All around the world teachers are facing the reality of returning to the school and having to teach while wearing a mask.

Most recently the government in the UK changed its advice to say secondary staff and pupils in England should wear face masks when moving around schools in local lockdown zones.

For some teachers, this will be an unnerving idea. So as someone who has already been wearing a mask for almost two weeks in school, here’s my experience so far...

When I wear it

I wear a mask whenever I leave my classroom or office or am in the school corridors. I wear it for lunch and hallway duty and when I enter and leave the school.

The only times I don’t wear it are when I am in my office or if I am behind my desk in my classroom and all of my 32 students are uniformly sitting at their desks behind the two-meter line, and the windows are open.

What has gone surprisingly well is the compliance and compassion from students. In the first days of the new term, I explained that I would be wearing a mask in all lessons, especially if I was walking around checking work.

The students have been great.

They wait patiently if I have to put it on, they always check before crossing the masking tape line if they need something and, in general, they are very relaxed about their teacher wearing a mask.

Pupil adaptations

The main challenge is the weaker students and the ESL learners, as when they cannot watch my mouth as I speak, some of them miss the meaning of the instructions.

I also have one deaf student but, luckily, in this case, she uses technology to help her and not lip-reading.

So far I haven’t had any serious issues with students or staff understanding me whether in the classroom or in the corridors.

With the weaker students, I simply speak more slowly and clearly than I would normally, and repeat myself until I know they’re sure.

The new normal

It was very frustrating at first having to remember to take my mask off and then put it on again when necessary, it seemed like that was all I was doing all day long - mask on, mask off. 

However, even after only one week, I am so used to it that I often forget I am even wearing it and I simply leave it on during the whole lesson without thinking.

Forgetting you’re wearing it does come with some risks though, as you can’t actually drink through a cloth mask very effectively…or elegantly, which resulted in me pouring coffee all over myself in the office.

I had forgotten it was covering my mouth as I tried to drink my morning coffee.

At least it gave the rest of the department a good laugh!

Although it was both awkward and annoying to wear in the first few days, I just reminded myself of why I was wearing it and more importantly, of people like hospital staff who have no choice but to wear them for 12-18 hours a day.

My initial and very minimal discomfort was frankly irrelevant in the greater scheme of things.

The eyes have it

One other modification I have made that I did without even realising, was looking students more directly and intentionally in the eye. I am far more direct with students and less ambivalent in instructions.

I also make sure that my smile always reaches my eyes, as it is hard to reassure students, particular on the first day of term when they can’t see your facial expressions.

It’s amazing what you can express with your eyes when you try!

I keep my tone as soft and welcoming as possible, but my diction clear and strong and basically do everything I can to make students feel at ease.

To help with this, I also wear brightly coloured, fun-looking masks, to make them as unintimidating as possible.

In every other respect, my teaching remains largely the same, the students get the same quality lessons and we just adapt to the new normal as we would any other challenge.

Terry MacEwen is a secondary English teacher at an international school in Sweden