Students return for first day of school in Hardin County

SAVANNAH, Tenn. — It’s the first day of school for some students in Hardin County.

“If the rest of the year is like today, it’s going to be great. It’s going to be one of our better years, I think,” said Hardin County Middle School Principal Dr. Duane Eliff.

Eliff said the students did a good job social distancing today, but it’s going to take a lot of work to keep it up.

“Here at Hardin County, we’re doing the arms-length rule,” Eliff said. “We’ve told them to keep an arms length between them, without touching, and the next student.”

Eighth grade English teacher Tammy Brown read off the new school rules in her classroom Monday.

“We’re social creatures, so I think it’s going to be really hard,” Brown said. “I know one of them that knows me well was coming up to hug today. I said, ‘I can’t!’ I said, ‘Feel the love, but I can’t hug you.’ Then I had two boys going to my room walking side by side. I said, ‘You can’t do this this year. Hopefully this will go away soon, but right now, we have to social distance.'”

Brown teaches two classes that look like this, transferring from room to room, then about 50 virtual students at the end of the day.

“This is all brand new for all of us, so we’ll be learning as we go, and tweaking things as we need to, but I’m really excited about being a 21st Century teacher,” Brown said.

Several of the students were wearing masks, and all of them were facing the same direction. They also ate breakfast in the classroom Monday morning.

Faculty are hoping the sixth and seventh graders catch on as quickly as the eighth graders did.

“We’re a little nervous since it is all brand new, but I know it’s going to be a great year, and we’re going to do whatever we need to do as teachers, because that’s who we are,” Brown said.

Eighth graders came to school on Monday, with seventh grade on Tuesday and Wednesday, and sixth graders on Thursday and Friday. Everyone will be in class on Monday, August 10.