"Old chickens"

Happy New Year! It was 37 years ago this week that I started my first full-time teaching job at Galva High School in Illinois! I was hired to take the place of a woman taking maternity leave. Luckily for me, she decided to become a full-time mom and I became a full-time teacher there for 5 1/2 years.

Yesterday, in my limited Italian, I told my Italian cleaning guy that I was retiring at the end of the schoolyear. Alfio weighs about 400 pounds and has a greasy pony-tail. He said, "Maria! No! I miss you!" He asked me why I was retiring. I told him I was old (vecchio). He said (in Italian), "Old chickens make the best broth."

I do think I'm a much better teacher than I was when I started. I have learned so much, changed so much over these years. You kind of have to to survive in high school, but not everyone does. I feel like I've done the best teaching of my life these last five years in Sicily. Old chickens DO make the best broth!