It Really is About the Students

It was like the anticipation of all my favorite holidays rolled into one. Along with the required amount of nervousness that comes with opening up a public place for more than 300+ students, with over 170 employees during a global health pandemic. That was how it felt as I went to sleep on Monday, September 7, of this past week. 

Our Reopening Taskforce had worked incredibly hard to follow the guidelines. Our Facilities staff had to not only prepare for the reality of the new cleaning and distancing measures but had to put our building back together after the bond work. Our Teachers were working to prepare lessons for both in-person and remote learning. 

As I drove to work that day, I thought about all of the students and staff returning to familiar buildings, with unfamiliar expectations: masks, physical distancing, and lots of handwashing. I also thought about the students who were coming to school for the very first time and the adults who were starting Day 1 in a new position at a new school.  I wondered and worried, anxious to get to the building to see what it looked like. 

When I arrived and entered the building, there was a strange calm. For one, we had half as many students as we usually did, but besides that, there was a vague sense of quiet. Not the kind of quiet that worries me as an educational leader, but more of a muted excitement. Children were walking in the hall, down the side opposite of me, following the markings on the floor, and spaced appropriately apart from each other. Their eyes were smiling. I started to relax a little. 

I started to visit classrooms, curious to see what it would be like. From Kindergarten through 8th grade, our students were there doing the work of childhood: learning with their classmates and teachers. There were blocks, beans, and base ten cubes. I saw fractions, formative assessments, and friendships. There was literacy, lunch, and love. I saw recess, rubrics, and above all, an emphasis on relationships. At the end of our first day, I took a short video of the last bus leaving our bus loop: 

I exhaled and started to reflect on what made Day 1 such a success. I was so worried about so many things going wrong. It felt like we had been working on this first day since we were thrust into the emergency school dismissal in March. It didn't take me long to realize what made this day so wonderful. It's what makes each and every Day 1 I've been a part of as a professional educator special for the past twenty-five years: it's the students. 

The last time I was a full-time classroom teacher was nineteen years ago. I was teaching first grade in Boston and was incredibly nervous. I had never taught a class that young before. The night before, while talking to the woman who would become My Wife, she gave me some wonderful advice that saw me through that first day: "Ricca, you know how to talk to kids. Go into that classroom, talk to them, and listen. The rest will come." 

My students made it better for me on that first day back in 2001, and they made it better for us this past week when they came through our doors on Tuesday & Wednesday. They will continue to make it better for all the educators around the world, trying to find our way through this upside-down educational environment. They will continue to make it better for us in Vermont, and right here in St. Johnsbury, with their smiling eyes. 

We know how to talk to kids. Go into those classrooms, talk to them, and listen. 

The rest will come. 

Photo/quote courtesy of www.quotehd.com