Education had to drastically revamp over the summer as SARS-CoV-2 continued to infect across the United States. While some districts made a prompt and swift decision, the weight of public personal belief had also come into play. Many educational systems were stuck in the crossfire and had to make a choice fast.

Within five days before the start of school, we got an email stating that the school was going to pivot and change the whole schedule and set up for the year. Not only that, but the only way we could do labs would be with full Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) followed by medical guidelines. Our estimate for the order timeframe was around a month and a half for those to come in, so it was time to get creative. The modified schedule would have a four 20 min virtual session morning for each of the four-block classes later that day. After the 20 min cycles, each student would then go to their 60-minute block classes where they would teach in-person and virtual students synchronously. These days would then alternate between day one and day two schedules. Within one single day, the students and teachers were mentally switching 11 times.

The school switched so only half of the students would be on one day and the other half on the next. Then the district adjusted Wednesdays so everyone was learning from home virtually. Any student who was sick would automatically become a virtual learner and hotspots were given to those without a stable internet connection. Slowly, we had finally reached some form of stability and things were going well. It was nearing the end of one virtual Wednesday when my computer goes off with a notification. It was just an hour before school is over so I am not surprised that all of the emails from the school are getting sent now. Then I hear my calendar notification meaning that a meeting has been added. I then hear both of my CT's computers go off for the same. We check our calendars and see an emergency meeting has been added to all of our calendars with all of the district staff. I look at my CT's and as people in the science field as well as knowing our SARs-CoV-2 numbers, we knew what this meeting was.

Thankfully, my house had decent Wi-Fi and I had just built a desk from scratch so, on that end, I was well prepared. With prepping everything to be done virtually any way, the switch to virtual education was simple for us. However, many educators were not doing as well. The worst part for me personally was I had to end my student teaching without being able to be there for any of my students in the high school. This lead to my transition to Middle School and to say the least, even the best-made plans often go awry.

My first big challenge was to go through and create a unit that was both academically rigorous while also allowing for a lot of engagement. This was a major worry of the CT when the virtual switch happened so that was something I had to keep in mind. I also wanted there to be labs, even if virtual, so the students could learn as much as possible from a lab experience. At first, I was going much faster than the students were able to adequately follow. I admit that whole-heartedly because I was still adjusting to the actual academic level of my middle schoolers. As I was actively adjusting, the students were not only doing better on the assignments, but the engagement also increased. Then came our first lab.

The students had a blast by going through and experimenting with the simulation. Most students not only drastically improved their grades but also stated they had fun in science class. Knowing that I incorporated all kinds of different game or simulation-based labs for them to use. I knew that science can be so boring and be hard to grasp if you did not get the first-hand experience, so I spent a lot of time and energy into finding labs and games that would meet that criteria. Below where the top three game simulations I found for the semester with my 7th graders.

I logged on to see the familiar face of my CT and to see my university supervisor. We had plenty of discussions about what I had learned, my positive and negative experiences with parents, and even just the differences between middle and high school students. My CT, like the ones from my midterm, only echoed how much I had learned and the benefit I was to the whole district. With all of the notes in, we said our goodbyes and hung up the video call. I never expected my last moment to be hanging up a video call within my home office. It was strange to simply hit the big red end call button and that be it. Dissonance is probably a good word to use, but this whole experience had come to an end with a click of a mouse. The worst part, waking up the next morning was sad. I didn't get to say good morning to my students, I did not get to tune into our "Cool Kids" meeting where the 7th-grade team would discuss and talk about their day and plans, the day itself was quiet and I had strangely gotten used to the blissful chaos my student brought me every day.

Also, if you are ever communicating with students or guardians, I recommend the same course of action. I had a few guardians claim that I was never communicating with their students and they had insinuated that I was ignoring their student intentionally. I had only communicated to students through both Google Classroom and Google Chat which allow you to have records of any and all communications. This helped in a particularly sticky situation, especially with a guardian who was very concerned about their student. As bad as it is, educators should never delete or use any method of communication that does not have a log. So double-check to make sure that all of your records are kept and stored in a place for easy access.