Spotlight CPIA1 Karalis, Sardinia

Mary Jo Calì, Alessandra Lay, and Adriana Fisichella from the CPIA 1 in Cagliari, Italy spoke to us about their invaluable work as teachers in an adult education centre in Sardinia. Their Erasmus+ journey to the Atlantic Centre of Education here in Galway captivated everyone who met them.

Through hard work and determination, the Project Coordinator and Referent, Mary Jo CalÌ created a Key Action 1 Erasmus+ (KA 122 Adu)project for the very first time in the history of their college, signing up for courses in Social and Emotional Learning and Mindfulness before partaking in a job shadowing programme.

Before sharing our interview, let’s look at their institution and how it plays a pivotal role in their community.

Located in Sardinia, the CPIA1 Karalis collaborates with other educational institutions alongside accredited professional training bodies, local authorities, social services, and voluntary organisations. The teachers we were privileged to welcome, work with people from oft-difficult backgrounds. They chose the Atlantic Centre of Education for the KA1 programme because they could participate in two back-to-back courses and a job shadowing programme under the same roof.

Mary Jo explained:

I’m an English teacher at the CPIA1 Karalis in Cagliari, Sardinia. Our school is an adult school, and we have students from 16 years old to, let’s say, 90 years old. So we have a large range of ages. And we decided to try to write a project, Erasmus project, and we chose this school because we like the course, Social and Emotional Learning. We thought it could be useful for our school. And we wanted to follow two courses, one connected to another one. So we choose Social Emotional Learning and Mindfulness for Educators. And we are very satisfied about that. It was a big inspiration. And we hope we can apply all we learn here to our classrooms, the new methodologies, and how to work on our feelings and to make the lessons better for both students and as teachers.

So we are 10 teachers and two of us will stay also for a job shadowing experience, while the other eight will come back to Italy. And today was our last lesson of mindfulness with Kevin, and the Social and Emotional Learning was with Purva.

Her colleague Adriana described some of the challenges facing their learners:

Yes, for example, I think my students have a lack of motivation. Also, they have problems to express themselves. I think this approach is very important to give them a new way to learn things, just focusing on themselves and not only on the subject they have to study. Yes, I think that’s the main problem. We are dealing every day with people who have social issues.

For example, I teach also in prison so that people, they come to school because they don’t want to stay alone in their cells. So they need to express themselves, to meet other other people to be part of a society, a normal society. And then, and I think this new us, this methodology, can help us teachers to get students more involved in what they are learning, and also to feel more relaxed and to face all their lives in a different way.

So this is helpful also for us, for teachers, because sometimes we lack self-esteem, we lack motivation. We don’t like the way we lead our lessons, but sometimes we don’t know how to change them. That’s a possibility. We have something new to introduce in our classes. I think that’s important.

Their colleague Alessandra, Mary Jo’s right-hand woman, explained:

That’s the most important thing we have learned here. I am a colleague of Mary Jo and Adriana, so I teach in the same school for adults. My first need here was to learn new strategies in order to deal with their needs.

My need is to meet them in their needs, in my students needs, of course. I learned a lot of strategies and methodologies, and I would like to bring at home all these things, but I know it’s difficult to apply in my field, in my class, because they are very, very different. Students are very different, and the situation is complex.

I hope to bring home these strategies, the input, they gave us. My course, our courses with Kevin were very interesting and stimulating. We are very satisfied about that. We would like that our time would be longer, but it’s impossible. We know that we have a limited time.

The entire group loved the hustle and bustle of Galway, adored the Cliffs of Moher, and were speechless at the breathtaking beauty of Connemara.