My main role as a teacher is facilitating student learning of the Italian language. My goals are for them to reach their objectives and speak, read, and write the language at the appropriate level, from introductory to advanced courses. At the same time, I strive to engage, challenge, and inspire my students to enjoy this process, inside and outside of the classroom. In my opinion, a key element is keeping the students motivated, so I bring enthusiasm, contemporary relatable cultural elements, and immerging digital tools into the classroom. I plan and participate in many extracurricular events organized for and/or by students, such as Gelato and Symphony on South 40, Relay for Life, I colori of Kehinde Wiley museum visits,  Italian film and exhibition viewings, guided reading of Italo Calvino (upon student request), multiple cooking workshops and walks and talks through Forest Park for exercise and distressing.

Learning and teaching language is an ever-evolving field for me, and I learn through professional development, by studying my peers, and most importantly, by being involved and curious. My participation in many professional organizations, conferences, and workshops attest to my desire to continue to learn with and from the best experts, and my involvement with on-campus colleagues in Language Instruction attests to my desire to initiate greater community building among faculty and share advancements in teaching and ongoing challenges in classrooms. Recently, I was among the founders of the Coalition of Language Teaching and Learning (CLTL). My co-organizer and I have been tasked to make one of the events, the Language Teaching Fair, an annual event. We facilitated a timely conversation about Canvas and Zoom proficiency (and difficulties), cultural, gender, and privilege-based diverse student body, and how to incorporate sensitivity into our language dialogs and instructional texts.  

On the other hand, I make sure to know my students as people. I learn their nicknames and their story. I learn about the sports teams they play on and talk about popular teams in Italy. I inquire about the music they listen to and find similar genres in Italian, and the list goes on.  This collaborative curiosity makes the “foreignness” of Italy more familiar and creates learning by immersion in the context, which motivates their interest in Italian and its culture. Sometimes it is music that becomes an integral part of our classes, sometimes, it is history, art, fashion, or food. As I guide them through their learning processes in the classroom using culturally relevant tools, I am well aware of their emotional state and personal needs. To understand better the conditions of our students’ overall adjustment to university life, I attended numerous workshops, talks, and events, organized by students, faculty, and mental health professionals (Progress Counseling and First Year Advising, Uncle Joe’s, Teaching Center, Disability Resources Center, Residential Life). I attended the Mental Health First aid 2-day workshop and have a certification as a mental health first aid responder; I made close professional connections with former and current WashU cares officials; I requested made many meetings in an effort to understand the goals and resources of some university offices. I pride myself on being tirelessly dedicated to better students’ well-being and approachable to many students who feel comfortable seeking my help.

Because students learn differently, as I mentioned, sensitivity to student needs is important to me.  In my classroom, I feel obliged to assist students who need assistance and encourage the more independent learners to express themselves by using different strategies. I require that we respect each other’s capabilities so that we can successfully reach our common goals. I don't mind slowing down when I need to slow down, repeating concepts multiple times, or simply rephrasing the question in order to have everybody on the same page. I learn very quickly which weaknesses in apprehending Italian my students face, so my quest becomes to ease them into tackling their challenges. There is no more rewarding moment than when my shy student gives a lengthy oral presentation in perfect Italian or the more outgoing one gets a perfect test score. I think that is why in every evaluation, my students believe I am the most patient person in the world. 

In order to help them achieve proficiency according to the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines through accuracy and fluency, I feel most comfortable with more communicative, personable methods interwoven with a more traditional pedagogical approach.  My traditional approach is visible in Canvas in a systematic, detailed exposure to the grammar, reinforced by regular creative homework assignments and in-class written and oral testing. My communicative strategy is full participation strictly in Italian and personability surfaces through a consistent recycling of conversations closely related to our class and classmates’ individual interests. Occasionally, I share my personal anecdotes about how many mistakes you can make when speaking a foreign language and how learning from mistakes is an important means of improvement.  I also stress how knowledge of foreign languages has opened many doors for my former students and me. 

Even though flexibility is a chief operator, and my strategies are based on creating a personable classroom, I also believe in careful planning and structure.  I take teaching and preparation very seriously, reflected in meticulously created syllabi, versatile and challenging tests, frequent oral presentations, and well-organized lesson plans. Each of my lessons contains at least five parts; warm-up, oral presentation of new material mostly through carefully created power point presentation, grammar-contextualized exercises, and finally, pair work, with or without my interference. As much as I prepare for my classes, I am always ready to change if needed. This flexibility is also a skill that I hope my students learn and use in their everyday lives.

The accessibility to web-based technology is a pivotal ancillary resource for me. I enjoy incorporating instructional technology and social networks as sources of authentic material in almost every one of my classes since it helps me use different strategies to ensure that the material is adaptable for various learning styles. I use Italian media for reading exercises, film clips, music for comprehension, and various online technologically diverse and contextualized grammar exercises to reinforce the material we cover in class. I also love learning of any advancement in our field from my colleagues in Italian and other departments and institutions, at conferences, and from publishing companies. My passion is in testing with my students anything exciting and new I can incorporate into the class. I enjoy keeping up with whatever my students deem contemporary.

Finally, I want to think that my enthusiasm and love for teaching and the Italian language inspire my students to become motivated, insightful, and enthusiastic thinkers. One of the beauties of learning a foreign language is learning new ways of thinking.  This lesson is something that I hope my students can apply across many disciplines and many areas of life. As a member of Fulbright committee, it was my pleasure to come to review my students’ applications to teach the English language in Italy. Many of my former students are now on different carrier paths but many still communicate with me and tell me how their knowledge of Italian has made a difference in their lives.  Just for example, a freshman Harvard Law student’s application letter stated her intentions to use Italian for International law studies. Although my passion is for Italian in particular, one of my ultimate goals is, as every teacher should be, to give students a sense of curiosity, open-mindedness, and a desire to learn.