When it was first announced that kids would be staying "home" and doing virtual learning for the beginning of the year I was asked by my mom's work if I would be interested in proctoring her schools' kids so that the parents could in return teach. Initially, I was a little hesitant as I just graduated in May and really was unsure I wanted to jump into a teaching role. My mom loved that I had been asked because she always figured I would go into the teaching profession (I have always insisted I would go into something else and even now I want to go back to school and get my Ph.D. in neuroscience).
With COVID freezing the hiring of the place I was going to work and since I had just been completing different projects around our house for my parents I relented and signed on to become a proctor for the school. I was tasked with making sure that kids grades 1st-8th got on to their classes at the right times and completed their asynchronize work when out of class. The first week was brutal even though there were only 7 kids typically there they were all in different grades. I also struggled with dumbing down things to a second grader level when I knew the different shortcuts in these kids' homework. The first day when it was over I went home and slept till the next morning... I slept 15 hours straight through dinner because of how crazy it was.
It took about a week and a half (7 school days) but I really started to get in a groove to get everyone logged in and everyone completing at least some of there out of school work. Of course, there were plenty of learning curves like kids lying to me about not having any work and me not being able to figure out if they had any or not and things like how to burn off energy from these kids as being trapped in a room for ~7 hours a day is not ideal for an 8-year-old. We got it down though and time really began to fly by. Plus, this was my first time in a while to make money like I was since when I was at school I didn't work and I did summer school the last two years to help me check off different courses.
This is my last week though as come Friday (October 9th) the last two kids will be integrated back into public school. The area where I live has taken this two-week integration process for some reason... it really does not make any sense with why they are doing this but they are. So far three of my kiddos have gone back and with just four remaining it is already really really weird. The empty desks and quietness of it has bummed me out as I would be running around during the mornings trying to get everything figured out and hammered out. I knew a lot about computers and technology but man having to figure out why someone's computer was not working or any of the other hundred things that would go wrong really made me quite the online learning computer expert!
This also marks the ending of my first good paying job. Living at home with my parents and all that that entails has really cut back on my expenses allowing me to save 100% of the money I have made. I was able to open a Roth IRA like an adult and begin to contribute to it which was one of the coolest things I could think of. The school has offered to make me a sub which I probably will take, but I will be balancing it with increasing my work for the congressional race I am a paid intern for (TX-22 if anyone was wondering). With Early Voting starting next week I will be out and about much much more to help out with that!
I will miss my kiddo's though and everything they have taught me. It was nice to dip a toe into the teaching role and while I enjoyed it and did really well (two people in charge of the school both said I should become a teacher) I feel it's safe to say I will not be looking at doing that as a career. I still really want to get my neuroscience Ph.D. and jump into the research world I was in when I was an undergrad. Politics will be my next big focus though for the next month as I dip my toe also in this field and see if this is something I would like to further pursue.
COVID has taken away quite a few things I really had wanted to do (like have a graduation ceremony) but it has also given me these little projects like proctoring and working a political campaign that I would not have gotten otherwise. I had my job lined up and was not going to think twice about what I was going to do but COVID has given me the ability to sit down and really look at the whole host of options in front of me.
Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed the update! If you are interested in helping me out in any way I have a couple of referral codes I will attach below!
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