In Patrizia's class they did presentations. I am rather impressed with these students. I can tell that 95% of them put a lot of work into this, and they did NOT just copy and paste from Wikipedia! SO PROUD!!!
During my break I walked ot the other school to plan some lessons. I have to say that I love walking by the fence where they are having break and multiple students shouting, "Ely!!!" or "Ciao Ely!!!" as I walk by. It makes me feel like they really like me! Now, do they respect my lesson plans, not so much...but they seem to like me anyway! I also stopped in the hallway to talk to my two M. students from Rosina's class. Then I spent the hour planning lessons for M., my private lesson girl, and some other things.
Finally, I had Linda's class. The group that was presenting on Queens was speaking today! They did a great job, and my only disappointment was that they did not talk about Astoria. We had a discussion about the subway and how in London they identify trains by color and line name (according to them, I know NOTHING about London), while in NYC the trains have colors, but for map purposes mainly because we identify them by the number or letter. Then we talked about plans for tomorrow and next week
Then I talked to Linda for a few minutes trying to explain the situation for the day that Erin and Meagan are here. I tried to explain the whole thing, but it wasn't working too well. We also talked about the review/test she wanted me to make for the students.
Then I walked home, made pasta, chicken, and the sauce for lunch, talked to my momma, gathered all of my things for the afternoon lesson, and headed back to school.
We started class by changing rooms a few times looking for a computer/whiteboard. I started talking to them about Italian and English grammar/verbs. They were SHOCKED that I can not name all of the English verb tenses and identify them. They can name all of the Italian ones. This then led to a conversation about how some of the verbs are different and how we use them differently. It was a really good conversation, and I enjoyed learning from them. Then we started talking about healthy foods in the U.S. When I told them that Americans eat healthy food, they had GENUINE shock on their faces...really guys?!??! So then I had them name veggies and fruits, and then meats. We looked at pictures, and then started talking about "American" foods. THis led me to google the origins of a lot of foods that they think are "American". This was REALLY interesting actually, so here is what we found:
1. Hamburgers, Hotdogs, and Fanta- German
2. Cheesecake- has Greek roots, but Americans added the cream cheese element, thus making it what it is today
3. Apple Pie- British
4. Peanut Butter- Canadian
5. Pancakes- French (crepes)
6. Cupcakes- American
7. Muffins- American
8. Donuts- American
9. Bacon- too many places make a variation of it
10. Mashed Potatoes- French
11. Coca cola - American (Atlanta)
12. Waffles- Belgian
13. French Fries- Belgian
14. Ketchup- CHINESE...what?!?!? Are you as shocked as I was?!?!? However, Americans added salt to make it what it is today!
After this we finished the power point and talked about how I rarely eat McDonald's and how some of them had it today, and others eat it twice a week! Okay, so how do you guys get to have a superior tone and attitude when you talk about Americans eating McDonald's because you eat it more than any Americans I personally know. I was also able to use a power point that one of my students made about Calabrian food; we talked about some of these dishes and they described them to me, etc. We made the plan for them to bring Italian food next week to class, with a recipe and we would translate them and eat some food! I'll probably also have them do an activity where they plan a menu or something. I made the deal that if they brought food next week, I would bring "American" food in May. They requested peanut butter and maple syrup (Canadian guys...)They also taught me some slang Italian/texting language. So they use "xk" to say perche', which means "why or because". The "x" in Italian math means, "per" or "times". Thus, "xk" = perche'. They also taught me that "xo" means "pero'" which means, "but" in Italian. Then at the end of class two of my best speakers taught me some Italian verbage (not a real word, I know) and how to use it!
After class I walked to the Corso and sat on the water feature thing looking at my calendar and getting some sun. Then I went to my fruit/veggie place, and then went home.
I was feeling rather lonely with nobody to talk to! I could tell that it was going to be a long weekend without Nick here to talk to! It was already hard not to have someone to call after class and tell about what happened, etc. Either way, I was able to mark things off of my to-do list, so that was nice. I ate an early dinner, took a shower, did some laundry, wrote blogs, and talked to Nick briefly later. What has he done to me...I'm lonely in Italy without him to talk to!
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