Blue Mountain’s Italian Students Fill Their Passports for Heritage Month
To mark Italian-American Heritage Month, which falls every October, Kristin Martinelli encourages her seventh and eighth-grade students at Blue Mountain Middle School to put what they’ve learned into practice. In fact, Martinelli has given students the same challenge for all of her 23 years as an Italian teacher in Hendrick Hudson, issuing a “Passporto” and telling staff members to “stamp” the passport if a student engages them in a conversation in Italian.
Martinelli provides fellow Blue Mountain staff members with a list of common Italian phrases. They then sign the passports if and when the students speak to them in Italian.
“To goal is just to get the kids speaking Italian outside the classroom,” Martinelli said.
The original inspiration for the challenge occurred during Martinelli’s first year as a teacher, when colleagues in the South Orangetown Central School District organized the same activity.
“I took that idea and brought it here,” she said. “The kids always love it, and the staff has been so supportive.”
Students from each class who collect the most signatures join Martinelli for a pizza lunch at the end of the week. This week alone, one student had compiled over 90 signatures in fewer than three days. She has had multiple students accrue over 100 over the years.
“The students can get super competitive, even students who may not talk a lot in class,” Martinelli said.
There is no grade given for a student’s success during the challenge; it’s a way to celebrate Italian-American Heritage Month. Some of Martinelli’s students will also help decorate a bulletin board inside the school’s main entrance this month. Students were also invited to attend cultural activities at the Ossining Public Library, which will host a free gelato night, a live concert by an Italian band and a lecture over Zoom about Roman history.
Martinelli’s students will receive extra credit for participating in these events.
“It’s all part of getting students involved in Italian culture outside of the classroom,” she said.