Coming back in the midst of this Delta upswing, particularly as you think about breakthrough cases, I think that has been the product that for me personally, it's been like, ‘Oh, this is kind of scary still.’ I also think that, after being out for a year, you almost don't remember sometimes what it is like being in the building, like how close students can be and things like that.
There's some anxiety there, but I also think there's an excitement to see our students again, to be able to interact with them in a safe manner, to be able to provide education in the way that we have found research has shown is most beneficial to most students. But I think there's this bit of a surreal undertone where this is just not how I expected [to come back].
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Shiosha McDonald has served in Teach For America and is currently a teacher in Washington, D.C.