Speaker at the 1st Meeting Docenti Puglia

A bit by chance I was added to a Facebook group – one among many – called “1st Meeting Docenti Puglia”.

I wonder what I am doing here, but I stay thanks to the many interesting people I’ve met in Apulia inside the school. Inside the group we discuss about many interesting things in the innovation field.

The 1^st Meeting Docenti Puglia take shape

First we schedule the date of the 1^st Meeting Docenti Puglia, the calls among the teachers as speakers are opened and – as we use to say – laughing and joking, the enrolments to the public on eventbrite also for my intervention are opened.

Every intervention is confirmed only if it will get a minimum number of enrolments. There are many high-level speakers and I start thinking that only few people will enrol to mine: I’m 16 and practically no one knows me in Apulia.

On the contrary, in a flash I have a full house at the 1^st Meeting Docenti Puglia.

So here I am preparing the speech to tell about our school and education idea and about our school philosophy.

The big day arrives, we leave on Friday from Alessandria by car and on Saturday morning we are at the meeting.

[bctt tweet="My intervention at #meetingdocentipuglia in Francavilla Fontana. @ofpass1on @frao92" username="valeriacagnina"]

The morning is dedicated to the managers: it’s useless to say that Salvatore Giuliano is my ideal of public school since ever, even if he’s the only one in Italy to do really exceptional things.

1st Meeting Docenti Puglia: Salvatore Giuliano is one of the supporters

For who doesn’t know…Salvatore Giuliano is the headmaster of the Majorana School in Brindisi, an avant-garde high school where there’s a concept of public school completely unlike that one present in all the other schools in Italy we are used to. You think he took to the classroom the virtual reality and the augmented reality to make students learn the scientific subjects as latest innovation!

Before the 1^st day of meeting docenti Puglia starts we chat with him who tells us how now he’s realizing the Campus. A real day-dreamer!

The teens will live there, there are already really many ones coming from the whole Italy and there will be 360° activities, every day and all day. School as aiming reference point for many teens.

Salvatore’s school is public and he’s a day-dreamer who is changing it to put the teens at the center.

The meeting starts and after several institutional talks, it’s Salvatore’s turn.

Soft skills and innovation at 1st Meeting Docenti Puglia

He tells about Soft Skills, about the ability to work in team requested by the job world, about the jobs that are not invented yet and about really much more, Then he ends saying that new reforms from the top aren’t require anymore and we haven’t to wait for them.

Now school has to be transformed from the bottom changing “how” to teach even before “what”.

It seems impossible to hear saying these things in a public school!

Many friends meet again in this day and in the afternoon it’s my turn!

My intervention in front of many teachers at 1st Meeting Docenti Puglia

I tell about what I did, my school, how it is possible to teach by a different way and I make the teachers present touch with their own hands how robotics is simple and at everyone’s reach.

Maybe after the first initial dismay finding in front of them a sixteen years old teenager and maybe even a bit of reticence in their minds, I have to say that everyone was very attentive, they were interested and they asked me really many questions. Then some of them came on purpose to my stand at the Maker Faire in Rome to say hello to me and make me compliments again! A great satisfaction.

I hope to have been able inspiring other teachers to venture into this world.

On the other hand, only the fact that so many teachers were present at the meeting organized from the bottom and externally the school is certainly a very good result.

A model of comparison and discussion which is worth it certainly to repeat somewhere else.

What about this, Piersoft (the very good creator of the day – if you don’t know him, have a look at his website and search for him on the web!)? Do we export to the whole Italy the 1^st meeting docenti puglia?