The "dog days of summer" commence...

Two more final days of student teaching. It is bitter sweet because I have made so many meaningful relationships with my mentor teacher, colleagues, and students. I am going to miss each and every one of them, but I know now more than ever what I am supposed to do with my life. And that is to teach.

A new leaf has turned and I will go into my summer with a hopeful heart. Hopeful that I will complete my last two courses in order to receive my Masters, hopeful that I will pass my final exam and receive my teaching license, hopeful that I will find a job, and hopeful that my summer will impact me as a person and a teacher.

One of my professors said during Winter term that a Social Studies teacher cannot be a teacher without traveling and experiencing the history and culture of the places you teach about. I do not fully believe this statement, but I can see some truth in it. You can still be a wonderful, engaging teacher without traveling the world, but I do believe that you can become a more meaningful educator by experiencing these places. By experiencing these places, you can be changed as a person, and you can bring these places back to life in your stories with the students.

I will be taking one of these types of trips in four days hence. I have spent a little time on the East Coast, visiting Washington D.C. and Richmond, Virginia, but I do not think you can fully understand the establishment of our country without visiting it's birth place: Boston, Massachusetts. Not only will I be engulfed in history, but I will be experiencing it with several of my favorite people: my long-standing best friend (we've been best friends since we were two, so we are like sisters really) and her husband, my mother and my second mother (my bff's mom). They have recently transferred their lives to Boston to begin a new chapter in their lives and I am looking forward to see their new home. This will be the beginning of many future visits.

I am going to try my best to document my trip in full, but for now, here is the itinerary:

Plymouth- 50 minutes
-Plantation
-Churches
-Mayflower ship
-plymouth rock

Salem- 40 minutes
- museums
-trolley tour

150th Anniversary of the Civil War- exhibits, films, tours @ Boston Public Library

Thursday 16-
Arrive at 3:40pm
Taxi to Holiday Inn- we will all meet there, change clothes for nice evening out
Dinner at Max Brenners?
Popʼs Concert that evening- Night of Musicals

Friday 17-
Bunker Hill reenactment
At 10 a.m., Commemorative and Patriotic Exercises will be conducted at the
Bunker Hill Monument in remembrance of the 236th anniversary of the Battle
of Bunker Hill.
At 11:30 a.m., representatives of the Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New
Hampshire Sons of the American Revolution will conduct a wreath-laying
ceremony and musket salute at the gates to the monument grounds.
Lunch
Trolley Tour
Back at hotel by 5:30pm
Red Sox Game @ 7pm

Saturday 18-
Lexington/Concord
Atlantic Fish Company for dinner

Sunday 19-
Freedom Trail in the morning
Chocolate Tour @ 1:30
Newbury St.
Dinner

Monday 20-
Plymouth

Tuesday 21-
Boston University
Nadick Mall
American Girl Store
Red Sox game

Wednesday 22-
Maine/Beach

Thursday 23-
Civil War exhibit at the library
Leave Boston @ 4:45