I figured it out! so I needed to have mentioned that i am using VS code through harvard's CS50. there is a server online that my VS code is tied to. In order to get past the window of tkinter going to the server and not your own screen, after you have run your program that used tkinker, click on CS50 menu on the left side and then click on GUI to launch noVNC client. This will allow you to see your window get pulled up on a new tab