Thursday in Florence: Galieo Museum

left at 7am from train station.
Charlotte went with us.

First we took a bus from the train station to the
Piazza de San Michelangelo
http://www.aviewoncities.com/florence/piazzalemichelangelo.htm

This was very near the international school and allowed us great views of the city.  There is also another David replica here and also some other interesting statues.

Next we walked to the International school  http://www.isfitaly.org/site/home.asp  to see ICT and Special education.The walk was pretty but was both quite downhill and uphill and the school sits on the top of a hill.  It is also very up and down and maze like in the school.. small hallways and twisty stairs. .but it had a great view.

Our guide was a Dutch history teacher who had already taught at international schools in China (and someplace else).  She was quite excited about being able to be history teacher at the place where so much history started.  She also captured a few of our students' interest in teaching in international schools and much of the talk later in the day was about those that had gone to international schools or wanted to teach there.  

our tour guide at the International School

gardens at the international school

view from the teacher's lounge.. wow. 

The technology teacher was from the US - San Francisco and talked about their 1 to 1 iPad initiative that is starting in middle school.  A lot her problems are the same as the US..  teaching technology requires teachers to help teach presentation skills etc.. and lack of professional development and the technology teacher wearing too many hats.

I offered to come back and meet with her to talk iPads.. to have someone to brainstorm with.. but I doubt I will hear from her. but that role can feel pretty isolated.

The group walked to the Galileo museum.  I took a cab with a student who needed it.

Had lunch with students in the cab but then met with Jim and Charlotte when Jim Realized that we were near his favorite restaurant in Florence. Osteria De'Benci is known for its drunken pasta that boiled in wine and then cooked with garlic.  http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g187895-d1034481-r31512750-Osteria_De_Benci-Florence_Tuscany.html  It smelled really good but I did not want to test getting stuck.

We started at the Galileo museum at 2 pm.. and reminded the students to gain some pictures and such for their projects on Galileo. Unfortunately, it made them a little task focused but a few students and Jim and I really enjoyed the museum.   It was a collection of scientific equipment like Galileo's telescopes and early microscopes and talked about science during that time period.  Much of the collection had been collected by Cosimo Medici since he loved scientific equipment.

The ornateness of the scientific equipment was cool. There was also a section that talked about how part of that is that they used it to entertain rich folks.  I enjoyed seeing how scientific equipment that we use today developed over time.  There were a lot of protractors though.. I talked to a lot of students about their ideas for their projects and I hope they have more direction now.

this was an ornate view of the world.. they sure knew how to style things up.  

a map of the world on the wall. 

this publication of Galileo struck me because his name was small but Cosimo Medici was big.. so kind of like.. if NSF gave us a grant and we put their name in big letters on all publications. 

the view of arno river from the window of the Galileo museum. 

Challenges:
Keeping track of all 24 students. There was lollygagging and almost missing buses and trains.(stressed me out because I don't know how to order bus tickets and such yet).  I am not sure they realize how stressful this is..
I have a new appreciation for Mandy Kumler's job -leading student groups on mission trips.. its super stressful and had me tied in knots.

Also getting students to experience things and not just take pictures.  observe and read is so much more important. .

Students were late to meet us and we were hustling to get the train..  when we got there the train was already at the track and we rushed to get it on it. I thought I would be able to stamp the ticket by the train but I could not.  Jim handed me his back pack and ran to do it. I thought it was not a big deal, but then I saw what happened when you did not.    the woman across from me was charged 40 Euro for not having ticket stamped would I have been charged 40 X  27?  YIkes.. Glad Jim was right and ran.

he was right several times that day.  We also wanted to go to a restaurant that I thought was one direction, and I was totally off.. He was 100% right..  I was glad that he was able to orient better. I have such poor navigation skills it made me even more stressed because I was worrying about getting students where they needed to go when I could not figure it out for myself.

at the end of this day, I was overwhelmed and questioning if I should even be a faculty leader on the trip.  so many missteps to happen.   These two days in Florence were super stressful and I realized I desperately needed a little alone time with no students or anyone else at all.

Jim and I did go to dinner at Osteria again.. it was fine.  I had gnocchi with butter and sage and some wine, and I think the two of those let me get the sleep I needed.


(Ps I wonder if Cosmo Kramer was named after cosimo Medici - both seemed like quite the characters! )