Having been presented with the Victorian Teacher of the Year Award by Sir James Gobbo in 2001, Rosetta De Amicis is an educator who has devoted a great deal of time and commitment to her profession.
She began her career at Bayswater West Primary School soon after graduating from university, and immediately took on the school headmaster’s challenge to start an intensive program in which some subjects would be taught in Italian.
The program, which ended in 2000, was an extremely formative experience that prepared De Amicis for her role as Italian teacher from Prep to Year 6, which she holds at the school to this day.
“When I switched to teaching Italian for just one hour a week, I thought about how I could make the most of my time with my students. So, I came up with a personal approach that I call 'Building on Language'. The goal is to give students the tools to learn to communicate in Italian and to express themselves in sentences; I want them to be able to speak,” De Amicis explains.
The teacher's method consists of approaching a specific topic as a starting point, so that children can properly learn the vocabulary related to it. From there, students begin to construct a series of phrases and expressions each week that will help them to speak about the specific subject.
“With the boys in Years 5 and 6, for example, we tackled the topic ‘my identity’, and at the end they were able to introduce themselves using a minimum of eight sentences,” she says happily.
“At the moment, however, we are talking about free time. I’ve been showing the students some YouTube videos that show how children in Italy spend their free time; this way, we also consider the cultural aspects of language learning. We do this as a joint project with a school in Coburg, with whom we hope to meet at the end of the term,” De Amicis adds.
De Amicis always aims to focus on the cultural aspects of language, which is why she has organised a number of initiatives during her long career.
“My most significant experience was undoubtedly a trip to Italy in 2015, when a group of my students, along with those of an Italian school with which we are affiliated, delivered a presentation at the Milan Expo on the theme of sustainability. My students spoke about food waste, expressing themselves partly in Italian and partly in English,” she says.
The students then had the opportunity to attend the Italian school and spend three days as tourists with their families - a total immersion within the culture of the Bel Paese.
And to keep levels of interest high and provide students with engaging material, De Amicis not only organises an Italian day at Bayswater West, but also a day dedicated to ancient Rome, a MasterChef-style cooking competition and an art exhibition.
“I collaborate with the school's art teacher, and in my class, I talk about various Italian artists, delving into their lives and histories; the art lesson focuses more on technique and artistic expression.”
In recent weeks, De Amicis has been running a competition called ‘Visible Italian in Melbourne’, asking families to take pictures whenever they find something that can be traced back to Italy.
“It can be anything - a car, food, an item of clothing or a restaurant. I then ask the children to create a poster or a slideshow with all of the photos. The aim is for them to understand how important and present the Italian community is in our city. Because it is important that we never stop promoting the study of our beautiful language,” De Amicis concludes.
