Virtual Life as an Education Major

No matter what age level or grade in school you are, everything is more different now than it has ever been before.

Why I was excited?

As a Special Education major, I was looking forward to this year. It was time for me to branch away from general education classes and jump right into my Education-specific curriculum.

One of the biggest reasons I chose Education here at UIUC for my future career path is because of my love for children and how strongly I desired to be in the classroom, proving to them their worth. In some of my classes, I spend time observing children as well as their teachers to see how they run their classrooms successfully.

What has changed?

While I’m still in all of those classes this semester, it clearly has to be done online. This means that instead of being in the development lab to understand how children interact with each other, we had to find alternative ways. I spent a significant amount of time on Zoom observing and interacting with those children. The screen was in the middle of us, but seeing the smiles on the kids’ faces made it all so worth it.

Life as an education major online is far different than I could’ve anticipated. I wasn’t sure how much it truly would affect the things I was able to do. However, the College of Education and every administrator, staff, and professor associated within the College of Ed has been absolutely incredible this year. They’ve done everything they can for us, as students, to be able to gain the experience we need while being understanding of where we are at.

Is it worth it?

There’s no better college on the campus of the University of Illinois than that College of Education! I couldn’t be happier with my decision and I’m proud of the way we’ve handled this year.