Teacher Rejoices in First Day Back at School After Vaccination: 'There's an Energy and Excitement'

Diane Herbst
·2 min read

AIMEE RYAN Teacher Marcie Chanin and students

The last time second grade teacher Marcie Chanin was in a classroom with students was on March 16, 2020. Over a year later and fully vaccinated, she eagerly welcomed her young charges - whom she'd only met over Zoom - with socially distanced open arms when they returned to in-person classes in April.

"I love being with kids, so it's been hard to be behind a screen," Chanin, 63, tells PEOPLE in this week's issue. "The kids have been missing so much of what school is at this stage, which is being together with their friends and socializing. That's a huge part of early-childhood education."

The first day back at Bradford Elementary School in Montclair, New Jersey "was beautiful," says Mona Shah, 45, mother of 8-year-old Kyle, who is in Chanin's class. "There was excitement in the air and only happy feelings."

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AIMEE RYAN

Kyle, while grateful for the start of hybrid classes and the chance to escape from full-time Zoom, admits he felt "a little nervous."

As for meeting his teacher in person? "It felt good good," he says, "and exciting."

For Chanin, who has been teaching for 36 years and was fully vaccinated by early March, the return to the classroom has been "great."

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"I have been very tired of teaching kids from my kitchen table," she adds. "It's not been fun."

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The children are in school either two or three half-days a week and have adapted to a new environment of masks, reduced recess and distanced seating - and enjoying in-person laughter again.

"We did laugh on Zoom, but it's just different," Chanin says. "And thank goodness for the scientists who came up with this vaccine because it's made it, for me, quite comfortable to go back."