When I studied abroad in Florence, I got the opportunity to teach English in a fourth year classroom in a Florentine primary school. There were twenty-five students in the class, with one student having recently immigrated from Morocco. My cooperating teacher told me that he was having trouble fitting in with his classmates, particularly because of his minimal Italian language abilities. It became a goal of my lessons to incorporate socialization among classmates so that he would eventually become more comfortable doing so on his own.

This image is an example of work this student would produce during my lessons. This student amazed me because, despite the challenges, he was able to use the Italian he knew to learn English. Towards the end of my time at that school, this student was showing great progress in both languages. He also started to become more confident when interacting with his classmates. I learned a lot from all of my students in that class, but my experience with this particular student really stuck with me.