Suzanne Furstner Foundation Scholarship 2009: Shortlist Announced
Monday, 23rd November 2009
Cactus is thrilled to announce Truly Camies as one of the shortlisted entries for the 2009 Suzanne Furstner Foundation Scholarship.
The entries were assessed by a panel of three judges against the following criteria: content and structure, originality, language and accuracy, relevance to the scholarship theme and overall impression. All of those shortlisted have won a Cactus Online TEFL Course.
You can read Truly’s entry in full below. To read the winning and other shortlisted entries please click here.
Truly Camies
Six weeks in Italy
Student: Angelo Mastroianni
Teacher: Mr Longbottom
Teacher’s Report
I have had the pleasure of teaching your surprisingly competent son, Angelo, in a number of different subjects over the last three years and I will have to be honest, I am simply flabbergasted with the progress he has made with not only academic achievements, but with his continuous attempts at undermining me as a teacher. It must strike you as quite bizarre that a teacher would be so bold as to mention this in a school report but then you would be right. This is actually my final day at Scholars High due to moving abroad and as such, I feel that Angelo’s final school report should be full, consistent and paralleled with his behaviour, which is quite simply a combination of troublemaking and sheer brilliance. He is admired by his peers, swooned over by the female portion of the school; teachers and students alike and is insistent on hindering me in any way, shape or form using magnificent front and cunning that a fox would be envious of.
In the first year, his entrepreneurial attempts at setting up businesses in the playground impressed me greatly. Business opportunities seemed to be favourable to those students in his closest circle of friends or to those that had been introduced to him. This is something that reflects the nature of the Italian culture; something I find quite admirable. His healthy rivalry with competitors of the year above is commendable and yet shrewd, to say the least. He has a bright mind and has proven such in outright illegal acts of selling and distributing snacks and drinks outside of class; honing in on opportunities that present themselves in the form of pupils with large appetites, having left swimming lessons and drinks to those pupils just finishing sports. From what I have gathered, he treats his working peers like they were his own family and distributes his earnings in a very diplomatic way; those that sell more, earn more. Of course, I have caught him on a number of occasions, skiving his Italian lessons to aid in such a cause, for which I have scolded him. Language lessons, albeit his native language are of utmost importance in the realm of business and may teach him a thing or two he probably believes he knows already. I have had many a conversation with Angelo about the differences within cultures and the significance of learning and understanding one another, especially within your own nationality.
As you may already know, each of the last three years, he and a number of students have visited parts of Italy on the annual two week residential trip in order to soak up the history and identify cultural differences between the two countries. Angelo, whose name belies his devilish charm, was asked to note his experiences in a diary as were the other students. This exercise is designed to give the students a chance to reflect on their understanding of the culture and the language as well as capture their ability to summarise and describe their thoughts on their experiences in another country. Your son never failed in expressing his love for his home country as he described Italy beautifully. Following his second trip, he did however, fail to recognise that introducing the national football team into his argument as to why Italy was better than England, was just not appropriate, given that the inequality of football teams does not denote an inequality of countries. An excerpt I have already highlighted with him personally, I feel I must share with you:
“The English footballers are much better dressed than the public. Some of the English men like my teacher actually wear socks and sandals and think they are un tipo!”
This was highly inappropriate; I not only found this offensive in the fact he referred specifically to my personal attire but also because he knew I would have to look the phrase ‘un tipo’ up for translation before any punishment could be exchanged for such insolence.
This is not the first time that he has personally insulted me, for example, he has often insisted that I am unlucky because I wear a peacock feather in my hat. This hat is one of my most prized possessions and on the one occasion where I can relax in the sunshine, I wear this hat in order to shield my eyes – every time I have worn this hat on our school trips, I have caught Angelo gesticulating at me by making a horn sign with his index and little fingers, which is just unacceptable behaviour! This has been copied and encouraged by a number of other students and sometimes used in protest; I have also caught students making this same gesture with their hands behind my back after I have set them homework to complete. I once asked him why he considered the peacock feathered hat an unlucky omen and he explained that I bear ‘The Evil Eye’. This of course was a nonsensical though clear (and also intriguing) derivative of the rumour that one of my colleagues made me aware of - the rumour being that I am the ‘long bottom with the evil eye’, which I originally thought may have been to do with my ability to catch students doing things they oughtn’t be doing using well developed observational skills. Upon further interrogation, your bafflingly brilliant son informed me quite nonchalantly, that the ‘Mano Cornufo’ or “Horned Hand” is widely accepted as a preventative method against ‘The Evil Eye’ curse, in not only Italy, but in Mexico, Eastern Europe and even China. How absolutely absurd! I can only conclude that this act of defiance has been generated and encouraged by Angelo himself within school and as creative as they are, these reasons do not justify his behaviour.
When I do challenge his reasons for bad behaviour, whether real or imaginary, he will argue his case with great passion and feels he must be louder than me in order to win. Angelo has advised me that he believes arguing is a lot healthier than brewing resentment. In the last and thankfully final year teaching Angelo, your son caused me to lose my temper in a most bizarre way. In our third trip to Italy, we visited some of the most beautiful masterpieces in Rome, including the Coliseum, outside of which were actors, posing as real life gladiators. The gladiators, looking marvellous in their authentic costumes; lifelike sandals, and even sporting lifelike weapons such as tridents and swords, had clearly grown used to groups of schoolchildren swarming around them with fascination. Angelo, being somewhat surprisingly well behaved on this trip, impressed his peers and myself by talking to one of the gladiators in his native tongue… Before I knew it, the gladiator had tackled me at my waist, pinning me to the ground, all whilst wearing a huge grin on his face. I was astonished, let alone bewildered! It was not until the laughter from our group died down, that one of the students were able to point out that the trident that this particular gladiator had adorned was no longer in its rightful place on the actor’s belt. The article had in fact, made its way into the pocket of my blazer, which I had previously removed and draped over my arm earlier for fear of melting in the afternoon heat. Angelo, taking all this in his stride, smiled upon us - two adult men grappling on the floor - then redeemed himself by calmly speaking a few foreign words. As quickly as I’d found myself there, my normal stance was resumed. Within a few short moments, I found myself with my jaw on the floor as the actor/gladiator took back his trident, grinned and walked off. Now I still, to this day, do not know what was said to the costumed actor, but I do know that such an incident would never have occurred had it not been for your mischievous son.
However, even after all of this, even after I consider him the absolute bane of my life,
I actually commend and admire him; I wish him the best in his future endeavours as he really is one of the most capable young men I have ever taught. After sharing six weeks in Italy with him over three long and painful years, conversely, he has taught me a thing or two about life and how one must make the most of it. I hasten to add, that because of my experience with such a student, I have decided to learn Italian and to do so, I have applied to work as a TEFL tutor in a school in Alghero, Italy, where I can teach obedient adults rather than mischievous children but also so that I may learn Italian for my own future good, if ever I teach a student as exasperating and as exceptional as your son again. Thank you.
Tags: scholarship, sff2009, suzanne furstner scholarship, tefl, english
Posted by Michelle Curtis 2009-11 under Cactus TEFL, Cactus News,
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