Teacher: Welcome to the season where teach during a pandemic. [snap]

Teacher: Feel like I’ve been strapped into a roller-coaster. Like literally can’t get up, but strapped in, and just waiting like at the terminal. [laughs]

Teacher: You know, I’m just going through the motions, trying to figure out what’s going to happen next!

Newscaster: Across the country, educators are wondering what the next school year will look like.

Teacher: I would say one word to describe how I feel about the school year is concerned. Concerned.

Teacher: It might not be a hundred percent safe to go back, but I also really, really did not like being fully online. So I don’t know.

Teacher: My school’s plan is hybrid. For every two weeks of school, that means our students are in the classroom five days.

Teacher: We’re actually a hundred percent in person. We’re doing any of the like 50/50. We’re going all in, and I’m ready for it!

Teacher: Students will be assigned one classroom where they will remain in all day, and they will still be learning virtually. I’m still responsible for teaching synchronously.

Teacher: You know, the routine is we come in the morning. Of course downstairs there’s the safety measures. All right!

Teacher: I’m going to record the student view of NearPod, while having Zoom projected. I had to like mute all of this. Make sure this wasn’t muted. It was a thing.

Teacher: Do I plan for hybrid? Do plan for remote? Do I plan for both?

Teacher: How are we getting the kids inside? How are we getting them off the bus? How are we dealing with the lunch situation?

Teacher: I’m always at a pretty high-stress level. But I just operate there on very little sleep and iced coffee.

Teacher: [alarm chimes]

Teacher: Here we go. Check your mask. Check your PPE. Here comes the school year.

Teacher: This is so weird.

Teacher: Good morning!

Students: Good morning!

Teacher: Today is Friday, September 4th.

Teacher: Welcome back to school. I’m so happy to see you!

Teacher: This year’s first day was not like any other first day that I’ve experienced. The butterflies were still there, but it was so different!

Teacher: We’re having some technical difficulties. [laughs] With– oh, god! [laughs] Hold on! Can you hear me now?

Teacher: That was one of the hardest things, trying to solve problems while I’m actually teaching on Zoom with the kids, while also answering messages from parents. [exhales] I’m going to take some deep breaths.

Teacher: I went the majority of the day with my computer volume on mute.

Teacher: I felt like my lessons just weren’t flowing.

Teacher: This is what my classroom sounds like all the time.

Teacher: And yesterday we found out that our– the county has gone into the red zone as far as COVID cases. So I don’t know what that means for our school.

Teacher: Students have been pretty good about keeping their mask on. But a lot of them like to do this.

Teacher: Kids are just really adapting. Their standing on their lines correctly. There’s only four kids allowed in the bathroom. And they’re following the rules.

Teacher: Today is so much better than yesterday. I’ve had a lot more kids on. They’ve been communicating with me. No tears have been shed today.

Teacher: It’s only- it’s only up from here!

Teacher: Hi, guys!

Teacher: It’s not as scary as I thought. It’s not as hard as thought. Huh, it’s a lot more work than I thought.

Teacher: I just wish I could like go through the computer screen and like hug my students and then tell the parents like, “Thank you so much for helping them!”

Teacher: The last two days of school, kids are starting to smile more. They’re laughing. They’re feeling more comfortable. As far as I know, we’re steady with our cases.

Teacher: And time will tell, right? We won’t know whether or not this is going to start a new spike for a couple of weeks now until it’s enough time for infections to take place. The new normal.