Excited to see a new "normal" -- By Jennifer Mitchell

Two years ago (exactly to the day) I put my daughters on a flight in Springfield, Missouri bound for Florida to visit their grandparents.  By the time the week was over we were panicked that we might not even be able to get them home.  The pandemic took over during that week, and has changed the course of so many things.  

As a teacher, it has changed so many of the “normal” things that we used to do daily (that I had taken for granted).  After that week, we didn’t return to in-person teaching for the rest of the year.  Once we did so many safety procedures were put into place that things didn’t really resemble what they used to be in the classroom.  To be honest, I was just so happy to be back teaching in person anything seemed great though!

Fast forward to where optimism plays in with this month’s topic.  It has been two years, but things are slowly starting to change back to pre pandemic practices (and it feels so great)!  Last month we were able to take a field trip to Kauffman stadium, where the Royals play. That may not seem like much, but for these kids who were in kindergarten when the pandemic shut things down, this was their first experience taking a field trip in elementary school!  Kids are now able to partner read again, sit on the carpet together, have desks in arrangements other than rows, eat in the cafeteria, play together at recess, etc.  It feels so good to be taking baby steps back to what it used to look like in a classroom.  Though I am proud of all of the obstacles we managed to overcome, these last two years in education; I am so excited to make progress towards getting back to some of the things I have missed so much in education.  This is the best kind of optimism I can think of!

(Sitting in the dugout at Kauffman Stadium)

Jennifer Mitchell-- teacher in the Kansas City area