As I was wrapping up for the day, I heard a knock at my door. I quickly put on my mask and walked over to open it. Four smiling faces greeted me, faces I saw five days a week for six months before March 13, 2020. We all kind of shrieked and air-hugged.
“I missed you all SO much when we shut down,” I told them.
“We missed you, too!”
They had all grown taller, and perhaps their faces had thinned slightly, but they seemed much the same as they did a little over a year ago. They were so happy to be back, declaring they could focus better and get work done. Two of them were pleased to have almost every class together for the two days they are back in the building.
Though a year has passed, I feel like these students are really still my students. I mean, I’ve developed a rapport with this years’ kids, but the SY19-20 students were snatched away from us and never returned. I still have their reader’s notebooks stacked in a bin. Rosters of their names are attached to a clipboard behind my desk. I actually didn’t know I still had them until the other day. As I read through the names, some materialized instantly in my mind, while I had to pause a second or two for others to come into focus.
Once I could picture each kid, I went to unclip the papers to recycle them, reconsidered, and tucked the clipboard back where I found it. I’m not quite ready to let them go.
My Corner of the Village 