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Return to classroom opens video time capsule

Subhead
In Other Words
Lead Summary
By
Jason Berghorst, reporter

Last week I stepped back in time.
I only went six months back in time, but it felt like so much farther. 
As we started the new school year, I turned on my classroom flat-panel display.
It’s a large TV/computer screen that I use to teach every day. 
When I turned on the screen for the first time this school year, I was surprised what I saw.
The same Internet tabs that I used on March 16, the last day we had kids in school, appeared.
I was immediately taken back to that day.
March 16 was a Monday. We had learned the day before that it would be our last day in school for a while. 
On my screen was a video we showed to the students that day, and I pushed play. 
The video was of our middle and high school principals explaining to the students the information we had at the time about COVID-19 and how it was going to impact our school.
We were going to close school for two weeks. 
On March 30 we would start distance learning. 
The principals told the students that they did not know how long distance learning would last. 
They mentioned that the start of spring sports would be delayed. 
The video also introduced the term “social distancing” to the kids and explained the kinds of activities students should avoid to slow the spread of the virus. 
“This is a phrase you will become familiar with over the next few weeks, or even months,” Mr. Johnson said. 
Talk about an understatement. 
The basic information shared is mostly still true, but there was so much not known at that time. 
There was optimism we would return to school in a few weeks. 
The situation was going to be temporary. 
If we took the appropriate, difficult steps then, we’d be back to normal relatively soon.
I couldn’t help but feel a bit frustrated and disappointed hearing that six months later.
I’m glad we didn’t know in March what school (and the world) was going to look like in September.
It’s easy to look back on the last six months and question decisions made by our elected leaders.
It’s also tempting to wonder how things could be different now if we had responded to the pandemic differently earlier on. 
We’ll never know. 
Just like we didn’t know what was ahead of us in March.
And we don’t know what’s coming up in the months ahead. 
I guess that’s a lesson the pandemic is teaching us. 
We can’t always know the future, and we certainly can’t agree on how to influence the future. 
For now, I’ll appreciate seeing half of my students in person each day. 
I’ll also do all that I can to help us stay in school at all. 
And I’ll hope that our students, our community members and our elected leaders will do the same. 
But I won’t make any predictions.

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