Life Lessons in the Classroom

Brian Levine remembers his own difficulties in school. He was in fifth grade and troubled, the effects of having a split-parental home with “half of it being typically household, I guess, but the other half not so much.”

The circumstance created great uncertainty until his teacher got involved, ultimately helping Levine create a place at school where he could have control of his atmosphere and feel safe.

“He [his teacher] showed me that school is a place where kids can feel safe,” Levine said.

Those past lessons have led to current lessons for students with many of the same issues. In turn, those experience then and now have made Levine an award winner.

In April Levine ’20, a third-grade teacher at Citrus Grove Elementary School in DeLand, received the elementary-level First Year Teacher Award from the FUTURES Foundation for Volusia County Schools. FUTURES Foundation is a nonprofit organization founded in 1985 to support the public schools in Volusia.

“You don’t know what students are going home to and what they’re dealing with. That’s what I wanted to create for my students — a safe place,” continued Levine, who had interned at Citrus Grove as an education major.

Levine was selected from among 45 nominees who were chosen to represent their schools. To be considered for the recognition, nominees must have earned a baccalaureate degree, started a full-time teaching career on or after Jan. 1, 2020, performed outstandingly based on standards established by Volusia County Schools and been nominated by their school principal.

In recommending Levine for the award, Citrus Grove Elementary Principal Jennifer Williams, noted that he made an immediate impact in the classroom by “making learning fun but, more importantly, making his classroom a safe and welcoming place for each and every one of his students.”

Levine also became known to his students as former pirate Capt. Levine.

On his first day, Levine introduced himself as former pirate Capt. Levine, and enlisted his students to join his new crew, “one which can change the world.”

“I set high expectations for each of my new crewmates on the very first day, and helped them meet those expectations through a myriad of wacky learning adventures,” he explained.

Every since that fifth grade, Levine has wanted to be a teacher. He chose Stetson partly because his brother, Alec Levine ’18, was a Hatter. Early campus visits left an impression.

“It was just such a different atmosphere from every other campus that I explored. I was surrounded by positive vibes; that’s one way I would say it,” Brian said. “From that first visit, which was two years before I returned to visit as a prospective student, I could see even a huge up-climb. It just looked like the school was on the rise, and I wanted to be in on that.”

In addition, Stetson’s education program turned his head.

“When I started to do research for a teaching program, it became evident that Stetson had a top-notch teaching program, and pretty much everyone I talked to said that,” he added.

Levine arrived on campus from West Boca Raton High School as an education major with his own ideas about classroom teaching — and they were reinforced through his own learning.

His words: “Stetson has a big focus on academics and rigor, but there’s also a focus on social and emotional aspects that could be linked to meet students’ needs.”

In his junior year, he learned about the value of group meetings, intended simply to discuss life. Also, he was introduced to guided meditation.

“That’s one of my students’ favorite pastimes — finding a spot to lie down on the floor … and we’ll just have some time to refocus and recenter,” said Levine. “Stetson kind of opened my eyes to these things being a possibility to work into a busy school day — because, at the end of the day, if you’re just hitting academics, the students aren’t listening. They’re burnt out; they can only take so much. But when you have that brief moment of time when they can recollect, to express themselves or even just a chance to calm down, they can come back to the learning in full swing.”

And his young Pirates got the message. While COVID-19 brought added challenges, Levine’s approach, which also included games and activities, paid off. “It helped, 100%. … It created an atmosphere where we were listening to each other,” he stated.

For the future, Levine has broader ideas to share about education, perhaps moving out of the classroom and into policy/adminstration for reform, maybe even at the state or national level.

“I think there’s a lot that needs to be changed, not just in Florida, not just in America, but in the world,” he said. “We know there are parts that aren’t working. So, what can we do with that?”

As for next year, pirate Capt. Levine will return to Citrus Grove Elementary, this time teaching fifth graders — some dealing with same difficulties he once did.

“It’s kind of the last time to reach those kids and get them those life skills before they go off to middle school, go through puberty and life gets messy for a little bit,” he said.

Levine remembers, and those memories motivate.

-Michael Candelaria