ERASMUS + IES ASTRABUDUA BHI

ERASMUS+ PROJECT 2017-18. IES ASTRABUDUA BHI

JOB SHADOWING : LICEO PEDAGOGICO SOCIALE CATERINA PERCOTO

Liceo delle Scienze Umane / Liceo Economico Sociale/

Liceo Linguistico/ Liceo Musicale

INTRODUCTION

Rosa and I went to Udine (Italy) for a week to work on a Job shadowing project at Liceo Caterina
Percoto. We worked there from Monday to Friday in the mornings for ordinary lessons and in the
afternoon for extra curricular activities. We were there from the 22nd to the 26th of October 2018.

The teacher who tutorized our activities and timetable was Michele Penz. After arriving at the school
we met the principal and the different teachers who were involved in this experience.

1. DESCRIPTION OF THE SCHOOL AND ORGANIZATION OF THE CURRICULA

The school is placed in the centre of Udine,in the middle of the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region, between
the Adriatic Sea and the Alps (Alpi Carniche). Its population was 100,514 in 2012, 176,000 with the
urban area.  Friulian is often spoken in Udine, as well as a variant of Venetian (called Venetin) that is
however in decline.

This is a big school with around 1,400 students and 130 teachers.There are three different locations
so teachers have to move around, they spend 25 minutes to go from place to the other.

Their principal runs two schools at the same time so it was quite difficult find a moment to meet her as
she was so busy. It seems that in Italy to become a principal you must pass several difficult exams.
Therefore, there are few available principals and that’s why they have to be in charge of more than
one school.

The school curriculum is organized in 4 courses or addresses: Linguistic, Social-Economic,
Humanistic and Musical. So the groups are named after the number of the year, the letter of the
group (ABCD) and the initial letter of the course (LEHM).

Students choose one of the courses at a very early age, when they are only 14.In spite of this they
can choose any degree at university but the students who didn’t choose the subjects of the degree
they have applied for, might have problems because each college has got an entrance exam that they
have to pass.

This school is considered to have high level students of which 80% are girls and 20% boys.

We were told that when students don’t fill expectations are given other options which best suit their
needs.  There are 80% girls and 20% boys.

In all the courses there is a subject taught in English and in the Linguistic course they also have one
taught in German. The teachers for these subjects are chosen according to their degrees. We could
observe that not all these teachers had the same level of English.

2. TIMETABLE FOR OUR JOB SHADOWING WEEK

	LUN	MAR	MER	GIO	VEN
1°	5°CU physical ed.
2°	Tour of the school		2°DU English	3°CL natural science	4°DL natural science
3°		Meeting teachers	Meeting the principal	2°DL English	4°AE English
4°	2°AE English	4°DU English	1°DL English	5°BL English
5°	School projects presentation	4°BL natural science	Informal talk with Lilliana
		Music	Music

3. OBSERVATION OF THE TEACHING-LEARNING ACTIVITIES

3.1. ENGLISH LESSONS

During the English lessons, apart from the four skills, specialised vocabulary related to the different
courses or addresses is taught.

English with Cristina

2AE (18 students)

Something that strongly called our attention was the fact that all the students stood up when the
teacher came into the class. Later we could check that it happened in all the classes. Another
remarkable thing is that some students have tablets and some don’t. It seems it is like this in some
groups while in others nobody uses tablets and in the ones included in the 2.0 project everybody has
one. Students in this class are placed in semi circles.

Though the teacher told us it was not a very good group, we think they had a very good behaviour
during the lesson and they showed interest and took part in it. They said ‘thank you’ every time the
teacher corrected them and they were absolutely quiet while she was explaining. They were quiet
even while the teacher was talking to a student or was trying to explain something to a slower student.

The kind of activities they did were quite similar to the ones we do in our lessons but something we
liked a lot was how she gave them the vocabulary, using always a kind of ‘hangman’ to

allow them to try to guess the word instead of writing it since the beginning.

English with Lilliana  

2DU (18 students)

The first activity is to talk about the subject proposed in the text they have read at home. This is “love”
and the teacher  guides the conversation by making questions. The students like the subject and they
take part actively. Then they have to write a sentence describing ‘love’. They read their sentences and
argue about them. All the time they respect the turns and are quiet when the others are speaking. It
was quite surprising how easily the made some historical connections.

While reading the teacher gives them the meaning of some words and they copy them in a special
part of their notebook that they use as a personal dictionary. This is something we also do with our
students.

English  with Myriam

1DL

First activity:

The lesson starts with students talking about what they had written about their holidays . First the
teacher asks who went to the beach and two or three of them raise their hands  and then tell the rest
what they did. After this the ones who went to the mountain…

Second activity:

teacher writes on the board expressions related to time . Students close their books. One students
starts giving main ideas of the story using those references of time, then another one continues until
they reconstruct the whole story.

The ending of the  story is prepared in pairs. They have to decide whether it is a happy or a sad one.
Once finished they tell the class the ending they have thought of.

2DL

Taking some images as a starting point the students described orally what they saw there. One of
them was somewhere in Africa and they talked about the building, the way they were dressed … The
teacher helped them with the vocabulary when requested because the students couldn´t find a word
for what they wanted to say and made necessary corrections. This teacher had a very good command
of the language as she had spent her childhood in Uganda.

 Antonella

 5BL

There are 15 students with a very good level of English.

They work on Oliver Twist (They have not read the whole story but some texts) The whole lesson
deals with the discussion of different aspects of society, characters, social context of this novel.  They
give their opinion of how the author depicts that society and the literary resources he uses. They talk
about alienation, lack of spiritual life, acts of rebellion by the children...etc

The teacher pushes students to work hard on these points. She also uses “public speech” and makes
them speak without  reading just by using some key words on the board.

In general, teachers use the textbook as a starting point  to make students reflect upon the topic
they are working on, and talk endlessly all the time.- This is in a way more demanding for the teacher.

In the exam they have to introduce their own ideas,personal information, not only reproducing ideas
on the text.

Giusy      

4AE

The students are very respectful and use “Mrs”.  to address the teacher. This was quite shocking for
us as we are used to spending some minutes to make students sit and be quiet. One student talks
about a Podcast in Spotify that she listened to. They project on the wall the handwritten essay one of
their students had done at home. She reads it and the teacher makes corrections in front of the class.
Most of the students use their Ipads (Some are personal but others are provided by the school).

They also do some grammar exercises and do a pairwork. This class is very noisy and they don’t
seem to be very interested in other students’ answers when the teacher ask them.

So the teacher let them talk to us and we debate about different Spanish and Italian traditions. some
students are very active but others remain quiet. It seems that there are two different levels in the
class which makes the teacher work more difficult.

3.2. CLIL

PE with Monica 5CU

As it is a big and well organized school, it was surprising to see that there were three groups of
students having a lesson at the same time in the gym. We were told that it was so because they don’t
have any sports facilities outdoors.Though at the beginning we thought that it was going to be a chaos,
the lessons proceeded without problems. The students’ excellent behaviour made it possible. Before
the lesson started they put their mobile phones into a box. They did it in an orderly way and without
protesting. Another thing that surprised us was the long time it took them to get changed and that the
teacher wasn’t angry at all about it.

During the lesson the students spoke in Italian all the time, except when they were told to do s
omething in English. The teacher gave them all the instructions for the activity also in Italian, though
she spoke in English for the rest of the lesson. The activity was focused on ‘Halloween’ and it was very
complete: the students had to read a text and revise some vocabulary about Halloween, get over a
relay race with obstacles where they had to get some ingredients and, once they had got everything,
make an oral summary of what they have learnt about this festivity. In our opinion this was a perfect
combination of a physical activity together with a linguistic one.

Science with Enza 3CL

This lesson takes place at the laboratory. They have 2 sessions every week and there are only 12
students.The lessons are generally in Italian but some of them in  English. The students needn´t buy
their books because they are provided by the school every year.

We must mention the kindness of the students when helping the teacher with the language. Whenever
she didn't know a word, they looked it up and they also helped her with pronunciation. All this was
made very respectfully and the teacher thanked them for their help.

By the way , one of the students was found cheating.

Natural Science (Chemistry) with Mario

4BL

This lesson was held at the Lab. There was an assistant in charge of preparing all the substances
and objects necessary for the experiments. He was there also in case an emergency took place. It
was surprising for us that they have a person there during all the lessons doing almost nothing.  

The lab is quite modern and well equipped. It has also got an extraction hood for dangerous gases,
so security is absolutely guaranteed.

During the class the teacher alternates the theory with experiments. He explained the theory through
a video, using the whiteboard and giving examples. He was all the time getting feedback form the
students to confirm that everything was well understood. When students didn’t know the answer he
gave them clues rather than giving them the answer.

The students are absolutely quiet, paying attention and taking part. They seem to have no problems
with the language at all. the teacher speaks in English all the time. Maybe the fact that he uses
technical words, coming from Latin, helps communication.

4DL

There are 20 students.

The lesson is about acids and alkalis.

We are repeating the previous lesson but with other students. They also belong to the linguistic
course or address- In spìte of the number of students their behaviour is superb!!

However, they have a lower level and in this class the teacher does not wait for the students to
answer his questions, he answers them himself.

Two students arrive late (this was the only time we saw it during the whole week) and they knock
softly at the door, ask for permission to go in and explain the reason for the delay.

4. USE OF TECHNOLOGY

We were really disappointed when we found very few technological means  compared to what we
have in our school in spite of being considered a 3.0 school .For example There were not digital
interactive screens in the classrooms (there was only a big screen at the lab)

We only saw students using laps in one of the ordinary classrooms (but only some of them ). There
was another lesson with Antonella at a lab with computers for every student and we were told that
another Linguistic lab was being remodelled at that moment but we did not have the opportunity to
visit.

5.EXTRA CURRICULAR LESSONS

We were also  invited to join the afternoon lessons: there were teachers for different instruments and
a choir. The violin and chamber music lessons were excellent, the teacher was a vocational one and
helped all the time the students. We loved them!!!

6.CANTEEN, VENDING MACHINES, RECYCLING BINS

There was a canteen for both teachers and students. They served a dish for little money in case you
wanted to have something hot. Likewise there were  different vending machines on the three different
floors where they have just started selling healthy food and drink. There were also some counters in
the corridors during the breaks where they sold pieces of pizza.

There were also recycling bins everywhere  because they are very concerned with this.

7. OTHER PROJECTS

The students are prepared for the Cambridge University exams: PET, FIRST CERTIFICATE and
ADVANCED.

Other projects are carried out in the afternoons, after the compulsory lessons. While we were there a
group of teachers and students were taking part in a project which mixed painting, the production of
an audio guide and music.

They also take part in other European projects.

8. GENERAL ATMOSPHERE

The most surprising thing for us was the behaviour of the students which was much better than what
we are used to in our school. We think that the way they use to choose the high school is the main
reason for that. In Spain, when you study in a state school,you have to go to the one which is in your
neighbourhood, so you will find there all different kinds of students. In Italy, as we were told, students
choose their high school according to the kind of course or address they want, so good students tend
to gather in schools where there are higher expectations. We met a teacher who came for extra
lessons in the afternoon  and worked in a different school where the students level and behaviour
was much worse.

The truth is that the atmosphere in classrooms and corridors was of general silence and respect,
though,obviously, students talked to each other and you could hear laughters from time to time. It
wasn’t strict, but relaxed and students took part actively during the lessons.

The building was big, clean and full of light because there were lots of large windows. corridors and
stairs were wide and convenient for such a place. The classes were asymmetrical and also with a lot
of light,

which make them all look different and not closed boxes like in a prison. There was a detail that called
our attention, there was a cross on the wall behind the teacher´s desk in all the classrooms.

 

We really liked furniture. They used desks of light easy to move and visually attractive materials and
with different shapes , with wheels and big enough for the students to feel comfortable enough (unlike
the standard ones we have in our schools in The Basque Country) that make them be very
convenient when having to move them for forming groups inside a class.

9.CONCLUSION

To finish, we had a very good impression of the teachers and the school in general. From the moment
we got in touch they have been kind and attentive to us It is enriching to have a close contact to
colleagues and to witness how they deal with everyday lessons and the small different details
between schools. It makes you think of aspects that can always be improved, it is beneficial and
rewarding to get ideas from each other.