Final week in the best town on Earth. Switched families again. This time the mom spoke excellent English. She jokes a lot and is so funny! On Saturday she took me out to the market, which is literally out front of their house. Many vendors come here to sell things - it's kind of like Cowtown. I bought a new pair of shorts because it was unbearable hot that day. We also went to the grocery store where she bout my my own coffee maker to take home and my own jar of Nutella since her son is allergic to gluten. SCORE! They lived on the top floor of an apartment building, right next to a Chinese restaurant. It's so hot up here all of the time, but they have a lovely garden on their balcony that the dad is obsessed with. They also took me up to the mountains because it is more "fresh" there, and they taught me to shoot a bow and arrow. I think I've found a new hobby.
Not much to say about the work week other than I had the most unruly, disrespectful kids imaginable. They were another yellow book group, but they ages were mixed. There were a few 5 year olds, but also some 8 year olds. I absolutely hated my class and stalled as long as possible so I wouldn't have to go back in there. I even walked out on them a few times and had to get an assistant to help me. I think I would have been okay had it not been for Cosimo. He was the child that makes everyone else act up. He would constantly scream run under tables, climb up the bookshelves, and deliberately not answer me. He was very smart though - when I asked him to draw a happy face on the emotions worksheet, he did the complete opposite and did a sad face. Then he smirked back up at me and started screaming and running again. He got the 5-year-old Alessandro as his companion and they were just terrors the whole time. Then I had Pietro. He was a disturbed little boy of 7 who did not want to do anything. Literally. He didn't participate in the morning circle, he wouldn't answer my questions...again when we were doing the emotions worksheet, he only drew a line to "angry" and colored the whole thing black and blue. Gabrielle lived with him for the week, and she thinks it might be some kind of middle child syndrome.
The girls in my class were only slightly better. Carolina liked to chase the kids around the room and hang all over me, but she generally got her work done. Then there was Marta. She was kind, but insecure. She would always ask me if she was doing something the right way, which color to use, what to draw, what we doing next...she constantly had to be doing something, and naturally she was always the first one finished. Then I had Francesca and Alessia. I taught Alessia the first week (she was the bunny in my show) and she and Francesca were like best friends. They were so cute, but the Cosimo effect seemed to rub off on them a little them. They weren't quite as well-behaved as I know they would have been had Cosimo not been there. One afternoon, Cosimo went home early with an ear infection, and the entire class followed everything I told them.
My show idea for the week was so cute. Since I only had 7 kids, I made them each a music note from the Sound of Music (Do, Re, Mi, Fa, So,...). I found bells in the music room that made each sound, and they were all different colors. I had the students walk out and say, "My name is ___. I am 'Do.' I am blue." Stick the bell on, ding it, and stand in line. After they all went, they say "We are the music," and then the Song comes on and the kids sing and do the American Sign Language signs to the song. After they all jump in a line saying their note, grab hands, take a bow, and walk off. Seems like it was an easy enough task, but teaching it to this class was challenging. They ended doing fine in the show, and I got many compliments on it by the parents afterwards.
The 7 music notes
The #1 terror and his comrade - don't let the evil smile fool you ;)
Needless to say, my stay in Sesto has come to an end. I'm put on hold for next, which means that I won't be working. Gabrielle and I have decided that we want to go see Rome, so we'll leave on Tuesday morning (our families said that we can stay the few extra days with them). Taylor and Franzi have been sent to a camp in Crema (around Milan), so after 3 long weeks, the quad is being separated. But we decided that we couldn't go out without a bang: the best weekend of our lives...TO BE CONTINUED
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