Luca Scalzullo, Professor of Technology at IC Rita Levi Montalcini in Salerno, the school directed by Ida Lenza, felt unprepared to teach and manage his classes during the pandemic, but he wholeheartedly rose to the challenge launched by a student on the first day of school: “Professor, will you help us fall in love with this subject?” To help his students during the lockdown, the professor developed a YouTube channel with tutorial videos, a website with lessons and notes, a Telegram Channel on science and scientists, and on-line meetings in the evenings and afternoons to watch documentaries, movies and speak to his students and their families, at a distance, but always nearby, maybe on the sofa, but always looking upwards to discover new things. “I do not know if I’m an innovator, if it is right for me to receive this award, but I know that when I think about innovation I think about one word, empathy. I now know this is the only job for me.”
Luca Scalzullo won the Tullio De Mauro Award for Innovating Teacher at the tenth edition of the Global Junior Challenge, the international competition that selects the most innovative projects that employ new technology for education and the future of youth. The tenth edition, developed in collaboration with the Centro Studi Erickson and the patronage of the City of Rome, is dedicated to projects that brought together innovation and quality education with inclusion during the health emergency, actively involving families and the entire educational community, too.
“Innovation is a mental state, a state of mind. We help students to face a future that is already here. We dive into the fray with them. Knowing how to participate in student activities and drive them toward the future is essential, and more than the result, what counts is sharing the journey.” This is how Luca Scalzullo commented his award at the Rome Campidoglio.
Motivation for the Innovative Teacher Award Presented to Luca Scalzullo
Creativity, critical spirit, sociability, empathy: students are place at the centre of a holistic learning process in which knowledge and understanding, of oneself and others, are equally addressed to drive personal, collective and community growth. Using video lessons that could be enjoyed on a smartphone, a website with lessons and notes, a Telegram channel on science and meetings on Meet to study or view the landing of the Perseverance Rover on Mars, Prof. Scalzullo faced teaching during the emergency with resilience, readiness and creativity, guaranteeing, albeit remotely, a didactic and social continuity to parents and students, leaving no one behind.
