The last few years of my life have taken me down several unlikely paths. Like anyone else, I couldn't have envisioned when I entered college that those years would be heavily influenced by a global pandemic. I didn't think that I'd be able to graduate with my Bachelor's degree in fewer than four years. Those things were surprising to me, but the two things I really didn't anticipate were that I'd move to Texas, of all places, and that I'd become a teacher. Upon graduation, I decided that I was tired of the cold and gloomy New England winters. I wanted to move somewhere that was warm and sunny, but I wasn't sure where to go, let alone what I would do for work. I told a few of my friends about this plan, and Texas kept being suggested. I decided to follow that path and research cities to live in. I landed on a city in north Texas, and decided that with the skill set I had, I could be successful in a lab setting or as a teacher. Seeing as I had tutored and been a TA during college and spent several years working in childcare settings and the greater educational sphere, I started down the path of becoming a teacher. I researched several schools, and I found a private school whose educational philosophy aligned almost perfectly with mine. As it would turn out, they needed a Biology teacher, so I submitted my application and resume. Within a day, I received a phone call from the principal, asking if I could set up a Zoom interview. The rest fell in place soon after. I drove cross-country in my Subaru that was packed with all of my things, my mom, and my dog, and I arrived the day before inservice started. I didn't even have an apartment picked out yet, but when opportunity knocks, you answer.

I went through almost three weeks of new teacher inservice before I finally met my students. During my teacher training, we discussed the unique educational needs of students with learning differences (LDs), such as dyslexia or ADHD. Being that I have no formal education training, I went into the idea of providing accommodations blindly. Despite what I was led to believe, I've found that my students with an LD diagnosis are truly gifted in other ways. When they receive proper accommodations, they have thrived. The other point that was driven home to me during inservice was that my freshmen haven't had a "normal" school experience since the beginning of their sixth grade year. They have been antsy for a normal year, especially as they begin their high school journey. Despite having had several years of disjointed educational experiences, they have risen to the challenge of learning of Biology and exceeded my expectations.

With that being said, I have noticed that my students have had some growing pains. It has been challenging for me to figure out the most effective way to explain the need for the structure that I have in place. I am constantly working to make sure that I am teaching in a way that makes sense to a brain that isn't mine and accounting for students with different learning modalities. There is a misconception among my students and their parents that I am trying to make things more complicated than necessary. To the contrary, I am trying to prepare my students for the remainder of their high school years. Every choice I make with my students is intentional. I want them to learn procedures that will be used across all of their science courses through their senior year. To that end, I have found myself feeling overwhelmed by the volume of emails I receive from my students' parents asking questions that I'd like to see my students asking on their own behalf. It is my hope that by the end of this year that my freshmen will have the confidence to become self-advocates who aren't afraid to approach me with their questions or concerns.

Perhaps the bigger challenge I have faced has been adjusting to the time commitment that teaching requires. Teaching isn't just standing up and presenting curriculum. It is lesson planning, making copies, learning how to use technology in a way that enhances my instruction, and setting up my curriculum materials in a way that makes sense. This is my first go at teaching this course, so even if other teachers in my department are more than willing to share their files with me, I want to put my own spin on everything. This takes a lot of time. Most work days I am at school for at least an hour outside of my contract time. My weekends are almost exclusively packed with more lesson planning, especially since I often spend my Saturday mornings on campus as a proctor for our Saturday School program. I hate how much of my time I spend on planning, but I also have seen that my quality of teaching improves when I do so. Outside of lesson planning, I also get called upon to sub for absent teachers at least once a week. If I'm not doing that, I am providing supplemental instruction to my students. Then there are things like parent-teacher conferences, faculty meetings, and supervision duties. It is a lot to juggle, but somehow teachers do it all! I keep hearing it gets easier after the first year, and I really hope that is the case!

In terms of the teachers I work with, I have found that they are, by far, a supportive group of individuals. However, as a new teacher, I notice that our expertise can sometimes be overlooked or simply not considered. For example, I possess a deep understanding of adolescent brain development due to my studies in psychology, but that tends to be overlooked because I lack classroom experience. I wish veteran teachers would remember that we all have different strengths to bring to the table. Our perspectives are worth considering, even if we are new to the profession.

For all of the challenges I've faced since August, I have had also had several great experiences! The one that sticks out to me most is one day when my first class of the day (the quietest group I work with) started engaging with a genetics lesson I was teaching. Usually it's like pulling teeth to get them to participate, but not that morning! One girl asked a couple of questions, which sparked deeper curiosity and led to several other students starting to ask questions of their own. In that moment, I could tell that the concept "clicked" for them. For a group that almost never seemed to care about what I taught them, this was a transformative moment for all of us. This was the first time that I let their questions supercede what I had planned to cover that day. I was able to satisfy my students' curiosity about a Biology lesson, and I realized that moments like these are what teaching is all about!

I've quickly realized that teaching is more than just summers off and week-long vacations interspersed through the year. Teaching is a work of heart that requires a great deal of emotional labor. We pour our heart and soul into the students who come through our classrooms. We work ourselves to the bone, but we also get to intentionally recharge several weeks per year, which is a blessing not afforded to other professions. I'm confident that I've found the perfect career for myself. Despite not having a degree in education, my classroom experiences and love of learning have made me strongly consider going back to school to pursue a master's degree in an education-related field so that I can learn a bit more about the technical aspects of the job. I want to do everything I can to be the best teacher I can possibly be to my students.