Entomology and my life

Hello Everyone! My name is Timmatha and I am currently a junior at UNL majoring in Elementary Education. So first I can tell you some interesting things about myself. First, I have an amazing 18 month old son who is more than curious about bugs. Matter of fact he decided to eat two beetles the other day. I freaked out and scooped out the chewed up beetles from his mouth just for him to say "Yum mama!!!". That definitely lightened the mood! Before this class you could say I wasn't particularly fond of certain insects. I was and am still absolutely terrified of spiders, but have grown to be a lot more interested and fond of other insects. I have truly become the most interested in metamorphosis within insects and how it works. I didn't really understand the process before and I truly never knew not all insects went through it. I also thoroughly enjoyed our Hissing Cockroach study. I was very nervous to get mine as I heard some could be pregnant and some had even gotten out. I was worried about it getting out at night and crawling on me in my sleep!!!!! Thought I wasn't too excited the day I came home with it, my son was ecstatic. All he ever wanted to do was look at it and feed it. He liked to look at it at nighttime and watch it move around everywhere. Also, the food choices that were experimented were chosen completely by my son! Though I grew to really enjoy Tom, I knew I still didn't like him enough to keep him (as much as my son may have wanted to). But it did give me more appreciation for the animals I once just thought were gross.

Since I am majoring in Elementary Education I really think it is important to impact my students and get their attention. I don't want their year in my room to just be another year of school without anything truly memorable. I chose to take this class because I knew I would have to learn about and interact with certain insects I wouldn't have before. I wanted to learn more about them to hopefully in my future create a fun experiment with my students as well. In my practicum last semester they watched caterpillars turn into butterfly's and that was truly the highlight of each child's day. No matter if the student enjoyed the subject or not, it was truly interesting for them to be able to watch that and then release them. I am a firm believe in hands on learning and this is such a great way. It gets students engaged and really working with what they are learning about. It isn't just a video or a page in a book. With an in class experiment they will have to make their own hypothesis and actually collect their own data which in return is going to help them pay thorough attention. I hope this can not only help me with my future in teaching but as well as a mother. I want to be able to educate my son when his curiosity is running wild. I want to be able to "get down and dirty" as some would say and enjoy those exciting hands on moments!