Let's continue the Erasmus symphony!
Here I am at my second such experience, but this time for job shadowing. If last time we talked about Barcelona, Spain, this time we are moving to Italy, in the Piedmont region, at the intersection of two important trade routes. The first, connecting Milan to Turin and the second, connecting Genoa to Switzerland. More precisely, at the Technical Industrial Institute "Giuseppe Omar" in Novara.
Noara, in the Piedmont dialect, or Naura, in the Lombard dialect, is the wonderful city, with a medieval appearance, that hosted my second Erasmus adventure from 18th to 23rd of April this year. I was accompanied by my colleagues Nistor Elena, history teacher in our high school, and Mrs. Director, Anghel Cristina, physics teacher. I teach music education and I say: “let's hum some impressions”!
During this mobility period I had the opportunity to meet many interesting and passionate teachers and students from the Institute to which we were invited. We attended classes in physics, Italian and history, religion, chemistry, laboratory, mathematics. We watched the classes with attentiveness and curiosity, as afterwards we debated by making correlations between what happens in our high school and what happens at the "Omar" Institute. We were invited to see the biology laboratory where the pharmacist, at the same time, biology teacher presented us with their new acquisition (by accessing European funds): a wastewater treatment plant and breeding station for algae, algae from which students and teachers try to make masks, paper, creams and so much more.
We were shown the school with all the annexes where classes can be held, how the Institute works and what are the stages for assimilating the skills that lead to training students. We had a very orderly and efficient schedule where we went into assist and support for four hours a day, after which we had hours for free discussions and debates, depending on what we watched in class. We viewed classes of the first four years of high school and here I want to point out that the Institution we have visited has a five-year high school period, compared to our four-year system.
Some aspects that caught my eye during job shadowing were:
- The class system is different from ours. Even though classes, like here, are 50 minutes long, the difference is that there are no breaks in between them. The first break is after the first three hours and is 15 minutes long after which another three hours follow. The teacher moves from one class to another, and for time “lost” when switching classes, he provides some “availability” hours for whatever activity the high school requests.
- The transition from one class to another without a break, only when the exchange between teachers is done, does not leave the students unsupervised throughout the six-hour course.
- The material taught is not as dense as it is in Romania, which allows the student to assimilate the information easier and gain a better understanding of the main concepts.
- The student is evaluated test based only and the grade is not rounded in the electronic catalog.
- Each student with disabilities has a support teacher and inclusion of such students is well supported by both parties: students and teachers.
- There was a minimum of 7 students in the classes, a maximum of 15-18 students, which makes collaboration between teacher and students to be more relaxed and effective in terms of knowledge.
- All mathematical calculations, even the simple ones, are done by the students with the computer. Also, the textbooks for Italian students are not free!
I would like to portray the fact that this experience helped me develop abilities as per below, as well as some “food for thought” ideas like:
- identifying strong and problematic points (when facing the actual implementation of possible solutions or professional approaches) → to do’s and to don’t’ s in teaching.
- analyzing teacher- student dynamic → pros and cons: rigorous versus empathetic- how much is too much involvement of the teacher and how much is less of it?
- dealing with challenging and unexpected situations in teaching → different approaches from teachers regarding difficult students- what is a teacher’s worth in the eye of the student?
Raising such ideas and experiencing diversity regarding teaching will help us find out more answers in the future, as well as be a generator for change in teaching so we would become the best version for our students that we guide.
I suppose by the end of this article, you are wondering if I liked this whole job shadowing experience. The answer is YES! I liked it and I would like to thank the wonderful Alina Popescu, physics teacher from the "Omar" Institute in Italy, born, raised, and educated in Romanian schools. She was our mentor, guide and friend throughout the time spent in the "Giuseppe Omar" Industrial Technical Institute, but also in Novara. Grazie di tutto cuore!