Teachers excited to have kids back in the classroom

After six months of wondering, waiting, planning and re-planning, teachers are back in the classroom with students.

All of the teachers 980 CJME heard from ahead of the first day of school were excited.

“I phoned all my homeroom kids the last couple of days and I’m just giddy to see them, I’m so excited,” said Kelly, a teacher at Thom Collegiate.

Kelly said the first couple days back last week were tense.

“We were on information overload but I think now we’re actually taking the time to understand all the things that we’ve learned and the policies, and just trying to make it real now for the kids,” said Kelly.

Preparation was a big undertaking for the teachers, learning all the new guidelines and then adapting their classrooms and lessons.

“I’ve planned a lot of things and then everything’s been switched around 180 degrees on me, and so all of that has gone to the wayside. And that’s not the fault of the board or the ministry or whatever the case may be, it’s just with our current situation in a constant state of flux it’s really hard to prepare,” explained Brett Matlock, a Grade 8 teacher at St. Gregory School in Regina.

Matlock said these days he feels like a first year teacher again.

“You’re getting your feet wet, there’s a lot of stresses and anxieties that go along with that. ‘Am I doing it right? How do I do things properly?’ And I’m not necessarily sure that I am, but you don’t know what you don’t know at this point,” said Matlock.

Many of the teachers said it’s just about getting everyone into a routine quickly and sticking to it.

Dawn is a teacher as well and she put it simply: “There’s a lot of new rules. There’s a lot of new things that we’ve got to get used to so we can get the kids used to but you know what, in the end we’re going back and I think that’s what really counts.”

One early-years teacher northeast of Regina who asked to remain anonymous said she’s confident in the guidelines and rules her school has in place.

From her point of view, and agreeing with some of the parents she’s talked to, she said she’s just glad the kids can come back to school.

“(They can) get back into a little bit of a routine and see their friends, even if it means they have to wear masks and wash their hands often and try to stay away from each other,” she said.