MEMPHIS, Tenn — This Monday morning, Hickory Ridge Elementary second grade teacher Ciara Slade-Trejo won't be face to face with her students - at least not physically.
"It's been a stressful time, it's been a stressful year," Slade-Trejo said.
Instead, their desks will sit empty, as Slade-Trejo's physical classroom is now a virtual classroom whittled down to two computers and a camera.
"Monday is definitely going to have its challenges because it is the first day, people are getting used to their devices, with everyone powering on. We don't know what that's going to look like," Slade-Trejo said.
That's the new normal at that school and across Shelby County Schools, because for the foreseeable future, it will be all virtual learning in the state's largest public school district.
"We still want to provide a sense of normalcy. We want to treat it like they are coming into the building, just on a virtual level," Hickory Ridge Elementary Principal James Gordon said.
Principal Gordon said as of Friday, more than 70% of the the school's students picked up their digital devices and curriculum packets. He's hopeful a final weekend push will ensure almost all of the school's 686 enrolled students are set up.
"This is something new. We are all going into the unknown," Principal Gordon said.
While the hallways will be empty, Hickory Ridge teachers said the academic expectations won't change, even if the face to face instruction is replaced by screens.
"It's been a lot of long days but we've made a lot of progress, it's really been satisfying," Slade-Trejo said.
A district spokesperson said SCS will continue to follow the science to determine when students could return to the classroom, either in a hybrid format or a 5 day a week model.
For a list of back to school resources for the district, go to http://scsk12.org/backtoschool/.
