at their table. Occasionally, they would ask me questions in English, and that happened more and more frequently as the weeks went on. It was really nice to be able to see the kids interact in a less academic setting.
After lunch was recess. The kids would go out to the school yard with some of the teachers, and I joined them. Sometimes kids would invite me to play with them or talk to them or watch them do something, and it was very fun to feel accepted and appreciated by them. After recess, I joined English teacher Chiara in the first-grade class. It was often a bit more challenging, because the first graders are the youngest and there are also two extreme troublemakers in that class, with no teaching assistants other than me.
After the hour in first grade, Chiara and I went to the third grade, which was always the best. Unlike in their homework period on Tuesdays, they behaved really well for Chiara in English lessons. Because they’re the oldest of the kids that I worked with and they’re the ones I spent the most time with, I got to know most of them really well and they spoke the most to me in English. I made strong connections with some of them, which I’m really happy about, and I hope that I’ve been a positive influence on their educational experience.
The third grade specifically has an important mandated English exam at the end of the school year, which is partly why Chiara wanted me to spend the most time with them, to practice with a native English speaker. Chiara and I did some mini lessons about how holidays like Halloween and Thanksgiving are celebrated in America. For first and second grade it was mostly coloring, whereas in third grade I was able to explain more and show them some things because they have a higher level of English comprehension.
My birthday fell on a day that I went to the internship, and I let my supervisor know in advance, so when I arrived to the third grade that day, I was greeted with the kids all shouting “happy birthday” and running up to hug me (and then all of them continued saying it to me for the rest of the time I was there), and when I got to the second grade, they all sang the happy birthday song (in English) to me! It was very sweet and made me feel very appreciated. I loved getting to know the kids over the course of the semester, and some of the other teachers too. I was very satisfied with my internship, and I am so glad I did it!