I can't even begin to count the number of times here in Italy when my web browser goes all white and shows me this message:
Offline mode
Firefox is currently in offline mode and can't browse the Web.
* Uncheck "Work Offline" in the File menu, then try again.
Instead of the wireless or cable hook-up you might be used to at home, I use a "chiavetta" [which literally means a "little key" but is the word that Italians use for a pen/USB flash drive] to access the same wireless signals that cell phones use. When I see this message, which is often, most likely it means that too many people are accessing the wireless signal and I lose my connection. Web browsers usually save information from the internet so that they can "work offline" and bring up sites faster from memory that you have visited recently. Then they can check for any updates and reload without us knowing it. Unless of course, too many people are talking on cellphones and your connection goes out. I'm sure everyone is familiar with the "Problem loading screen" page ... well my nemesis is instead the "Offline mode" page and I'll tell you why. If I disconnect my chiavetta, connect it again and press "refresh" on my web browser, my computer won't even try to refresh. It's in "offline mode." It's not actually accessing the internet but using only its memory of recent websites. I have a new internet connection but I can see from the screen that when I press refresh, it doesn't actually test the connection to see if it can load, it just gives me my "offline mode" message. I have to go to file and uncheck the "work offline" mode or close out the browser completely and open a new one before it will load the screen. In the end, at least there is a way to get my page to load albeit through this obnoxious message with delay.
When I see the "Offline mode" message on my computer screen, it reminds me of how some of my students approach English conversation. It's as if there is a sign written on their foreheads that says "This student is currently in offline mode and can't participate or answer any questions." I can repeat a question and make an explanation in a simpler way, but I can see that they are not even trying to understand. They are sitting in the classroom and potentially watching me as I speak, but they are working offline. I can keep trying to press refresh over and over again, but the information won't load. If they're Italian, how could they possibly understand English? It's not in their memory, they never have spoken English before, so why would they now? It's not because English is too difficult and it's not because the students are not capable. They are literally just not connected. I can see in their faces that they are completely closed to the idea.
I wonder where this quality comes from, when you learn to close your mind to new things. Italian high schools are specialized and split up into five years. For the first four months of the program, I taught third and fifth year classes in all three sectors of Tourism, Graphic Advertising and Chemistry. Tomorrow, I will finish my second week with all the fourth years. Various teachers have asked me if I have noticed a difference in the level of English between the sectors. Apparently, students in Tourism have an extra hour of English per week and take French or Spanish classes as well. A side note about Italian classes. The word "class" describes the group of students with a set program who occupy one classroom. All day long, the students stay in the same classroom and the teachers move to them. The class never splits up to take a different level math class or a chosen elective course. Not only does the class stay the same for the entire year, but usually the classes stay the same for the entire five years of high school. This means that the only way students meet new classmates is when new students arrive from other schools or students don't pass into the next year and get held back. Eventually, I will write a blog about the pros and cons of this system. For now, I will say that more than all the third years, all the fifth years, or each sector speaking English at a standard level, each class has its own unique dynamic and approach to speaking English.
I have some knock-out students that either came from another school with a better English program or are just naturally more open to learning. In some classes, they seem to raise the entire level of the class. In others, they are just the exceptions who are alienated from the rest of the class. I think that in general, you might be able to say that older students have already made up their minds about what they do and do not know and what they are or are not capable of learning. Younger students are ready to take more direction and follow instructions on what and how they are supposed to learn. We just naturally learn more responsibility and control over our own lives with age. My best fifth year classes were smaller with a few highly motivated students, encouraged by their classmates [the same ones for the previous years] and thus raising the level of the entire class, whereas other fifth years had reached a point of no longer caring. The third years on the other hand were in general larger classes and I found their overall class behavior to depend on the teacher, who usually stays with a class for at least two years in a row. The third years are more impressionable to follow the direction the teachers take them in. Now that I am teaching fourth year classes and have learned from the third and fifth years' attitudes and approaches to English, I am finding a mix of both responsible, yet still taking direction students. I hope to have started out these next four months encouraging open minds and discouraging working offline.
