So for those of you who don't know, I am currently studying Middle Childhood education. So it was quite lucky of me to find a teaching opportunity in Italy. I found out about this opportunity through a friend in my program. Turns out one of the camp directors is a Sigma Kappa and she found out that one of my friends in my program, who is also a Sigma Kappa, was studying in Italy. Well my friend couldn't do it so she passed it to another friend who told me about it. Luckily, they were still looking for another female teacher so I talked to my mom and she agreed this would be a once in a life time chance so I sent her an email and she was happy to have me. The camp started in June so I had to change my flight which was super expensive. I originally didn't want to buy a return ticket because I wasn't sure what would happen, but my consulate required that I had a return flight booked. So $500 later that was changed. I swear airlines are the biggest scams out there, but you can't put a price on something like this.
We stayed at the home of the director I contacted. She and her family live in a villa slightly inland so you can see the coast and the mountains from their. Balcony. It was nice though because all the teachers and one helper who was the sister of a teacher all stayed together. We got to bond and eat together. Plus getting to camp in the morning was easy because we didn't have to stop and get people.
We spent one week get things ready for the camp and writing up lessons plans. It was like real leason plans that I was used to writing. It was more like writing a desk lesson. Then there was two weeks of camp. We had about 40 kids at camp and I got a class of 9 boys and girls.
The schedule started with all the teachers and helpers arriving at 8:30am. At 9:30 we would do a little introduction and practice our group dance for the show the second week. At 10am they would have an hour of class were I would teach. The helpers were high school students that spoke English well and usually translated for me when I didn't know how. Usually when I had to explain games. Then they would have a half hour break for snack at 11am. Then thirty more minutes of class. At noon we would get ready to walk to lunch at a chalet on the beach very close to where the villa was. Then we would eat until 1:30pm and go back to the bills where we would have a break for an hour. After that would be art and crafts time until about 4pm we would then go to the beach until 5:30 where the children would get dressed and eat and ice cream or whatever snack they want. Then we would go back to the villa where children would get picked up by their parents at 6:00pm.
The first week was rough because it was hard getting on the schedule. Plus Italian children are really badly behaved because their parents think their children are angels and can do no wrong so many of them try to get away things. The children are very sweet though and love to have fun. They loved to play games so I tried to play as many as possible to get them moving.
We did have two mean girl groups who would run around and cause trouble to each other. There were usually a lot of "well she said this" "well she said that". It got a little annoying after a while, but I can't say that American children don't that.
I think their favorite part was going to the sea. I would always get asked like 60 times a day "when are we going to the sea?" I got to the point where I just said later and walked away or they would keep asking.
Even though it was rough and hard work, I got very valuable experience and I'm so glad I got to be there. I really loved the family and the people. This is truly unforgettable and I can't wait to see where the rest of my life takes me.
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