Home Sweet Rome!

The Colesseum

The Roman Forum  

Home Sweet Rome!

The Pantheon!

This past weekend Emily and I had the opportunity to go to ROME for a few days!  We flew out from Thessaloniki Friday afternoon and landed in Rome in time to explore the city before dark.  And by explore I mean eat lots of pasta and drink lots of wine. I definitely ate more bruschetta than I saw monuments but I am more than okay with that!

We flew through RyanAir for less that 100 euro per person round trip and stayed in a hostel/B&B on Via Del Corso, a street in the center of the Roman historical district (between Porta del Popolo—the gate to the city---and the Piazza Venezia) for less than 100 euro for two people the ENTIRE weekend.  It was the perfect location and price for two young travelers.  We were able to walk to every monument we wanted to see. Emily and I never even purchased or looked at a map. We just kind of wandered and asked for directions in broken English, Greek, and Italian when necessary.

The piazza opposite the Pantheon!

On our first evening we decided to hop from bistro to bistro to pig out. At our second stop, we sat next two an older couple from Texas in Rome for a cruise. We had a lovely talk about Italy and Greece. They found out I was from Kentucky and it turns out that they raise Arabians and Saddlebreds. They told us that they had been married for over 49 years, have no kids, and are traveling the world. Then they bought our dinner.  What a small sweet world we live in.

What We Saw:

We started out Saturday morning looking for the Trevi Fountain. Emily was convinced that this was her opportunity to throw in a coin for true love. Unfortunately for her, and every other tourist in Rome it seemed by the size of the crowd, the Trevi Fountain is under construction and has been completely dried up and blocked off for tourists. Emily was devastated. She had planned her entire trip around going to this one site only to be left disappointed.

The oculus of the rotunda.

Inside the Pantheon

After being let down by the fountain, I navigated our way to the Pantheon. I’ve always been a big nerd for historical churches and after reading Dan Brown’s conspiracy theories involving the site I knew I had to see it. For those that don’t know, the Pantheon was originally built around 100 AD as a temple for all of the Roman Gods to replace another more ancient temple. The columns and the inscription from the first structure still stands and the rotunda was added in the remodel. After 600AD the Byzantine emperor converted the building into a church and removed all of the sculptures and carvings glorifying the Roman Gods. The structure of the building looks very similar to the Rotunda in the center of Thessaloniki although it was build several hundred years later. I read that one of the most unique and fascinating things about the building’s architecture is that if the dome were flipped upside down, it would fit exactly into the sanctuary.  Also, the oculus at the top of the building was never closed so rain would fall directly into the building and was then drained into pipes. I was definitely geeking out about the math involved in constructing a building as symmetrical and complex as the Pantheon.

The Venezia Palace in Piazza de Venezia.

The Pantheon still functions as a church and is also the burial site of THE Raphael and the first Italian king Vittorio Emanuele II. And it was free admission!

Later we walked to the Piazza Venezia next to Trajan’s Forum. The piazza is named after the palace built by Cardinal Venezia. The building was finished in the 15^th century and belonged to Pope Paul II.  It was the home of the popes until Pope Pius IV. Then it was an embassy and eventually taken over by Mussolini. I read that Mussolini would give speeches from the palace balcony. Now it’s a museum.

Next we strolled past Trajan’s Forum on a quest to acquire more pasta and wine. This used to be Rome’s central area of trade and lawmaking in the second century AD. I wish we had spent more time reading about the forum but pasta and bruschetta were really our priority at the time.

Outside of the Palace Venezia.

After eating a small mountain of bread, pasta, mushrooms, and gelato, Emily and I rolled on down to the Colosseum. Most people know that the Colosseum hosted live entertainment for the Romans and their emperors like bullfighting, gladiator fighting, races, and executions. Staged hunts took place using live animals and convicts. It was also the site of many staged dramas or reproductions of battle scenes. The structure is enormous—the largest amphitheatre in the world. The stage floor has been removed and the “backstage” (holding cells) are exposed. The seating at the Colosseum was constructed based on the Roman class system. The closer to the stage, the more important you were. Now the Colosseum is part of the Roman Catholic Church and is still used for religious ceremonies—the more you know...

Next we went to the Palantine Hill, the supposed site of the cave that Romulus and Remus were raised by a she-wolf. We also went to the Roman Forum in the valley between Venezia and the Colosseum. This area was the urban center and central square of Rome. The entire area was full of markets, temples, inns, and government buildings. This is one of places that the Senate would gather, making it one of the hearths of democracy. When you picture Ancient Rome this is what you imagine. Now all that remains are ruins and a few Corinthian columns. You have to use your imagination to fill in the blanks.

The Colosseum

After that, Emily and I decided that we should probably eat more pasta soon so we returned to the hostel to change and set out looking for a place to gorge on all that Italy had to offer. So we ate. A LOT. And were in bed by ten like the old maids that we are.

In the morning we packed up and drank coffee and ate pizza for breakfast. We shopped and walked around, looking at fountains and wishing that we lived in Rome instead of Greece.  We ended up at the Villa Borghese Gardens where we put roses in our hair and laid in the sun while I read a book aloud. Then we headed back to airport for our flight back to Thessaloniki. It was a wonderful trip and a great punctuation on our first month student teaching.  I would love to go back and have time to tour the Vatican City or take a trip to Florence or Naples. Emily has decided to start applying to international schools in and around Rome. Maybe I’ll do that too when I finish at UK!

Villa Borghese Gardens

The Italian flag.

Fine Italian dining right here.

Learning More in Grade Four! (Yes, I Meant to Make That Rhyme)

Goodness! My last week and a half have been crazy! I haven't had anytime to blog about school or my visit in Greece. At last I have some down time to sit and relax!

I am really enjoying my time student teaching in the fourth grade at Pinewood. I have an incredible group of students that work together really well. You can tell that they have created a sense of community with each other and have really invested in each others' success. All of my students are performing at different academic and English-speaking levels but they don't let their differences hinder their relationships. I love how they try to keep each other accountable and make sure that those around them are following directions before Mrs. Bentioulis or I catch them off task. I see my English-speaking students stop what they are doing to make sure that their international friends know which colored notebook needs to be out and when it is time to line up. My bilingual Russian student jumps up at every opportunity to translate math from English to Russian for my student that doesn't know any English. (I think I have learned more Russian math terms than I have Greek!) I think that it is so important that students support each other through the challenges of being in school and learning a new language. It makes me so sad that I only have a month left with these sweet children before I go to my first grade placement.

I have been teaching more and more independently in these last weeks. Mrs. Bentioulis has been generous enough to let me take over teaching language arts and social studies (my favorites!) while she works with a smaller group of English Language Learners or grades the students' homework. Last week I worked with students on sequencing a story and identifying story elements. We read A Train to Somewhere, a short story about an orphan train taking children from an orphanage in New York to be adopted by farmers in the midwest in the nineteenth century. I realized from the horrified shock on my students' faces that they had never encountered the concept of adoption. I told them about how my own grandmother was adopted as a baby and how my grandfather was raised by his aunt in his teens due to the poor economic climate. The sympathy and sadness on these affluent children's faces were heartbreaking. They had so many questions about when and why children would be given up by their parents. I realized several things: 1. Teaching empathy can be incorporated at any time 2. Sometimes its more important to address a "teachable moment" than finishing the day's content and 3.  Children want to desperately want to change the world.

This week I started series of lessons centered around the book Sarah, Plain and Tall. I have been focusing on building student vocabulary and comprehension. The kids really love the book and have been very enthusiastic about participating in class. I have never seen so many student volunteer to read aloud to their peers. Even my ELLs and struggling readers are some of the first to beg to read! I have restrict how much they read each night so that no one gets too far ahead. I was fortunate that this was the series of lessons that my university supervisor came to observe yesterday. I told my students that I would have visitor that would be coming to watch me, not them, and not to get distracted by her visit. I told them that she would be coming to grade me and that if I got a good grade I could become a teacher when I grow up. Their response was PRECIOUS. "Oh, Miss Elizabeth! We will be extra good!" "Or maybe we should be really bad so she can see that you know how to handle us!" "No, Katerina! We can't be bad! Miss Elizabeth won't get to be a teacher!" Those sweet babies we golden little angels for forty-five minutes. I hardly recognized them. God bless them. After my supervisor had left, my soft-spoken Kiara runs up and whispers, "Did you get a good grade, Miss Elizabeth?! Do you get to be a REAL teacher now?!!" I told her that yes, Miss Soula was pleased with my lesson and Kiara jumped up and hugged me. Then she invited me over for a play date.

Not all of my lessons have gone smoothly, of course. I have been attempting to teach my students how to write a cause and effect essay. When I started teaching, I hadn't realized that my students had never written a paper before. When I was in the fourth grade, we had already been writing letters and informational papers for two years. After teaching what a cause and effect relationship was I jumped right into writing a paper about cause and effect. I didn't think to model a complete paper or show work from a student the previous year. It was a flop. The students didn't understand. I didn't understand that they didn't understand. They didn't know how to indent a paragraph. I wasn't explaining it very well. The whole thing crashed and burned. I took some time to shake it off and the next day we went back into it and did a reteach. I feel like they have some kind of a grasp on what to do now.  I just hope I have more opportunities to teach writing!

Last week was another important first for me--Parent-Teacher Night. On Wednesday, Emily and I stayed at school until 7 to meet and greet parents. Mrs. Bentioulis and I had a presentation about school rules, classroom procedures, and homework. I talked about ClassDojo and how to use it. I have gotten all the parents set up on ClassDojo so that they can monitor their child's behavior, participation, and homework completion each week. Although I didn't think I would, I really enjoyed the face-time with the parents and the opportunity to brag about their children.

I am attaching pictures of the fourth grade classroom to this post so that you can see the size (SMALL) and the environmental print and set up. I'll post later about what I have been up to in and around the city! Also--I am going to ROME this weekend! Yay!

Week Three in Thessaloniki!

Well, my first full week at Pinewood is finished and a new week has begun! Today I started teaching independently in the fourth grade. I will be teaching language arts all week and then add teaching another subject each week until I am teaching the entire day. It makes me extremely grateful that the COST Program student teaching requirements are much more flexible than my counterparts in the States. I can spend less time worrying about complex lesson plans and assessments and more time involved with my students and letting them guide the content we are learning. I fall more in love with the children in the fourth grade class every day. I have always been more inclined to teach little ones but teaching these students (combined with my wonderful practicum experience in the fifth grade last semester) is starting to make me believe that I would be more happy with older students.

In the future I would love to post pictures and stories about my students. The regulations in Greece are much more lenient where privacy in concerned. I will check with the principal of the elementary department to make sure that it is okay and then hopefully I will be able to post about what is going on in the classroom.

Obviously I did not take this picture. I stole it from the internet.
This is a photo of what Valaoritou looks like at night.

Outside of the classroom, I have had more chances to explore the nightlife of Thessaloniki. This weekend Emily and I (along with some of our native friends) went to the Valaoritou District again. This is an area downtown used to be very commercial but is now full of historical buildings that have been turned into pubs and bars blaring all kinds of music throughout the night: jazz, rock, pop, alternative...you name it. The streets are closed off for about three square blocks and the streets and alleys are full of young people.  The bars all have a unique quality about them. One is a Czech Pub, others are Irish, or Greek. Last weekend we went to one rooftop bar. We hiked up five flights of stairs to find a stunning roof garden with bars and tables and twinkly lights. They were projecting an old movie on the side of an adjacent building. You could see the entire Valaoritou District from the top, with the lights of the city surround it, and a full moon above. It was a spectacular view. This weekend we spent half of the time in Valaoritou and then I left with a friend (another Emily) and walked to the Ladadika District about half a kilometer away. Ladadika is a neighborhood that embodies everything I was expecting about coming to Greece. It's an old styled area between Valaoritou and the seaside full of restaurants outside with checkered tablecloths and musicians playing on the corner. In the day, it is the perfect place to lounge with a cappuccino and a book. The night scene in Ladadika is a little bit older and more subdued than its northern counter part. I was much more comfortable sitting and talking well into the night there.  (That's one issue about going out in Thessaloniki--the buses stop running at midnight and don't start up again until 6am. Native partygoers seemed unfazed by this.  Most young Thessalonians don't even leave the house until 2am and stay out until daylight. You have to be COMMITTED to cause. Anyone who knows me is aware that my ideal bedtime is between  8 and 9pm. It takes me two days to recover for the lack of sleep. I would never survive if this was a regular thing. I always grab a cab.)

It's true. Coke Light just does not compare.

I really love Thessaloniki and the Greek people. But I am--and I NEVER thought in a million years that I would say this--getting really sick of eating cheese and bread for every meal. It is usually the only option most of the time for a vegetarian. Even Emily, a carnivore, is getting bored of grilled feta and bread. I would do unspeakable things for a Chipotle burrito bowl right now. Recently I tried to be American and drink a Sprite thinking that I would be comforted by its sugary goodness. I couldn't be more wrong. The drinks here have a completely different flavoring. The Sprite actually tasted like Lemon-Lime instead of bubbly sugar just like the labeling implies (ridiculous!). And since we are on the subject of soda, let's talk about how Diet Coke does not exist in Greece. Instead there is Coke Light--what on Earth is that? It's way too sweet. It's poser Diet Coke and I resent it so much.

I wish I could post pictures of what I have been up to but unfortunately my phone has been broken and I just got it back from the repair shop. I'll spend more time taking photos this week to share!

Week One at Pinewood!

I have successfully completed my first week of student teaching at Pinewood--American International School of Thessaloniki! I am exhausted and more than excited about beginning it all again next week!

Pinewood American International School

Pinewood American International School of Thessaloniki was founded in 1950 as a school for students from the United States. Some years later it was granted permission from the Greek government to admit students from Greece and countries across the globe.  Now it serves over 200 students from

Pre-K through the 12th grade from about 35 different countries. Curriculum is taught in English in addition to Greek for all students and German, French, and Spanish for the upper grades. English as a Second Language services are provided to all non-English speaking students as well. Class sizes are very small by American standards. Some classes only have 3 students. In the elementary division, there is only one classroom per grade level. What I have noticed just in this week is commitment to each other translates into their relationships with their students.  If you want more information about the school, go to www.pinewood.gr.

Emily and I went to Pinewood on Monday and Tuesday to meet the director, the staff, and to help put our classrooms and lessons together. The first day for students was on Wednesday. For the first six weeks on my placement I am working with Dimetra Bentoulis in the fourth grade. Together we have 18 students (a very large class for Pinewood) from Greece, Estonia, Moldova, Russia, Romania, England, China, Holland, Spain, Sweden, the United States, and Turkey. I believe that only three of the students are native English speakers. Although many of the students have been attending Pinewood for years and have excellent language abilities, it is incredibly difficult to give instruction when so many students are speaking in different languages. I have to borrow a student that is fluent in English, Russian, and Greek to translate when I give instructions to a new student from Russia. For my Turkish student, I have to use a lot of hand gestures and pictures to communicate with her.  These are challenges that I faced in small doses when working with Spanish-speaking children but never on this scale or with so many different languages and customs in a single classroom. I feel that this experience alone has been the most valuable lesson I could learn as a future classroom teacher.  The empathy and patience necessary to build a relationship with such a diverse group of children is priceless.

Because of the language barriers, the first thing I taught my students was the SLANT strategy--an attention signal with visual cues to get students on task. Using pictures and modeling, I taught the students the acronym meaning that they needed to Sit up, Lean forward, give their Attention, Nod their heads, and Track the speaker with their eyes. It's hysterical. I had the students practice the strategy and allowed them to slouch and put their heads down. When I yelled, "SLANT!" every child jumped up, leaned in to me, and began to vigorously nod their heads and follow me with their eyes. Most of these children don't know half of the things I tell them but when I say "SLANT" the fear of God strikes them and they are sitting up ready to learn! (Mrs. Probst would be so proud!)

I also implemented a new way to track positive and negative behaviors in the classroom this week. Mrs. Bentoulis asked me if I had any ideas other than just putting stickers on a behavior chart to monitor and rewards behavior. I suggested using ClassDojo on the computer and with my iPad. For those of you that are educators and have not become familiar with ClassDojo, I highly recommend looking into it. There are how to videos and blogs about the best ways to introduce the program on the ClassDojo website. I feel that it is best for grades 2 through 5. I think that it tracks too many behaviors and is too complex for kindergarten or first grade.  ClassDojo creates an avatar or "dojo" for each student in a class for students to see on the projector or an iPad. It allows the teacher to give points to students immediately for good behavior (being on task, helping others, participating during class) or to take away points for being late, disrespectful, or not being on task. (I don't know I feel about the "taking away" part about ClassDojo but I haven't had any issues with that in my experiences using it. Thoughts?) The instructor can add or change behaviors based on class rules and the needs of the students. Students and parents can go home and look (and play!) with ClassDojo. Its a wonderful way to collect data about students and communicate patterns to parents ("Kimmy has not turned in her homework in five days...look at the ClassDojo data."). The site creates a pie chart that shows all of the points earned and taken away according to each behavior. Plus the kids LOVE it!  They can have the option to change their dojo and, if the teacher allows it, to let them give themselves dojo when they are on task or doing good work. I walk around the class with my iPad and when I see students doing good things I let them give themselves the point. I have never seen children so excited about a behavior chart in my life! This was even before I told them that a certain number of points each week would allow them to choose a prize!

In the coming weeks, Mrs. Bentoulis and I will be conducting informal and formal assessments on students' language and math abilities. Many of the new students have transferred schools four or five times all over Europe and the United States. It is hard to gauge their writing, English, and math abilities with a single assessment. Most of the children are more advanced than they can demonstrate due to the language barrier. It is our task to make assessments and then put students into reading groups appropriate for their reading level and English abilities.

All in all, I feel incredibly blessed to have the opportunity to teach at Pinewood. I could not   ask for a better place to complete my student teaching. I am looking forward to the challenges and fun to come and for the chance to teach my students about Kentucky and where I come from!