WORCESTER - The switch to virtual learning was a big adjustment for teachers like Burncoat's Rob Sargent and his students.
"They need to be around their peers, they need to be around adults. I need to be able to look kids in the eye and see their work, that they are producing. Whether they get it, whether they don't get it," Sargent said.
The 9th and 10th grade history teacher has no doubt he wants to return to the classroom.
But, he has to be more cautious than others. Sargent is living with Cystic Fibrosis.
He says he has to think about his own health, as well as at risk students and staff members:
Sargent said, "We have people that are cancer survivors, people that are pregnant, my wife is also an educator so if she goes back full time and comes back to the home and brings COVID back, it would just be bad news for me."
The state wants schools to prepare for one of three scenarios.: a full return to the classroom, fully remote learning, or a hybrid of both.
Second grade teacher Kathleen Halloran says the uncertainty of when or how schools will open is changing the way she is preparing for the upcoming year.
"I'm not really sure what to prepare for or how to prepare for it. I'm spending some time focusing on increasing my technological savviness," Halloran said.
Halloran says she would feel comfortable going back in the classroom, whether students were there in person or remotely.
"To be able to have access to my classroom and all of my materials and just the classroom setup, I feel like even if I had to teach fully remote, I could do it," said Halloran.
But there's only one way Sargent goes back to Burncoat, and it's when the country has a vaccine for COVID-19.
"I wouldn't feel safe otherwise. I really couldn't be safe if there was anything short of a vaccine," Sargent said. "But I just want to express: all teachers want to be back in school. I want to be back in school."