Week 11 of Student Teaching: Week 1 of Quarantine

If you would have told me that I would be missing a big chunk of my student teaching experience from a world-wide pandemic, I would have probably laughed in your face. In these crazy times that seem like we are all living in a movie, we must be creative in our methods to keep ourselves entertained and continue learning. Nobody knows what the foreseeable future holds for schools or student teaching, but we must collectively work as a community to prevent and avoid COVID-19 as much as possible.

This week, our AEE 313 course met for Wednesday and Thursday for an online conference through zoom. During our cohort time together, we were able to learn more about our service learning project with The Cooperage, a community organization in Honesdale, PA. Although I was really excited to get to go Honesdale, the community over from my grandfather's hunting cabin, I am glad that our partners could be flexible with planning. Everyone in the cohort has different assignments in the completion of the project through digital means. I am responsible for picking the vegetables for their gardens and creating a 1-page info sheet with the need-to-know information on how to grow the different veggies. I am thankful for the time we spent with each other through zoom and I look forward to maintaining our cohort relationship through digital means.

Besides school this week, I helped at my dad's grease and oil analysis laboratory. Because of the work they are doing for NIH, Merck, paper mills, nuclear power plants, and more, they are able to stay open as a life-sustaining business. I loved learning about the different tests conducted on grease and oil samples to analyze the efficiency and safety of the machinery. While I am not in school, I am working on continuing to learn through these circumstances.

COVID-19 is truly giving #PSUaged20 a student teaching experience of a lifetime. I never would have thought that this is how student teaching would be, but I am ready to learn how teachers, schools, and the world reacts to a pandemic of this size and scale. For now, I am staying home, keeping social distance, and washing my hands as much as possible. Please take care of yourself and remember to wash your hands!!