Everything is wonderful

Just left my 5th grade class absolutely beaming. Sign of a class well done, I think. I've been working on teaching numbers the last few days and today was the first day I went nearly 100% in the target language and the kids really picked up on it! By the end of class, we had counted up to 100 and they were even using plus, minus, and equals auf Deutsch. :'] I've got a 40 minute break at the school so I figured I could squeeze in a blog post!

It's needless to say I've been busy. But this past weekend was especially fun. I've had so many great music experiences lately! Friday night WUD Music brought Astronautalis and Why? to the Sett and they all put on a fan-freaking-tastic show. Front row-ed it, got a set list, great concert. On Saturday, I finally got my game together and saw Argo (just in time), which I thoroughly enjoyed. I feel like Argo was Ben Afleck's taste at filming an Ocean's movie. It's produced by Clooney, Alan Arkin plays the Sol-character, and the whole plot is basically a human heist. I dug it. On Sunday, I super cleaned my apartment and did loads of laundry (heheheheh) because we've got inspections and showings today and tomorrow, I hate my landlord, but I also want random people to be impressed by my beautiful massively decorated living space :D Bess and I kicked ass at our intramural basketball game which was super fun, then we quick changed in the locker rooms and headed to the WUD Film Oscar Party. I thought it was a great event, great Oscars, great everything. I'm really glad Jennifer Lawrence won (she's so great: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7SFtdOjcUw&feature=player_embedded), and William Shatner was there, and Michelle Obama!, and the Avengers boys, and I got free dinner. Awesome night.

This morning I was back up again bright and early to pack into our Cohort clown car, where we proceeded to belt out N*SYNC's No Strings Attached the whole ride to Leopold. We're leaving in a half hour and I'm super pumped because we were just at the Lisa Left Eye Lopez verse in Space Cowboy haa. You know that's what's up.

What's on my horizon? Film meeting tonight. my beautiful Bonn buddy is here on Thursday (!!!!), got my radio show heute Nacht, and uhhh an exam tomorrow whoop.

Oh, the other day, a kid in my class got a haircut with two lines buzzed into the side of his head and when the teacher asked why he did that, all he said was "swag." I speak the language of 5th graders, yo.

swagswagswagswagswag

Ich bin Lehrerin? Wowza Dowza

If you don't already know, I would love to be a high school German teacher one day. Who knows what path I'll take to get there, but right now I have the pleasure of student teaching at Leopold Elementary school in Madison. Last semester I helped out with a 2nd grade dual language immersion classroom with hands down the most lovely, funny, caring group of kids I've ever met. I used to not be able to stand young kids, but they just cling to you so quickly, you can't really help it! My amazing amazing mentor teacher sent me a couple pictures she took of us in the classroom, and I thought they were pretty cute.

Lizbeth and I working on some math

The gang! So many things in this picture crack me up 

I just started a new semester at Leopold last Monday. Now I'm in a 4th grade and 5th grade classroom, and I'll be teaching for 45 minutes in each every Monday and Wednesday starting in one week. I still have so much to think about in terms of lesson planning. Should the students call me Frauline Rayna? How much Deutsch is too much Deutsch? There are so many questions, and I think the only way I can tackle this thing is to just dive right in. I'll be with them until June, and some of the kids have specifically requested German because they want to take it in middle school, which makes me really happy.