Back to School 2020 at St. Anthony Catholic School

When the 2019-20 school year ended, we had high hopes of being back to school in-person for the 2020-21 school year. Even though teachers began to plan for teaching with appropriate distancing in their classrooms, as the summer progressed, it became clear that in-person instruction would not be able to happen as we could be risking the spread of the Coronavirus. Teachers and families began to prepare for a virtual start to the school year – but how do you start the year without being able to meet your teacher or, in the case of the teacher, without being able to meet your students? We decided to have in-person orientation days in groups of no more than five students per class for the first week of school.

Each day, the assigned families brought their student to school and at drop-off, the students’ temperatures were checked and the adults responded to screening questions to assess the risk of Coronavirus exposure. Typically parents would have mingled and reconnected after the summer and students would have spent a short time getting re-acquainted and showing off their new backpacks and lunch boxes. However, this year no one stayed outside as teachers escorted the students to their classrooms using designated doors and stairways.

Once in the classroom, with everyone wearing masks, teachers greeted their students and conducted icebreaker and introduction activities. Other than the small group sizes, having the desks spread out in the classrooms, with the activities being touch free, and everyone wearing masks, it almost seemed like back to school during any other year. Teachers distributed brand new workbooks, textbooks, and other materials to be used for distance learning. Students took their fall benchmark standardized tests and logged onto devices to become familiar with their distance learning platforms.

At 12:30 PM, families picked up their students who were taking home those newly issued workbooks, textbooks, borrowed technology, and materials to set up a learning area at home. The children and teachers were all smiling under their masks at having been able to connect in person and build their classroom community.

With a different set of students coming each day of the week, for teachers, the experience was like having the first day of school five times instead of just once! And now, with video conferencing for distance learning, teachers and students get to see those unmasked smiles everyday as they continue to build the community that they started.