"You want them out of here?" the I.T. guy asked as he hauled off my work desktop computer.
"No, I like them. " I answered.
And I do. My school district decided to return to virtual classes on our first week back after the holiday break because of the Omicron numbers. I was surprised by how little time it took me to start speaking to lizards while I sat in the trailer alone, watching my students over computer screens.
Virtual learning brought back total deja vu. The district announced that we would only be virtual for a week, three days actually, because we had teacher work days that we used to distribute Chromebooks to the students. As I planned for three virtual days, I kept remembering March of 2020 when they said we'd be virtual for two weeks. I returned to the school building in February of 2021. I remembered January of 2020 when people first started talking about the virus at school. I never thought we'd still be speculating on it two years later. The massive car lines for COVID testing were back. My Google Classroom started blowing up with messages from my fifth graders, requesting to "go live" after classes finished. I got a look at whose room got new paint and even talked to some parents I haven't see since the last time we were virtual. The kids joked about playing Among Us. We tried out the new Google backgrounds, making it look like it was snowing behind us instead of just ordinary walls. I saw my students without masks on for the first time in well, about a year. I was surprised how much older they look and how big some of their teeth are.
I usually make New Year's resolutions. I'm not sure why, but I didn't this year. I really have no idea what 2022 has in store for us.
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