First off, I just want to say that I love love love my practicum teacher, Mrs. Raftery. She is from Ireland, moved to London after college and worked as a banker, hated it, went back to school to get a teaching degree in London, met her boyfriend there who is from Rome and moved to Rome with him just this year. She is the cutest, sweetest, funniest person, and I love just listening to her talk because I'm obsessed with her accent and her humor.
Even though it is an American/English curriculum, and therefore the schooling is similar to what I'm used to, the children that go to Marymount are like from a completely different world than kids that I'm used to. First of all, these families are incredibly rich. Tuition for Marymount costs like two times more than my college education. And not only are the parents rich, but they are important. Part of the reason there is security at the gate of the school is because some of the kids are "high profile" because their parents have top secret government jobs. There are children of diplomats, ambassadors, famous Italian actors, the owner of Colgate and the owner of Fendi (jewelry), pornstars (that's just awkward and embarrassing for the kid I think), a famous soccer player, plastic surgeons, and there is even a girl in my class that is technically the Ethiopian Princess (her grandfather was the dictator in Ethiopia in the 1970s so her family is royalty in Ethiopia...crazy! And she acts like a princess too...). The kids wear uniforms to school, but I can only imagine the things that they wear outside of school and some of the things they own--some of the girls talk about Gucci and Armoni and all these other ridiculous things. They all have nannies which they call "ta-tas"and the nannies practically raise some of these kids. A boy in my class, Ricardo, and his brother each have their own ta-ta. A lot of the kids also have personal drivers. Ricardo is an example of a child who is being raised by his nanny..his parents are always traveling or working, and they have him so involved in extracurricular activities and summer camps. Ms. Raftery said she emailed his mom something about a field trip one time, and the mother said she would just forward it on to Ricardo in an email...what?? You have to forward an email to your nine year old son? And he is so cocky and in to himself because his nanny probably boosts his ego so much to make up for the lack of attention he gets from his parents...he is always starving for attention because his parents probably hardly give him the time of day..it's sad. I just can't even fathom these kids' lifestyles and what their homes must be like. Oh and the Ethiopian Princess, Clarissa had her tenth birthday party on Thursday and apparently is was something that could've been on MTVs "My Super Sweet 16"...ridiculous. Ms. Raftery said that most of them are so spoiled and are used to getting whatever they want the second they want it, and she said it is a problem during class discussions sometimes because they talk over each other and are so impatient because they aren't used to having to wait for anything. These kids have everything handed to them, and I'm sure their parents love them, but I think they express their love through buying them things instead of actually being there for them. Even though their lives are glamorous, I wouldn't want that and wouldn't change my life for the world...I'd rather be surrounded by love then by things.
The first day, I was introduced to the class during their silent reading time and Ms. Raftery had them come to the carpet for a morning meeting where I introduced myself to them and they introduced themselves to me. Almost all of the kids are Italian and from Rome, but there is a boy from Spain, a boy from China, the girl from Ethiopia, a girl from Czech Republic, a girl from Sweden, a boy from Sardonia (an island off of Italy), and two girls from US (one from Michigan and one from Fairfax County, VA--again, small world!). The boys all love soccer and a lot of the girls love to ice-skate, which apparently is pretty popular.
This is my first time in an older elementary grade and I love it. I've always thought I would only do the really little ones, but I love my fourth graders. Fourth grade is really fun too--they're still cute and sweet and love their teacher and want to impress you, but you can also actually have real conversations with them and I love that there is so much more teaching. I realize now how much just classroom management and basic skills consume pre-k and kindergarten, and I love that in upper elementary there's more actual teaching, which is obviously what I want to do!
I can't believe how cultured and worldly these kids are. They know so much more than I did at their age and they are ALL bi-lingual if not more! I almost feel ashamed around them that I only know English.
Despite their lavish lifestyles, most of them act like normal kids and they aren't to the point where they are snobby. They are sweet kids and they have welcomed me so much into their class and are so excited to have me and want to impress me, and it's so cute and I feel so blessed.
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