Teaching

I  believe that being a teacher means never ceasing to learn by engaging and participating in professional development events, collaborating actively with colleagues, serving in local and national teachers’ associations, and striving to understand and respond to my students. My teaching style and techniques evolve daily as I do my best to assess their different needs and adapt to their learning styles. 

 I believe that two of the most important and challenging elements of the global language classroom are keeping students engaged and motivated, and helping them to thrive by making sure that they can acquire the knowledge they need to succeed outside of the classroom. I foster engagement through a teaching style focused on language and culture, and by meaningfully integrating technology, energy, and humor. I am an extremely open person, and my energetic personality allows me to interact with my students as a companion and guide in their intellectual journey. Teaching Italian, my native language, enables me to share my cultural and personal experience as a global language learner. I demonstrate how to effectively communicate in Italian, but perhaps most crucially, I encourage an appreciation for Italian language and culture. 

 My goal as a guide is to motivate my students to develop a desire to learn and reflect independently. To achieve this goal, I rely upon the use of technology and introduce activities that integrate comprehensible input and total physical response (TPR): we sing and dance together, we move around the classroom asking questions, we engage in role-playing, we read aloud, and we tell stories. Through these types of dynamic activities and interactions, students learn how to reflect on the language and form their own opinions, while developing linguistic competence and confidence. I encourage collaborative learning activities. For example, I allow them to become “teachers for a day” and they decide what to present to their peers; they can perhaps focus on a cultural aspect they found interesting, a language difficulty, an idiomatic expression, or a cultural or current event, thus stimulating interdisciplinarity and independent thinking.  Or I urge them to become “journalists for a day” and interview Italians from the local community about a topic we are discussing in class, thus engaging with the community while developing and improving their communication skills and networking with local Italians. In the online class on Italian fairy tales, students created original and personal digital stories. This activity allowed them to meet four student-centered learning strategies: engagement; reflection for deeper learning; project-based learning; and the effective integration of technology into learning. I strive to make each student the agent of their own learning, and in so doing I see their confidence and language appreciation soar. 

 In my quest to nurture independent speakers and thinkers, I promote cross-cultural awareness and appreciation. I try to bring as much tangible culture into the classroom as possible. For example, I introduce students to the Italian tradition of “il caffè,” allowing them to experience firsthand the importance of food as a social and convivial aspect of Italian life; or I expose them to the spirited sport affiliations and cultural aspects of Italian soccer. I work closely as advisor to our student group to organize events in which we learn how to prepare traditional and regional specialties and do tasting exercises. We attend the opera and Italian films, living Italian culture beyond the walls of the classroom.  

 These experiential learning activities allow students to apply their knowledge to real-world situations in community contexts, and to complete structured reflections on the relationships between assignments, course objectives, and personal educational objectives. I feel it is important to include such activities in my classes because they allow them to tailor classroom knowledge to their specific interests. 

Fostering Relations with Italy and the Italian Community

Maestro Valerio Galli with ITA 3030 students

       

Italian designer Gianni Molaro speaks to our students via Skype and presents the haute-couter dresses we showed in the Greek Room in Manoogian Hall from Italy during “The Week of the Italian Language in the World”

Every year I organize events with local Italian organizations or Italian artists visiting Detroit. In the spring of 2018, Maestro Valerio Galli, a renowned music director, came to talk to our students about his production of Tosca. In November 2018, the Michigan Opera Theatre and the president of the Verdi Opera Theatre of Michigan came to Wayne to present the Barber of Seville with a live performance and free tickets for students.  

 Every October, I organize events related to the “Week of the Italian Language in the World”. For the 2016 edition I contacted the stylist and designer Gianni Molaro and he sent us three beautiful haute-couture dresses to display in Manoogian and answered students’ questions about his creative process via Skype. These events foster interdisciplinarity and community engagement, and they bring Italy into the classroom and the classroom into the world. 

 I am an active member of the Italian community. As a director of the Board of the prestigious Dante Alighieri Society, Michigan Chapter, I chair committees that organize cultural and educational events, and direct a volunteer program, VoluntarItaly, whereby American students live and work in Lombardy, Italy. The program places students with Italian families free of charge. Wayne State students have enthusiastically participated in this program for the past three years alongside students from across the United States, gaining valuable cultural and professional experience abroad. As a member of the Italian Film Festival Committee, I teach students to appreciate contemporary Italian cinema, and also invite them to meet contemporary Italian film directors and to ask questions of them directly. 

 My commitment to teaching Italian experientially also extends beyond the borders of Detroit. I regularly teach two classes (7 or 8 credits, 5 days a week) during our summer study abroad program, Wayne in Abruzzo. This is a life-changing experience for students; it increases their cultural and linguistic awareness and develops their global perspectives. Being with them for four weeks, 24/7, requires adaptability and flexibility and has had a significant impact on my professional and personal development as a teacher. This experience prompted me to learn how to adapt to swiftly changing dynamics and situations. 

In Abruzzo, I encourage students daily to appreciate the opportunities around them and to own their learning process. Furthermore, working in Abruzzo has made me grow personally: it enriched me with life-changing friendships and relationships with students and locals. Seeing students become more confident, self-sufficient, and motivated through their participation in this experiential program is the best reward a teacher can experience.  

This is why I can honestly say that I am living my dream: teaching is my vocation!