When Provincetown International Baccalaureate Schools students enter the classroom of their new Italian instructor, Tiziana Murray, they’re faced with an immediate challenge: a sentence on the board in need of translation.

The classroom erupts in a flurry of activity as students check their notebooks to identify nouns, verbs, adjectives, and articles they’ve learned. One brave student, encouraged by peers, raises a hand and takes a stab at translation. Murray offers immediate feedback, praising what the student gets right. Then the class settles in to take attendance. Here, the students say “Presente.”