I love to believe that I have some sort of influence on the people around me especially on my students since I am a teacher. I do my best to transmit positive values to my students and one of my objectives at work (apart from teaching the academic subjects) is to try and make my students appreciate the beauty of the world around us and encourage them to go out and explore it. For this reason me and my colleagues organise trips to Italy that not only help students in their language learning, but also hope that this motivates them to become inquisitive explorers of the world around them.
Organising trips for students is surely not an easy task. It entails months of preparation and a huge responsibility which not everyone is ready to take. However this kind of experience is extremely rewarding since it’s a great satisfaction seeing students interacting with local people, asking about what they see around them, tasting local food and finally being thankful for the journey. Most of them will return the year after asking about the next trip and this encourages me and my colleagues to organise yet another trip.
During these educational trips it is almost impossible to take pictures since I have to keep my eyes on my students all of the time, but sometimes I manage to capture something interesting like the souvenir depicted in the featured image above. This image was taken on a day trip to Sicily with the students and portrays a detail from a souvenir representing the Trinacria symbol. It has been taken at a souvenir shop in the small town of Taormina. This place is my favourite in Sicily as it boasts breathtaking views, delicious food and narrow streets where to get lost.
