"2020. The year I could wear dry clean only shirts to preschool because there were no children to get paint on it... but that means they weren't there to high five or hug either. Here are the lessons I learned about teaching virtually during a pandemic: 1. Use your students’ names often both verbally and in print during lessons. 2. Let the lesson get derailed by pets, siblings, and random sharing. 3. Hands-on activities don't all have to be asynchronous - we have done sink and float, lots of play dough, art projects and more together live over zoom. 4. Show and tell takes time. It's time well spent. 5. Keep books short - make them interactive. Make pre-recorded videos of longer books but live readings are best left short and lively. 6. Unmute as much as possible. Background noise is the only reason I mute but in January my goal is to have everyone be off mute as much as possible! 7. This isn't a TV show - it's ok to step away to get something, to move your table back so you hav...