What does “normal” look like in the 2022-2023 school year? The masks are off. Social distancing is gone and ten day quarantine/isolation is done. So, do we just pick up where we left off from March 2019? Did we have a brief (almost three year) pause to education and life in general?

Now that schools are back into the “swing of things,” educators are discovering what isolation and disruption to life has done to our youngest learners. My first principal always said, “Our children are our most precious, natural resource.” He also spoke about how schools are a microcosm of society in general. It is the job of school to solve society’s problems from smoking to drugs to violence and all other manner of ills in between. Now we have the “ill” of an almost post-pandemic society and what it has done to our students.

When there is a snow day or it is winter break or summer vacation, students always jump for joy at their time away from school and may say, “I don’t want to go back. I wish I could just stay home and learn and stay in my pajamas all day.” That wish came true for a time and students discovered that they are also human beings and human beings need to be part of social groups and interact with other human beings on a regular basis. The bottom line is, students really do want to be in school. The first thing educators discovered when students returned to the classroom was that they forgot how to interact with others. They did not have the same opportunities to learn and practice those skills. The youngest learners who may have gone to virtual pre-school or no pre-school struggled the most. Older learners struggled to remember how to do things like play games that required taking turns.

Along with the lack of understanding for social graces, students needed extra help with academic skills. This is not the fault of the instruction they were provided during their time home. Teachers had to learn for themselves how to teach a virtual class and principals had to learn how to run a school virtually in all of five seconds. I remember thinking, “Ugh! Why didn’t I take “Running a School During a Pandemic While on Lockdown 101” when I went to principal school?” On behalf of my colleagues, all I can say is, we all did our best.

Now everyone is back! We can see faces again, hear complete sentences spoken (as opposed to poor internet connection sentences) and yes, we can be social again. In order to bring back structure and routine, we as educators have taken our social instruction back to the basics. We talk to students in the mornings to gauge how they are feeling in the moment. They get to be heard by adults and peers. Students are literally playing games together. Students are playing board games and card games at scheduled times to practice winning, losing and interacting appropriately. When students must stay indoors for recess, they can only play games that require interacting with others. No electronic devices! In Berea Elementary School, games will be played with teachers and staff such as “Are You Smarter than a Berea Kid?’ which is described as Family Feud meets Jeopardy, The Totally Gross Game Show, Minute to Win It Challenges, Name that Tune (music trivia) and a personal favorite, If Teachers Acted Like Students (performance skit).

The goal of these activities is to instill a sense of belonging, develop a sense of purpose, create a support network for everyone and most importantly, cultivate trust and respect. It’s our goal to build a more cohesive school environment that will support good mental health and positive self-esteem. This in turn, will facilitate the support of academic programs and integration of knowledge and skills that will last forever in our students.