When it rains, it pours...

...or at least that's been the case here in Maryland this week! The sun is finally shining today, which is a good thing because I think that everything and everyone are thoroughly soaked after these crazy days of rain we've been having!

Sometimes I don't mind when it's raining. Usually those times involve me being cuddled up in my bed watching a movie on the t.v. and the rain out the window.

There are other times that I do mind when it's raining. One of those times is when I'm on an overnight camping field trip with 65 fifth graders in the middle-of-nowhere Maryland. I'll spare you all of the details because a) I'm pretty sure I'm not supposed to blog with too much detail about school related things (don't teachers get fired for that stuff?) and b) I don't want to bore you with my rain-soaked, mud-filled, outdoorsy adventure. But here are just a few highlights!

Microwaved s'mores (since we had to nix the campfire)

Getting on the confidence course before the kids took over! (complete with a zipline)

Getting the inside teacher scoop on the inner workings of BHES.

This cute little frog.

I got to try a pancake-on-a-stick for breakfast! It was delish.

Thank God Ashley came with me. I'm not sure I could have handled this alone.

(please excuse this gross picture...)

Now that I'm home, showered, and well-rested, I have a better perspective on the whole thing and can definitely say that we had a good time despite the rain. And more importantly, the kids had a blast! It was like a giant sleepover for them, and two days full of activities that they would never get to do otherwise. Some of them had never even had a s'more before! I couldn't believe it. Judging from the smiles on their faces, the trip was completely worth it, rain and all.

And for the record, camping is not my thing.

day 359

all of the fifth grade lined up outside post-quake!

Never in a million years did I think my second day of student teaching was going to end up the way it did. The day went according to plan, until just before 2 p.m. while the kids were all taking a diagnostic math test and the infamous "East Coast Earthquake" rumbled beneath us.

I'd never felt an earthquake before, but after the first 7 or 8 seconds, I was pretty sure that's what it was. The kids stayed relatively calm (especially compared to me, who was freaking out) and we all went outside with the rest of the school. We stayed outside for the rest of the day while they checked the school for structural damage, and did dismissal from there at 3:25. To say it was chaos would be an understatement, but I think (I hope!) every kid ended up at home where they were supposed to be. The kids were pretty funny about it...5th graders are too old to believe any kind of sugar coating about what happened, and they were asking things like,

"What do you think that registered on the Richter Scale?" and "When will the afterschock be?"

I guess those are the consequences of growing up during natural disasters like the ones in Haiti and Japan. I don't think I knew what the Richter Scale or aftershocks were until the earthquake in Haiti happened!

Remember my friend "D" from day one? He looked at me at one point today and said, "Ya know what Miss Levine? It's a good thing this wasn't a 9.5 earthquake. 'Cause we'd all be goners."

Well put, D...thank goodness for that :)

day 358

Today was the day we'd all been waiting for! Our first official day of student teaching. Ashley and Kristen were both placed at Berwyn Heights with me, and we attempted to take a self-timer picture of ourselves in our cute teacher outfits before heading off to school!

It was a great first day! I have 33 students in my class, and while I've barely gotten a chance to meet all of them, they all seem like great kids. It's funny how quickly you can tell things about kids - like who will be the trouble maker or the class clown, who has a good sense of humor, or who is too smart for their own good. Case in point - while going over the medical precautions for a field trip they're going on in a few weeks, my little 5th grade friend "D" turned to me and asked:

D: What if someone has a seizure while we're there?

Me: I'm sure that won't happen. And if it does, there will be a nurse there who will know what to do.

D: Well we should probably make sure that we take them to a wide open space where there's nothing they can knock over and everyone should just stand back so they don't get hurt and their eyes might roll back into their head but that doesn't mean they died it just means they're still having the seizure and *takes a deep breath* they'll probably have a headache when they stop seizing so we'll need to make sure we bring some tylenol.

Me: Umm...yes. We'll definitely bring some tylenol.

So now I know we have an experts on seizures in the class! (He's also an expert on beetles....)

I'm exhausted after day one, but can't wait to go back tomorrow :)

day 354

I spent another day at Berwyn Heights getting ready for the first day of school!

My favorite thing so far is seeing this sign outside of my classroom...I'm official!

day 353

I started today with a stomach full of nerves about meeting my mentor teacher, seeing my classroom, and getting to know Berwyn Heights Elementary, and I ended the day with a stomach full of butterflies for the students' first day of school on Monday! Everything seems great at the school, my classroom is almost all set up and I can tell that it's going to be an amazing year! I just want to get started :)

day 352

Ashley and I went shopping today on a pursuit for cute teacher things....and we definitely succeeded. I got a pair of red wedges and a perfect teacher bag! I'm officially ready for 5th grade.

day 344

I'm all about the phrase, "It's the little things in life." Case in point, the new planner I bought today at Target! I've been waiting for an appropriate time to buy a big-girl planner like this, and it always seemed a little bit excessive for just-a-college-student. But NOW I'm no longer just-a-college-student, I'm a STUDENT-TEACHER-college-student who has all kinds of lesson plans and other teacher-y things to write in a planner! wahooo!

day 340

Caley and I ventured out to the Limerick outlets today to stock up on clothes I can wear to student teaching. I got SO many good bargains, definitely a successful trip! T-minus 2 weeks til Student Teaching begins!

day 296

I drove down to College Park for the night, and drove around until I found this! It's Berwyn Heights Elementary School, where I'll be student teaching in 5th grade all next year! The school looks cute, and so does the little town that it's in. I'm beyond excited to start :)

day 256

Today was our "Intern Placement Fair," aka Student Teacher Speed Dating. All of the prospective student teachers met here at Paint Branch Elementary and spend 10-15 minutes talking to representatives from each of the 5 potential elementary schools that we could be student teaching at next year! We took notes on them, they took notes on us, and then we find out where we've been placed sometime in June!

I can't believe that Junior year is over and that we'll all be in classrooms next year. Time is flying! I can't wait to start student teaching :)

day 199

Today I had a meeting where I was told, "Next year will be the best and the worst year of your life." grrreaaatttt!

It was a meeting about the logistics of our senior year "Blocks Methods" and Senior Internship program. I'm torn between being incredibly terrified (of student teaching, of waking up before 7 every day, of GRADUATING!) and being extremely excited (for student teaching, for graduation, for finally getting to be a teacher!). I think for now the excited feeling is winning the battle, but check back in with me in a few months and see what I say then!