It was Marco's birthday last week and after typically mentioning, "this time ... years ago, your mum was...", we found ourselves thinking about what we were doing this time last year. On Marco's birthday last year, he attempted to teach me to ski. Bless him, for all his efforts, I was quite happy watching the four year old's over taking me. It was tragic. I made a fool out of myself on the ski lift not once, but twice. But I survived and went on to have my first proper lesson in Chamonix later in the year.
At the beginning of 2012, people on my course had already started looking for jobs and by April, the majority in the class had a job to go to somewhere in the world. Marco and I had discussed for a long time, where in the world we should go and we settled on New Zealand. As neither of us had any money, it was best to go somewhere where we had some support and connections. My search started at the beginning of the year,looking for the ideal job. I had specific things in mind when looking. Having spent the time doing such an amazing course, I wanted to go to a school where this knowledge and information could be utilised.
I found a small Montessori Casa (Early Childhood) in New Zealand that wanted to extend into a Primary. This was an ideal opportunity. I sent the appropriate emails and waited.
Waiting is not so easy, when the direction of your life depends on it, you want to know quickly. It so happened that the school was looking at bringing someone over from America. I was a little disheartened, yet I didn't give up and stayed in touch with the school. Not long after, I received an email from the school. The opportunity for the American brought about complications due to getting a Visa(unfortunately for them). Yet, fortunately for me, that opened up the perfect position.
In July, I went to visit the school. I fell in love, the two Casa classrooms were beautiful, the gardens were lovely and my classroom...well my classroom was being built. But I could see the progress. We managed to move and organise all the equipment in a matter of a week.
The classroom opened at the beginning of September. Before that, I spent a month developing materials and trying to get my mind into gear for what was to come. Although I had the materials and the room was as prepared as possible, I wasn't! When the children arrived, day by day, they introduced new dilemmas to be aware of, for example silly things like washing their hands properly or filling the sink to do washing up. But all these little things are learning curves for me.
This year, I will have hopefully 18 children ranging between 5 and a half to ten years old. I struggled to cope with twelve of them last term. Which to normal teachers is probably shocking, however, I had 12 children who were very unsettled each with there own needs in an education style which doesn't introduce them to 'keeping busy' worksheets. When we go back to school, I will have an assistant to help out with the day to day running of the classroom. My octopus arms and head could only cope for so long. Trying to give a math lesson to one group, help to others on their parts of speech and then guiding others on finding other work. While in the background there are children trying to cut apples for morning tea or painting without cleaning up after themselves. By the end of the day my head was a whirlwind.
It's very difficult introducing children into a whole new environment. With no role models (being the oldest in school), everything is dependent on the boundaries set out by the teacher on day one. Slowly but surely and by the end of term, I started to see results. The children started instructing each other of the things they can and explained the things they should avoid doing. Unlike other schools, a Montessori environment does not (or at least tries not to) use punishment. Discipline comes from the other members of the class not a dictator/teacher. I was so happy to hear that they were starting to take on responsibility and self-discipline which Montessori education really promotes.
It has been a challenging year. Marco has always been there to save my sanity and I am in awe of his patience when listening to me babble or cry about the good and bad days.
Marco has struggled to find work for himself, yet he has not given up hope. Since September, while Marco searched for work, he helped out in the Casa classes, teaching Italian, being a dinner lady and making materials. I couldn't have done my work without Marco's endless hours in front of the laminator.
Often my thoughts are brought back to our life in Italy. How I miss the fun of learning and interpreting the language and culture. I truly miss Marco's family. The time we would spend giggling at the dinner table with his parents or sitting back and allowing the uncles to bellow over each other while watching Formula 1. We hope to visit Italy during their summer (our winter holidays), spend some time enjoying the sights and sounds of the country, without having to worry about writing Montessori manuals or colouring in charts like last year.
I am truly happy where I am, who I am surrounded by and who I have met over the course of 2012.
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