Market Day!

Every Tuesday and Friday morning, the streets and piazzas in Reggio Emilia transform into a giant market selling everything from purses to candy to underwear to produce...and EVERYONE from town is there dressed in their best! It's a huge town gathering where everyone is eating, drinking, shopping, talking - so neat to be a part of that culture for a day!

Buying veggies at the market from local farmers.

Look at the cool tomatoes!

What did I buy? One guess.......CANDY! All of the candy here is so different, so I got a big bag with a little of every kind the woman had. I'm excited to bring it home and sit around the table trying them all and guessing what they are!

Baci! xx

Carly

Italian School System

Tuesday morning was held at the Aula Magna University of Modena and Reggio Emilia - the University in Reggio Emilia. Professor Sergio Govi from the University spoke to us about the structure of the Italian School System - which was very interesting to learn about especially when learning the logistics of how the Reggio Emilia Early Childhood programs run.

In the Italian school system, there are various phases - and this is the best way I can map it out for you through all that I learned:

Early Childhood

• 0-2 year-olds - Early Childhood services provided upon request (In American "terms" - this is Infant/Toddler daycare that is paid for by the municipality because it is a right to have it here in Italy with a sliding-scale system for parents to pay part of the cost from 80-500 Euros a month.)
• 2-3 year-olds - "Primavera" Groups (This is an experimental group right now that they are still defining and working though...seems like a transition period into preschool.)
• 3-5 year-olds - Preschool (The Municipalities have 15% of their budget going directly towards Early Childhood Education because Preschool is a RIGHT for all families and children. Because of this, the sliding scale payment for families is between 70-200 Euros a month.)

1st Educational Phase (I want to add too that this is all under reform currently)

• 6-10 year-olds - Primary Schools
• 11-13 year-olds - Secondary School 1st Level ("Middle School" to us Americans)
• After completion of Secondary School 1st Level, a State Exam is taken by all students. If they pass the exam, then they can attend Secondary School 2nd Level. However, to even get to take the test, the students must pass all subjects/disciplines with a 6/10 mark, including an evaluation of their behavior expressed in a grade as well.)

2nd Educational Phase

Here, students ranging from 14-18 years-old can choose one of the following two routes:

1. Professional Education (Students will graduate with a professional qualification, this is an apprenticeship program basically. It is broken down into two fields: Economic (2 specialized paths offered) and Technological (9 specialized paths offered). Students choose the path they want to take.)
2. Secondary School (technical institutions, professional institutions, leads on to further education leading up to college)

If they choose to go to Secondary School, when they are 18-years-old they take another State Exam. If they pass this exam, they are allowed to go onto College Education.

College Education has two different types:

1. Laurea Breve (Associates Degree) - 3 years of work
2. Laurea Specialista (Bachelors degree) - 2 more years of work after finishing Laurea Breve

In Italy, is is compulsory to attend 10 years of schooling, starting from the time they are 6-years-old - so basically they must attend the 1st Educational Phase and 2 years of Secondary School.

When it comes down to managing the competencies in the Italian Educational System - it is broken down into the fact that State Schools contain 87% of the students, Public and Private officially recognized schools contain 11% of the students, and Private Schools without recognition from the government (they do not receive funds from the government) house 2% of students.

*Hopefully* I got this all right from the extensive notes I took! Don't quote me directly - send questions to Professor Govi! haha!

So interesting to learn about other school systems and where different cultures place their emphasis on importance. My favorite part of this all - that Early Childhood/Preschool services are a RIGHT for ALL children and families, and 75% of the cost per child is covered by the municipality! :)

Big red "X" over the Sala Tricolore - Reggio Emila's council chamber as a sign of protest by the people of Reggio Emilia against the budget cuts that could affect their schools. So interesting that this part of Reggio Emila's history is going on right NOW while we are here!

Ciao for now!

-Carly

The Italian Educational System

I had been looking forward to a better understanding if the educational system here in Italy and today was the day. Professor Sergio Govi held a session this morning at the Modena-Reggio Emilia University explaining the laws and workings of their system.

Some highlights:
*At the preschool level, 99.9% of teachers are women, at the primary level, 96% women, middle 70% and secondary less than 50%.
*Private institutions have to right to create schools. They receive state $ but must follow state rules and will be treated equally.
*80% of all preschools are state schools.
*Children attend school from 27-40 hours per week, the highest being an extended type of day based on the family needs. Boy wouldn't that open a can of worms!
*School is open and free to everyone for 10 years.
*Different regions have different norms but reform is in the works for consistency throughout the country.
There are however strong regional variations regarding preschool. The European Union is working toward a goal system for children 0-6.
*North Italy has very high rates of children in preschool, more than 20 %, with Reggio Emilia having the highest in Italy at 40%. Yay Reggio!
**Double star this point....Staff for preschool aged children is doubled!!!
*The upper levels are comparable to what we learned in Switzerland where after the first 10 years you move to a technical field, professional field (apprenticeships etc) or continue to the University level.
*Teaching of two foreign languages is mandated. One typically being English and one has to be a language of the European Union.
*State exams are required to move to the next level. Region by region varies but there is a move to have consistency in the requirements.
*Schools are committed to teaching religion.
*For students with, as they say here, "special rights", they have to right to full inclusion and admittance. Classroom numbers are kept at 20 with an additional teacher and assistants some on an as needed basis. Some special classes are offered but it is a rarity.
*New laws for special rights students are in the approval phase, by which students will be allowed to have accommodations, such as extended time on state exams. They refer to them as compensatory materials and dispensing measures". This will be available to students with "certified" disabilities.
*No more than 30% of students in one class can be "foreign". Reggio has some schools with 50% foreign students.
*Getting hired is quite a process and would seem dismal.......the degree for teaching is 4 years with an educational internship and a "norm" passing.
*Hiring is done through public competition. Hiring is done gradually through the public competition list. The list is currently, get this, 240,000 teachers and they hire about 20,000 per year......that is tough!
*Teachers must retire at 65!

This is actually only a brief overview of my notes!

I have also attached some photos from the market today. A little shopping before class!

Internationality

Today held the best sessions yet for me. The focus on Internationality was very thought provoking and reassuring to see that all over the world people are moving toward creating a world wide society focused on thinking, communicating and creativity. Hopefully the world will become a more peaceful place because of the endeavors of so many dedicated people starting with the very young. Even though it is hard, stuck in our own little HELPs world, we really need to think globally. From using recycled art materials to working much harder to focus on children learning to think and solve problems using their own intelligence, we can make change.
Another great quote from today, "we see children as people capable, full of potential and knowledge and rich in ideas and theories." So frequently we think we know everything and it is our responsibility to provide children with what we know rather than using what they know to guide us in how to guide them.
I thoroughly enjoyed one of the keynotes this morning. Anshul Arora moved from Singapore to India (he said his family said he was crazy!) to be a part of what has in the past two years become a revolution in the Indian schools. He referred to it as a "fundamental shift" in Indian education. Preschool is not currently common in India and the outlook is promising.

This is what I have loved here:
I had a great discussion with a professor from the University of Greece over lunch.
I then had an enlightening conversation with a Pre-school teacher from Brazil.
Chatted with my new friend Young Ah from Korea, currently working at the lab school at Ohio State where they have a Reggio inspired High School!
She invited our whole HELPs team to her house for the Wonders of Learning next May in Newark, OH!
Look out Young Ah, (great name, right?) we may just take you up on that!

Now for dinner......what pasta shoudl we have tonight????

I doesn't get better!

Rimini

Sunday night and tomorrow is back to the grind. I think we were all expressing a bit of homesick-ed-ness this evening on the train back to Reggio.
We went to Rimini, on the eastern most coast of Italy, on the Adriatic Sea. It is HUGE resort area and was the packed umbrellas for what appeared to be miles. There seems to be some Greek influence and because it was touristy, unlike Reggio, more people spoke English which was nice tit hear.
The architecture of the homes in the area was beautiful. We had lunch, hung at the beach under our paid for umbrella and chairs and pretty much headed right back to the train.
Tomorrow is back to class in the AM for a pretty full day.
We are half done!

Friday night!

Friday at last. A shorter day of classes but it is 11:00 PM and we just got back from dinner.
Today was about photographic documentation for the most part and Carly ended up in the presentation!
I missed her moment of glory but needless to say, she was excited!
Our group has also become quite famous in the town of Reggio Emilia as there are three articles in the local paper.
Carly and Liz managed to find the local shopping mall and no, for once the stores are not the same as at home. Our noses led us to a restaurant in the mall called the Old Wild West so we had to grab onto some American fare!
Tomorrow the youthful group is heading to Florence while I intend to rest up and get some reading done. Sunday we are all heading to the resort town of Rimini. There is a train strike so we hope all goes well!

Food!

Food is not easy to come by within the time frames our bodies are used to but we have found a couple of good choices.
These are pictures from last night's dinner at Il Pozzo!
Yummy!
We are excited to be done today at 4:30 rather than the usual 8 PM. I plan to buy a CD with pictures of Reggio schools and a video that can be used for Professional Development for our team to "HELPs" us get them on board with aspects of the "Reggio" way.
Off to class!