Written by: Erika Sólyom

Between October 7-11, 2024, I conducted Erasmus Job Shadowing with another teacher from Avincenna International College High School (Ms. Hanieh) at the I.C.F. TOZZI School, located in the outskirts of Siena, a beautiful small town in Tuscany.

The school has a modern building, surrounded by trees and a garden. The entrance is decorated by a mural that depicts peace and gender equality. The entire school has huge plants on all floors. They have recyling bins everywhere. There is corner with a big stand dedicated to Erasmus programs. The classrooms are all equipped with smart boards. The school has a STEM classroom and a modern music room. The laptops are kept in special trolleys in the corridors. There is a small teachers’ lounge with lockers. The walls are decorated with colorful posters and works of the students. My favorite piece was a wall with ”products” of math class: knitted circles, squares, triangles and other well-known shapes on display.

Ms.Georgia’s presentation about students with special needs (BES students – Studenti Bisogni Educativi Speciali) was extremely interesting. There are SEN (Special Education Needs) and SLD (Special Language Disabilities) programs. We learnt that students with various challenges (disabilities, family problems, AHDH, autism, hikikomori) are in the same classroom with the others. They consider integrated education very important. There are always 2 teachers in the classrooms and that helps a lot for working with students with special needs. For these students, they also have special PE as well as piano educational programs. One teacher is the regular class teacher and the other one is the support teacher (Insegnante di Sostegno). The latter have to study extra 2 years to get a special certificate for their work as remedial teachers.

My second day of job shadowing started with a class with 6-graders, taught by Ms Lisa. The 12-year-olds had a very good English knowledge. The class started by a student presentation on The Narrative Text, then Ms. Lisa presented a new topic and students worked in groups. Everyone had a laptop. They usually get there tasks on Google Classroom. The groups are always mixed, excellent students work together with students with difficulties. Both Ms. Lisa, the second teacher and myself assisted the students during their group assignment. The non-frontal classwork was very impressive.

They students are very well-behaved. It was quite suprising for me to see that the class is between 8:30-10:10. This is a very long stretch but students do not seem to get tired. They have a short break, which is not indicated in their timetable.

In the short break, Ms. Lisa showed me the Music Room and the STEM Room, where I was happy to discover a lot of sustainability related posters on the walls. She explained that kids arrive between 7 am – 8:15 am before their first class at 8:30 am. Generally, they have 6 hours per day, with the exception of Wednesdays when classes go until 4pm. In the afternoons, they have special clubs. Teachers teach 22 hours per week.

The second part of the day started with Ms. Valentina’s English class with 13-year-old students. The 8th graders were very curious about Hungary, they asked a lot of questions, so I had a chance to give a presentation about Budapest, Hungary, well-known Budapest sights and famous Hungarian food. Ms. Valentina had another class where the topic was Slow Food and preserving local traditions as well as sustainability. It was a great experience to actively participate in these classes.

In the afternoon, Ms. Giorgia led a guided tour in Siena, where we spent most of our time in the famous medieval hospital, Santa Maria Della Scala, located by the Siena Cathedral.

On the third day, I was very lucky to shadow an Italian Language class as well an Italian Literature class, both taught by Ms. Silia. Before the class started, Ms. Silia showed me their local „Kréta” system called Appello, which works the same way as our platform in Hungary. The topic of the Italian class with 6th graders (11-year-old students) was accent marks (L’accento). The teacher used the smart board throughout the class. After the discussion of accent marks in Italian, I had a chance to give a presentation about the Hungarian alphabet and Hungarian accent marks in Italian. It was a great suprise to be present in an Italian Literature class when the topic was an excerpt from Elena Ferrante’s famous novel series. She happens to be my favourite Italian author.

I really enjoyed both classes and once again, I was very surprised about how well-behaved the students were. I have noticed three interesting things. During the classes, one of the students with special education needs sometimes walked around and did things other than the assigned task. The assistant teacher followed her and helped her with special care. The other thing I noticed that students used mostly used cursive writing. And last but not least, they all had their individual folders very well organized.

My day ended with Mr. Alessandro’s class with 8th graders. He had originally planned a topic in world history but the students had so many interesting questions about linguistics that we ended up co-teaching an Introduction into Linguistics class.

On our last day in Siena, Ms. Silvia and Ms. Silia took us around the city and we had a special guided tour visiting the main square (Piazza del Campo), the museum part of Municipality Building (Palazzo Municipale), the old marketplace. We even had a chance to receive a private tour in the Music Academy (Academia Chigiana) in the Palazzo Chigi Saracini, the former home of a well-known local nobleman, Guido Chigi Saracini., a great supporter of music. In his home, there was a room with the orginal piano of our great musician, Ferenc Liszt. It was in the concert hall of this beautiful building, where we received our Erasmus Certificates.

The last day was dedicated to a culture, a visit to one of the famous cities of Florence. We could chose from Florence, San Gimignano and Pisa. Since I had already visited the former two cities, I went to Pisa. I participated in a guided tour in Italian, visiting the main sites of the city. At the end of my trip, the view of the Arno river and the reflection of the buildings in the water were a great metaphor for the entire Erasmus Job Shadowing week, where I have learnt a lot and received great reflections of teaching methods and culture in a different country.

Written by: Erika Sólyom

13. Oct. 2024