During the last month Italy has faced a nightmarish situation nobody had never thought about or considered as a possibility. Covid 19,a new deadly disease, appeared in our country and became to make people sick and to kill them. School were closed down and everything changed very quickly.
Italian teachers reacted to this new condition using or adopting online learning platforms in order to provide education. In fact, as both students and teachers were not allowed to be physically present at school, an alternative way of teaching had to be found. According to a survey made between 11th and 12th March 2020 by IlSole24ore, 84 % of teachers have switched into remote teaching.Teachers started to use it even if they knew that this kind of teaching has advantages and disadvantages, as teaching in the classroom.
At the beginning, the disadvantages seemed more than the advantages,first of all the lack of devices,the lack of teachers’ training, the chances for students of getting distracted and losing tracks of deadlines without the teachers’ constant reminders, the need for students” self-motivation.Overcoming the disadvantages has become a challenge for all Italian teachers and, with the help of the MIUR, many courses have been activated to cope with the teachers’ needs.
Teachers started to use more and more the Internet, teleconferencing and related means to achieve an extended classroom or a learning experience.Flexible learning opportunities are among the advantages of remote teaching and they have been appreciated by both students and teachers. Distance Education via video conferencing, synchronous and asynchronous Distance Education are among the most effective approaches used in this period. They allow contact, discussion and relationship between the teacher and the students and provide a link to the “ordinary” lesson routine.Every teacher knows that school provides more than academic skills and that a lot is lost when remote learning is used. Most children rely on schools for counseling, for meals or for help. Students with special needs can be the hardest to teach virtually. Despite this, Italian teachers, students and parents are doing their best to be successful. Everything will be all right.
MANUELA RIVETTI Laureata in Lingue e Letterature Straniere presso l’Università degli Studi di Torino, ho conseguito le abilitazioni all’insegnamento per le classi di concorso A45 e A46, lingua inglese nella scuola secondaria di primo grado e lingua e cultura inglese nella secondaria di secondo grado. Ho inoltre conseguito l’abilitazione all’insegnamento nella scuola dell’infanzia e la doppia abilitazione nella scuola primaria, sia come docente su posto comune che come docente di inglese.La lingua inglese e l’insegnamento sono la mia passione, e per questo ho proseguito il mio percorso con un Corso di Perfezionamento in Didattica delle Lingue Straniere.A partire dal 2009 ho svolto diversi corsi di formazione per i docenti della scuola primaria in qualità di tutor per lo sviluppo delle competenze linguistiche--comunicative e metodologico – didattiche presso l’ USR Piemonte. Nell’anno scolastico 2012-13 sono stata la referente del Progetto Comenius Regio “Boosting Knowledge Through Music “, svolto in collaborazione con alcune scuole del Devon, tra cui un istituto “for special needs”, che mi ha permesso di approfondire la conoscenza del sistema scolastico inglese e della cultura anglosassone in materia di insegnamento - apprendimento.Dal 2007 mi occupo di Orientamento scolastico e di continuità come Funzione strumentale. Ho partecipato a vari progetti sulla costruzione del curricolo verticale coordinati dal prof. Martin Dodman e lo scorso anno scolastico ho fatto parte del suo gruppo di lavoro per la correzione nazionale delle prove Invalsi di lingua inglese. Condivido il motto di Edgar Morin, “meglio una testa ben fatta che ben piena”, insieme a quello di William Butler Yeats, “Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire”.