Life is Good!

I feel so blessed to be teaching at TASIS! Teaching is FUN with small class sizes, a great teammate, inspiring and respectful kids….. And it’s so beautiful here. Within minutes of school or my apartment I can be hiking on trails or biking on quaint roads. I sure do miss my kids, and puppies, though!

Saturday I went on another challenging bike ride – only 38 miles but we climbed 4000 feet, including two Cat 2 climbs. We went mainly up for 10 miles, however there were a few dips in it. At one point I going up and around the inside of a very tight hairpin turn, trouble was, so was a tour bus. The bus won, only after I screamed because it was taking up the whole road and I had nowhere to turn. I got new pedals last week and had trouble getting out of the clips because I was going so slowly.  Yikes that was scary! It was also scary trying to clip in and get going on the steep grade again. One of my favorite parts was listening to cow bells as I rode by. Beautiful, beautiful beautiful terrain.  I wish I could have seen the bottom from the top to really appreciate how high we climbed, and to share a photo of it with you! We double backed a little to avoid a Cat 1 descent; too many tight hairpin turns! As it was my hands and forearms were really tired going down, and those switchback turns are adrenalin rushes!

Saturday's Bike Route

 I got back just in time for lunch and a trip to Bellinzona to see the castles – incredible!!!! The pictures describe it better than I can. If you want to read about them, here is an address to a web site.

http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/Specials/UNESCO-World_Heritage/Sites_in_Switzerland/Visitors_breach_Bellinzonas_defences.html?cid=7910466

Yep, it's the water closet!

Draw bridges and moats, how cool!

One of many charming buildings in Bellinzona.

This morning I went to the Italian church whose bells I always hear. Actually church bells ring all over every quarter hour. Every little village has a little church, and there are tiny villages everywhere. I wasn’t sure when the service was, and there wasn’t a sign, but I heard organ music so I went in. In my meager Italian and mainly gesture, I asked an older woman what time it started. When I came back, she was still there so I sat next to her. Too bad I must have been sitting in someone’s spot because although I didn’t understand her words, I understood I was supposed to move. I don’t think I sat in anyone else’s “reserved” spot! I only understood a few words in the whole service. I thought I would recognize some music, but I didn’t. 

Other tidbits:

This afternoon I went hiking in the maze of trails around here, and I made it back without getting lost. Getting lost is easy here because none of the roads are straight, and they all intersect at odd angles.

Our Curriculum Night ended with a wine and cheese reception!

The windows are still wide open here, and I’m still amazed that no critters have visited me. Thankful actually, Lauren and Kerry have had 2 bats visit their apartment.

I’m not the only one who couldn’t figure out how to get the van into reverse! I got to rescue Laura and drive her to the airport to pick up Kerry, who had been away for three weeks singing in an opera.

Ciao until next week!

Time Flies when You’re Having Fun!

Last weekend I almost forgot that I was here to work and not just to play! Saturday morning I went on a great bike ride and then Saturday night I went on the TASIS High School boat trip around Lake Lugano. They had food and a DJ on the excursion boats. I enjoyed seeing the lake shore and roads I bike on from a different perspective.

 Sunday I hiked the “Sal Camminate Lugano” 10K hike. I rode my bike up the mountain (which I now realize is not really a mountain but just a hill!) to the start. We hiked down to Lake Lugano, and wound our way back up again. Beautiful scenery! I met some women and asked if I could hike with them. I couldn’t figure out what language they were speaking. From my little bit of Italian, it sure didn’t sound Italian. I found out one was from France and they were speaking French to her, and then a regional dialect of Italian. Students in Switzerland learn French beginning in first grade, German in second and English later. After the hike they closed off the streets in one of the villages and served “maccheroni” while we were entertained by accordion music.

Lucky me...the rest stop included Swiss chocolate!

maccheroni 

Speaking of languages….several of my students are learning Italian, through English, which is their second language! Impressive!

Last Sunday I also  did a practice drive with the van to the swimming pool. It has lots of narrow roads and roundabouts. At one point you go under a one lane wide railroad bridge and there is a stop light to control traffic because it also goes around the corner and you can’t see the traffic coming from the other direction. I was startled when a car ran the red light and was coming head on towards me. Luckily you have to go slow by necessity, so I could stop easily. There was a car right behind me, so the car had to back up. They were not happy campers! Then I had used up all of my green light and more cars were coming toward me!

I almost made it back to school when I realized the van was nearly out of gas. One would think it would be a simple task to fill the tank – WRONG! I assumed the gas tank was on the other side, so I had to back up and turn around, couldn’t get the gas cap open and I had to call for help. I didn’t see the van key, and it turns out it is a hex key, which explains the odd hole in the gas cap that needed to be unlocked. Then, I couldn’t figure out how to use the credit card. The machine wasn’t connected to the gas pump and it looked like an ATM, but it was the only place to insert a card. It took 3 attempts for the pump to start. I couldn’t understand the Italian directions to select pump number 2 – diesel. At least I put in the correct gas! BTW – I forgot to look at the very end, but I put in more than 140 Swiss Francs worth of gas! Glad I use my bike for transportation here!

Monday I went up the biggest climb near school- Barbengo. It’s Cat 2 climb - 4.1K climb at a 6% grade. It took me 22:02 minutes. I was going really slow; I just wanted to make it. I used up a lot of energy being nervous. My lungs really burned at the top.

Tuesday I drove to swimming for real. It's embarrassing when you can't shift the van into reverse to back out of the parking space! How was I supposed to know instead of pushing down and to the right, I was supposed to pull up and to the left?!? Starting on steep inclines, roundabouts, maneuvering through two-way streets that only have room enough for one car went well, once I got out of the parking lot! My suggestions for driver’s training for next year will include how to get gas and the various ways to get into reverse!

Today I went on my toughest ride yet…90K, two Cat 2 climbs, 3400 feet of climbing. The Valle di Muggio climb was 8.3K long at a 4.2% grade, with an elevation change of 1125 feet. I can’t begin to describe the beauty – rock cliffs, goats with bells, crossing a bridge over a steep ravine…sometimes I just didn’t know where to look. One of my riding buddies said I better remember to watch where I’m going sometimes – good advice! The descents are still spooky for me. You can’t see around the curves and you don’t know if it’s going to be a U-turn switchback or what. I managed to get in a few short tucks today. The last climb was up Barbengo that I did on Monday. To my surprise after 50 miles of riding, I cut 2 minutes off my time!

Life is good!

Saturday's ride

My smile tells it all!

WOW – Stunning Ride!

I wish I had a camera on my handlebars so I could share the sights with you! The lakeside villages as we ride around Lake Lugano are simply charming. Today we added two long climbs. They weren’t incredibly steep, but they were long. There are lots of small rollers and twisty roads as you go around the lake, and so I didn’t see the first climb coming. I was worried about keeping up on the climbs and so my heart started working hard with apprehension even before my muscles were working hard. I just decided to go at my own pace, and I finally settled into a rhythm. Fulvio, the TASIS IT Director, is from here and knows all of the back roads and he took us up the quaintest road you can imagine. It got narrower and narrower as we went up. Picture a one lane road winding up the mountain, with cows grazing next to you. At the top we were on a very narrow cobblestone road with charming buildings on each side, and then it opened up to a plaza with a fountain.

Going down was an adrenaline rush. I was really good at tucking and flying down hills in Minnesota, but I can’t do that here. The tight hairpin turns keep my heart racing going down the mountains. My max speed was only 34 mph.

At the top of the second climb we rode along the ridgeline through an enchanting chestnut forest on another very narrow road.  The road we took down was wider and more travelled. In fact part way down we ran in to a traffic jam. So we “split the lane” meaning you ride down the center stripe passing all of the cars on the left – WILD!

It was a thrilling ride!

We rode down this road.

Rode up this road out of the village.

Successful First Week of School

Teaching at TASIS is FUN! You can really teach! It’s amazing how much you can teach when you only have ten students in your class, and the children are respectful! I can work individually with my students and so I really feel I know their strengths and needs.

My learning curve is steep with SRA Reading, Core Knowledge, data driven grouping for reading and math and the transitions involved with getting first graders to all different classrooms, but I love it here.

Always something new here….yesterday we were distracted by a helicopter picking up trees, flying right over our school and then dropping the trees off somewhere on the other side of the school. It was really loud! They must have been clearing land for a construction project. I was wondering how they build homes on the side of steep hills. 

Life is good!

All three sections of First Grade preparing for a Core Knowledge lesson.

Helicopter trees!

My Math group - the high flyers

Third Day of School

What a schedule, all designed to best meet student needs! --Small class sizes, EAL classes, ability grouping for SRA Reading Mastering, Math, and Italian. All students take Italian, even if English is not their first language. There are 18 first grade students in the American section of TASIS, and 10 students in the Italian section. For specials, they are all mixed so that the American section students can interact with the Italian speaking students. Orchestrating the schedules for all of these classes and levels is a masterpiece, and a slight logistical nightmare for classroom teachers to be sure that every student is at the right place at the right time!

I am very thankful that all of the teachers here are very supportive and helpful. The students work hard and do an amazing job learning. I wish that I was as adept as they are at learning a language, and academics through a second language!

Lunch fascinates me – the students have such good manners (I had to tell some today that it was okay to eat pizza (yum) with their fingers, and that they didn’t have to use their fork. Everyday the chef has little delicacies for the staff.

There are two women that help with lunch and keep our school immaculate. They wash off our desktops and tables every night, wash or vacuum the floors…….

Wish it would stop raining; I don’t like riding my bike in the rain. That’s my only complain though; I feel very blessed to be here.

First Read to Self

Dividing K and 1st grade for the first day of Italian Classes

Apple Dessert

Upcoming storm