Real Voices 2023｜NPO JEARN

Mural painted in honor of "The Chronicles of Narnia."

Lauretta Salvini Fortunati

iEARN Teacher

Primary school teacher in a State school in Narni, Italia

Ms. Lauretta Salvini Fortunati from Italia

I'm Lauretta Salvini Fortunati, Italian teacher and wife of the late Giuseppe Fortunati, contact person for iEARN Italy. I like art, creativity and music. I love my job and I'm so sorry to retire this year.

What school or organization are you working at?
If you are a teacher, how many years of experience do you have as a teacher?

I am a primary school teacher in a State school in Narni, a medieval small town in the center of Italy. I have been teaching for 44 years, since 1976.

What subject do you teach? How many students are in your class?

I teach Italian language, history, music, art and image. There are 10 students in my class.

What is the compulsory education system in your country?

Education in Italy is compulsory for ten years between the ages of 6 and 16.
The system is organized as follows:the first cycle of education lasts 8 years (5 years of primary school and 3 years of lower secondary school), then there are the first 2 years of the second cycle. Compulsory education is free for children of all nationalities, living in Italy. There are State, non-State and publicly subsidized schools the students can attend.

When does the school year start and end in your country?
The school year starts in mid-September and ends in mid-June. We have two weeks off at Christmas, one week off at Easter, and some days for national and local holidays spread throughout the school year.

My students in art class

Primary school in a State school in Narni

How many years of experience do you have in iEARN? What iEARN projects have you done with your students?

I have been collaborating with iEARN since 2003, thanks to my husband Giuseppe Fortunati, who involved me in his project “Narnia & C.S. Lewis”.
Giuseppe started the Narnia Project
http://www.narnia.it/iearn_eu.htm, "For connecting peoples all around the world with a magical land named Narnia - a place that you can discover through the magic wardrobe of the internet."
Also, my students and I were very thrilled to participate in the Art Miles Mural project. It was a very stimulating opportunity for us to take part in such important projects.

Art Miles Mural project exhibition in Narni, Italy

Has the COVID-19 pandemic affected your school or your students? Were there any major changes?
During the Covid-19 pandemic students stayed at home for some months and had lessons in Dad (distance learning) and Did (mixed system in presence and at distance contemporarily). After returning to school, everyone at the entrance had to use hand sanitizer, check the temperature, wear the mask and maintain 1m distance from each other. We could not share accessories and school supplies; moreover we had to clean all the surfaces and protect food and drink. All the meetings (with families, students and the school operators) happened online. We had to avoid overcrowding events (theatrical performances, concerts, sport games, school trips).

All that has caused a lot of changes in habits regarding the improvement in the use of technologies, a growing attention to hygiene norms, a greater wish to stay together.

Regarding the use of ICT, is One-to-One PC being done in your school? Do your students take those devices home? Do you use them for online classes?
As far as the use of ICT, when it was possible and it was allowed to stay at school, it started a transitional phase when one day a week the students, divided into groups, came to school and used the 11 devices contained in the computer room. The institute gave some devices to students asking for them for online lessons. All the others had their own PCs to be connected.	Students returning to their classrooms after the Covid-19 pandemic
Could you give any messages to teachers in Japan?
As a teacher, I wish to express my satisfaction for the initiatives offered by iEARN and I like to underline the importance of exchanging experiences, methods and opinions as means of cooperation among people living in different countries and having different cultures.

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The iEARN Teacher interviews are part of a series of articles by JEARN entitled "Connecting The World! Teachers Network News" starting with the January 2023 issue in a Japanese monthly magazine for educators, Cresco (Otsuki Shoten Publishers here).