So... I am a "legit" teacher with a class now???

These last six months (to the date of when things started shutting down) have changed so much. And it still continues to surprise me in some ways.

I finished up my last semester of classes - online - and I just have my thesis to focus on (or get ignored or procrastinated on) and my professional development.

First off - my thesis was one of the biggest things to change and it has been for the better. I was unable to do the field work as anticipated due to the limiting of transportation to only "essential" trips and I was not sure how my own friends felt so I had to come up with plan B. 

Plan B - was already a secondary embedded idea I had thought of since I was not able to work out molecular work (initially it was because of my ex-advisor but then when my new advisor found a way to make it work - the pandemic hit) - but it was to explore the human health psychology side... 

In short - I found more dog ticks in my samples last year than deer tick - while the website on CT Agricultural Experimental Station had way more submissions for deer ticks. In 2019, there were collective efforts to do collections but that was affected by the pandemic as well.

With that being said, I want to find out if people are more likely to submit deer ticks versus dogs in relation to knowledge about Lyme disease. I also want to gauge if the understanding of other tick borne health concerns (that there are diseases and issues caused by other ticks), their own knowledge of prevention based on experience, and where they get their health information.

And to make things more interesting - my UG psych mentor is now on committee (which is a plot twist and half - but makes sense because she was the one who came to my bio capstone presentation to support me and was excited to be invited).

I also decided to take a job at Big Lots over the summer - and there were soooooo many life lessons that I have gained - some were related to my interest in disability advocacy, just feeling accepted despite feeling different (after being discriminated in a GA job in SDS for my challenges), realizing I can handle a lot more than I ever get myself credit for, having statistical evidence on my own social/interpersonal skills (I mean some how I wound up being in top three most weeks for cashier recognition, including 1st in the last month of working there), and my personal favorite - becoming restless and antsy while doing a retail job on your feet (now there is irony for being a predominately hyperactive person).

Another big development is that I reached out to find out about subbing for the upcoming school year and was asked if I would be interested in being a building sub at Dilo - which I am wondering if I had some good feedback from the school if they wanted to keep me but I never met my supervisor in person). I did find out later it was hybrid and I had a gut feeling I would be with a class - so yes - I literally stocked up on extra sanitizers, wipes, masks, and school supplies.

This week I was able to be reunited with the humans that I have gotten to know the last two years (and its mind blowing to know I have been subbing for two years and w/ this school on and off since 10/1/18) and a group of second graders as a sub (I was chosen rather quickly) and will be with them likely for few weeks - could be longer depending on the teacher's situation. 

So - one may wonder how do you do hybrid learning with 7/8 year olds?  (I can't even imagine younger grades)... A lot of patience, humor, talking to walls, and tech issues. Google meets did not work many times and kicked lots of students and staff off... so I improvised a lot (I mean my impulsivity comes in handy for some things) and there were some good things that came out of it. And lets not forget - making sure masks are on, mask breaks, hand washing more often, wiping desks down in classrooms after meals, keeping them apart, and my personal favorite - students getting bored with screens (shocking that some people think younger generations love being on their devices all the time - we GET BORED AND DO REGULAR ACTIVITIES - end of rant).

The students were happy to see each other again and the smaller groups were happy to get more individualized attention (although the whining in smaller groups is harder to ignore), I got to get to know students interests better - which meant we did do some first day of school "getting to you," read alouds, decided to have students explore their favorite animal via videos, book, and using google slides, and kids enjoying watching science demos during lunch. 

I do plan on getting their school "bags" together with notebook, papers, pens, pencils, crayons, etc for them and maybe being more organized planning (I did adapted fairly easy to the tech stuff and intergrating it to their level, which is interesting because the other 2nd grader teachers had a harder time jeopardy and a game site)... Plus I guess this is my time to be creative and find ways to get students to have some STEAM topics embedded (which i have students into coding, math, animals, insects/spiders, most likely legos)... 

And the title fits in the tik tok - "opps I accidentally created a "false reality"