Throughout the unusual and challenging year that was 2020, it was sometimes a struggle to look beyond the next few weeks—or even days—into the future. Contemplating the future is difficult when the present feels so unsettling, especially in the classroom.

While the abrupt shift to a remote environment forced educators into unfamiliar territory, it also provided us with an opportunity to innovate and potentially change the course of education forever. Throughout a year full of headaches and heartaches, we continued to show up for our students in new and unprecedented ways. We might not have covered all the math equations or history content as flawlessly and thoroughly as we would in a normal year, but we learned a great deal along the way.

I’ve talked with colleagues at the college level as well as several currently practicing teachers about the future of education, and one thing is for sure: COVID-19 has presented a real opportunity to rethink our current education system.

As the world slowly returns to normalcy with the promise of a vaccine, and the idea of in-person instruction becomes a reality, we must ensure that we don’t simply revert back to our pre-pandemic ways.

Here are three reasons I’m hopeful about what’s to come: