First Day of School Fears

"It's like the first day of school...in March"

These were the words uttered by many parents, students and elementary school employees as schools re-opened their doors to in-person instruction earlier this month.

In our house, we felt it a little earlier. My husband is an elementary school administrator and spent long hours the week prior to opening to ensure each classroom was safe, ingress and egress routes were clearly marked, parents had clear communication about drop off and pick up times and procedures, and so much more!

So Monday truly felt like the first day of school for him, too.

Meanwhile, those of us at the secondary level wait and watch the COVID numbers, with administrators and classified staff working hard to be prepared when we are finally allowed to return.

It is difficult to think about in-person instruction while continuing to plan for fully remote lessons! It's like trying to start one job before you finish with the other one (I might know a little about that from a recent experience!). No matter what anyone says, it is NOT easy! On top of that, we know we will not be able to see each student in person every day...at least not for a while. This level of change and unknown causes stress, for sure.

The stress is not only felt by you. Our secondary students are talking about a physical return to school, too. Want to know what they are worried about? They are concerned that teachers will give them tests during in-person time. They. fear. TESTS.

Students are well aware that this has not been a normal year. They fear that they haven't learned as much as they should have by now. Just listen to the news and you hear comments about the gaps that students have in their learning after our year of remote. So our students fear that teachers will use in-person time to prove the lack of learning, and expose them as failures first day back!

Ouch!

As you think about your plans for the possible return to school, consider this:

• students may have forgotten how to talk to each other face to face

• some student have experienced various levels of trauma during the last year

• students have forgotten that school is a safe place for them

• students DO NOT have the same level of positive relationships with teachers that they should have by this time of the year.

Build time into your instruction to get to know students.

Consider how to encourage positive interactions with peers.

Find ways to get their hands into the learning (their eyes are as tired of screens as ours!).

Here's one more thing you really should know::

Parents indicated that elementary students didn't really want to go back to school on the first day back.

They were nervous.

They were scared.

Tuesday, though, everything changed.

Students were excited to return.

Eager to get up and get dressed.

Energized for the day ahead.

Why?

They were excited to return on day two because of THE TEACHER!

There was joy on the face of the teacher when they were greeted,

genuine interest shown for each student,

and a focus on love for students rather than just love for content.

The teacher made them want to come back and learn together again.

Once again,

the teacher made all the difference.

Have a great week.

Kim