Last day at school.

I can’t believe how fast the last 14 weeks have gone. It seems like just last month a was walking in the historical centre of Naples with my mentor listening to her warning me about the pupils and school.

Today was a day of mixed emotions. Firstly a day of sadness. Knowing that this would be the last time I see the students, the teachers, enter the school…..did choke me a little. It was a of hyperactivity and silliness. Although the school year doesn’t finish until next week, most of the pupils will take the week off (it appears school isn’t as compulsory here in Italy as it is back home) so everyone had those pre-summer holiday jitters. It was very contagious and made the classes very enjoyable. And finally it was a reflective day. I spent a lot of time reflecting on my experience in the school. Although I was often sat in class bored, I view the experience as positive. I was bored only because I didn’t have much responsibility. My job was to sit in the room and occasionally interrogate the children or read a passage aloud. The times when I actually got to substitute the absent teachers were a lot more fun. But what has made my time at the school so positive is that I realised how much I’d love to be a teacher. Everyday that I sat there staring at the clock, I was itching to have my own classroom, my own teachers desk, my own register…and so on. In the last 14 weeks I have analysed and evaluated all of the different teaching techniques and approaches so that when it is my time to play teacher I can make sure that I can be the best. Because of that I really feel that I’ve got a lot out of this experience. Enjoying your placement is one thing, but actually learning from it is definitely better.

I wrote the teachers some small letters to express my gratitude and to wish the pupils luck in their studies and summer exams. I stupidly forgot to bring the letter for the headmaster, and I didn’t manage to catch one of the English teachers today so I will give those letters to my mentor when I see her tomorrow. The letter to my mentor was the easiest to write because I didn’t need to think of what to write. Everything I wrote to her came straight from the heart because she has been fantastic. Before I came to Italy I really didn’t like her. She was ridiculously unhelpful and vague. She would take weeks to reply to my emails and even then she would dodge my questions or answer “I don’t know”. My friend from uni did her Comenius placement during the winter term and her mentor was much more active during the summer holidays. She phoned her up, found her accommodation without my friend even asking, gave her tons of information. Fast forward almost a year and her mentor turned out to be the b*tch from hell and mine ended up being the most generous, caring woman in the whole of Naples. I have a lot of thank her for. She has not just been my mentor but a great friend.

So I now have 4 weeks free before I fly back home. They are pretty much going to be spent writing my Italian essay, with a weeks break when my boyfriend comes to visit on the 4th June. I can tell that the time is going to fly by and before I know it I will be back in the UK. It’s very strange. Unbelievable in fact.