News

We have a busy two months coming up. Don't miss a minute of it!

Whether you're interested in our members picnic on August 13 or the dedication of Piazza Perugia on October 14, you can read about these happenings and more in Il Grifone July 2017 here.

If you're not a member yet, it's easy to join. See more details here. Open doors to international friendships, cultural exchanges and networking opportunities.

SPSCA has an exciting educational outreach project underway developed by board member Marylin Bard. The project is focused on building awareness and fostering a greater understanding between diverse cultures, histories and geographic regions. Participants are second-graders at Collodi Elementary in Perugia and the John Stanford International School in Seattle.

Last fall, Bard explored Northwest Coast Native American history with students at Perugia's Collodi Elementary. She shared stories, songs and legends and allowed the children to examine miniature Native objects created just for this project, such as baskets and wood carvings.

She also talked about the significance of Sister Orca, a 26-foot bronze orca fin created by well-known local Native artist Marvin Oliver, who is also Bard's brother. SIster Orca was installed in Perugia nine years ago as a symbol of our sister-city friendship.

In Seattle, John Stanford second-grade teacher Karol Franz (left, shown with Bard who is holding an image of Sister Orca) incorporated information about both sister cities into her social studies units.

The students looked at photos and talked about the similarities and differences between the cities. Both classes exchanged letters and drawings, helping each child to personalize the exchange.

Bard is returning to Perugia this fall to continue the educational outreach.

Recently Italy passed a rule requiring that high school seniors must take one of their subject matter classes in English. The problem is that the English language skills of the subject matter teachers are not strong enough to teach a class entirely in English.

Seattle-Perugia to the rescue! Leslie Keller, SPSCA president, and Jo Ellen Hathaway, a teacher at Seattle’s Roosevelt High School, spent three weeks in May helping 24 teachers at Perugia's Scientific High School Galileo Galilei improve their English.

The lessons focused on listening, speaking and pronunciation. Fifty-minute morning sessions, devoted primarily to listening, involved smaller groups of teachers who all taught the same subject. In the afternoons, a combined three-hour class with all the teachers included a variety of fun activities focused on pronunciation, listening and speaking.

It was a very rewarding project for the two Seattle volunteers. "One of the most heartfelt experiences came during a listening activity that included Simon and Garfunkel's song, Bridge Over Troubled Water,” said Keller. "After reviewing the lyrics and discussing their meaning, the teachers sang the entire song in unison, not once but three times, at full voice and with heartfelt emotion. After the first rendition, Jo Ellen commented that teachers in Seattle would never sing so spontaneously in a large group like that. We were both moved to tears and were left with memories we will never forget."

Join us for an artist talk on Friday, June 23 at 7 p.m. at Pottery Northwest. It will be your opportunity to meet Qing Qu, the second recipient of the de Poi Award exchange program, sponsored in part by SPSCA.