As Autumn Descends, We're Back to School!
- Matt Padula
- Oct 4, 2020
- 5 min read
Hi again friends; thanks for checking in. Lots happening here—fall officially started with last week's autumnal equinox (great Scrabble word), and the weather responded right on cue. Low 60's here means everyone whips out their puffy coats and scarves when they hit the streets!
Proud to say Barbara and I voted in U.S. elections, from far away but with no less conviction—we're a little concerned about the shenanigans we're hearing re mail tampering and slowdowns, so figured we better send it via DHL to better the odds that we are counted (Barbara's become quite chummy with our Mail Boxes, etc. gal Carlotta). ...Here's to a truly free and fair election!
The big change for us now is the start of school - I'm quickly back into the routine; we're four weeks in already! It occurred to me I've never really posted about the school here, so I thought I might share some photos, and tell you the latest on Italian school safety measures. Makes for a pointed contrast with U.S. schools I would imagine! Note: in the EU we have super-strict rules about sharing images of students; sorry if these photos are a little lifeless!
The International School of Turin (IST) is a private non-profit school, offering the International Baccalaureate (IB) Program to about 500 students, grades K-12. 60-70% of the students are native Italians, with the rest coming from all over the world (UK, Japan, US, China, Russia, Brazil, etc). We're situated on a beautiful campus in the hills of Pecetto Torinese, 9 miles from the city of Torino, housed in a converted winery (including a charming old villa). It's a little isolated, so the majority of students, and some teachers, commute via a fleet of charter buses.
For the majority of operational stuff, including our response to COVID-19, we follow the Italian Ministry of Education's guidance. I'll say all of this while knocking on wood, but so far, overall I have been quite pleased/surprised with the measures that are in place, and the general adherence to the measures within our school community. Maybe I'm just contrasting it to the lack of a uniform approach/ agreement that we are seeing in the media from the U.S., but I give the Italians a lot of credit for working to retain the gains they made (with much sacrifice) in March-June.
Here at IST, we've taken a lot of precautions to reach some semblance of a "normal" school routine: I am very curious how this compares to the measures being taken/not taken in the U.S.; please let me know!
On the bus (I ride it 2-3 times a week): The driver does a temperature check on everyone as they board; masks are required for the ride;
Arriving at school: Everyone queues for a temperature check, applies hand sanitizer, and puts on a new mask before entering;
Classroom layout: We were able to arrange the desks and chairs in almost all of the rooms to maintain a one-meter distance; we're also lucky that most rooms have big sliding doors so we can get some good ventilation (at least until it gets super chilly in November/December);
Movement: To minimize student movement around the building, we are leaving the kids in their designated room for most of the day, and the teachers change rooms (they say this is how they did it in Italian schools way back 50 years ago!). Space is at a premium this year, so everyone and everything is spread out.
Teacher-student interaction: We all realize that we're quite lucky to be together in the school building again, but we're quite limited in the level of student-student and student-teacher interaction that we can have. I mostly stay at the front of the room (fully masked all day*), and the students must stay at their desks, separated by one-meter, for all of class. Once they are seated, they can remove their masks (but I encourage them to keep 'em on anyway).
We also have a handful of students for whom we 'livestream' the class. We've made it clear that these students just have to do their best to keep track with the class discussion, rather than asking the teacher to orient the discussion directly to them, which would be very difficult (I think some U.S. schools are trying to do a hybrid model like that). Of course we're trying to honor any legit health concerns around the virus, but don't want to create an easy alternative for kids who just don't feel like getting out of bed!
* The students ask me why I ALWAYS have my mask on. My response? Perché non? (Why not?). It's especially frustrating for the little 6th graders - they've literally never seen my face! In fact, my visage has become such a mystery for them, I can actually get them to settle down simply by promising to remove my mask for 0.5 seconds and get a peek...little do they know this is all just an elaborate ruse for me to not shave...
Daily arrival: "mantenere la distanza"; temperature checks; masks and lots of sanitizer
So school these days is a real throwback; it's been hard doing the kind of teaching I'm used to (and enjoy); I'm supposed to keep my distance from the students—those of you who know me, know I have a hard time standing in one place for very long! So there's very little chance to really engage with the students—to help them 1-1—there's very little to no group activities or small group discussion, etc. It's pretty much old-fashioned "stand and deliver" teaching (aka "sage on the stage")...not ideal, but again, compared to last spring, I'm just glad we're all in the room together!
An extreme version: I have three classes that are so big (yes, Economics is very popular here), we have had to move them to our Assembly Hall—it's a big space with a big screen, almost like a University lecture hall. It's hard to speak/yell through a mask for 3+ hours each day, but I'm figuring it all out!
We are all hopeful that we can keep up the routine over these next few months—especially as the temperatures dip. I'm glad our school is taking things so seriously, and that the entire community (not 100% but almost!) is following the protocols. Already the past week I am seeing some kids slipping into old pre-virus behaviors; it will take a concerted effort from everyone to not regress!
Oh wait, I probably left out the most important reason to maintain our safety protocols—allowing our awesome cafeteria to continue to safely serve a delicious lunch each day (It's the only time I take my mask off)!!
Since I no longer have a dedicated classroom, I found this secret chamber to stash my stuff; if you slide open the massive door, there's my little hutch! (see video below)
Here's a reality check on teaching these days (see photo left)—my friend Dillon has to come up with creative and safe ways to do P.E. class— this week he was teaching the students how to play baseball, using foam bats and tennis balls, so he has to spray and wipe down the bats and balls between innings!
I would love to know how things are going stateside these days—are schools operating in person? All remote learning? Let me know, and stay tuned for some upcoming travel stories!
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