OCTOBER WATCHING, READING, TEACHING, LIVING

1. WATCHING - Don't you love Sunday nights?

Aidan Turner as Ross Poldark

Most people hate Sunday nights since the weekend is over and the idea of starting a new working week is not easy to tackle. But I'm lucky enough to have found not one but two perfect antidotes in the recent weeks and I don't mind sharing them with you. This is how I face the ugly truth: Monday you do not scare me!  I prepare all my lesson plans and do my paperwork in advance, which I usually do at night, so that I can sit as comfortably as I can, turn the TV on and 1) enjoy Poldark's 18th century Cornish adventures on BBC 1 then 2) swoon on Victoria and Albert's 19th century royal romance on ITV +1. The result is I head to bed something like this  ...

... mesmerized! And who cares it'll be Monday in few hours!

Why are these series such safe havens? Too long to explain, but I'm sure you can understand. I am so grateful to UK TV for giving us such great period drama series.

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2. READING - Italian or English, but not as much as I would like

Massimo Gramellini & Chiara Gamberale, Avrò cura di te (I'll take care of you)

One of 2016 best selling Italian books. One of my sister’s suggestions. Little sisters must be listened to, from time to time. An epistolary novel written by two popular journalists/writers, G&G, Gramellini and Gamberale,  in which Gioconda, aka Giò, 35, exchanges letters,  quite incredibly, with her guardian angel. Well, incredible is the fact that he answers her! 
After her grandmother’s death and her separation from her beloved husband, Leonardo  (Leonardo & Gioconda?) Giò is going through a terrible crisis.  Filemone, that’s the name of the angel, will take care of her and will lead  her with his wise, touching words to rediscover herself and to see her life from a different perspective. Filemone will help Giò silence her brain and her instincts in order to listen to her heart.

 A journey along the path of self – awareness and positive feelings. A break from the harshness of  everyday life.

«Il dono più grande che potresti fare agli altri è comprendere chi sono, anziché volerli cambiare, assediando le loro sicurezze per trasformarli a tua immagine e somiglianza.»

 “The greatest gift you could give others is to understand who they are instead of wishing them changed and besiege their certainties to transform them in your own image, in your likeness”

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3. TEACHING - Crazy projects, crazy year

Let's start from the crazy year: the year of the so-called "Buona Scuola", "the good school" Mr Renzi gifted us with, the umptieth reform of Education in Italy. What can I say briefly to make you understand? I've been teaching for almost 30 years now and never was the beginning of a new school year worst. I won't say much more, I don't want to bore you. But, trust me, when I say "never worst". 

Luckily, I've got my enthusiasm, my students and my beloved English literature to help me. I prepare my lessons, look for and find new materials to make them more interesting and stimulating first to me then to my students, then finally I enter,  close the classroom door and forget all the rest. 

What about the crazy projects, instead? One above all, which is quite crazy. My students from two different classes (I have 6, 120 students) will write a blog, or better a web magazine in English and I'll have to edit and coordinate all their work. They are enthusiastic. I've never seen them as eager to work on something as I saw them when I proposed them to become the staff of a web magazine and read them my project. The blog is still under construction,  but they are all working hard on their first posts and videos. The graphics are ready, one of them has been working on it,  and we have posted something to check out our choices for the layout. Let's Blog, Web Magazine by 3A + 3B is going to be launched soon!

I'm also working on more conventional, traditional  activities. of course. I mean, I must also teach Shakespeare and the Elizabethan Theatre to 4th year students  or thematic modules like this one to my 5th year class. Not to mention grammar and vocabulary to 1st and 2nd year students. 

So what about LIVING, then?  Read previous paragraphs. My life is almost all there. Almost.