I have been a teacher for nearly 20 years, and over a decade of that has been in kindergarten. Children need to see our faces for phonics instruction, learning to read meaning by our facial expressions, and to bond with us as we need to connect before we can correct. Our ability to interact with our students is greatly hampered by masks and I have had to rely on videos I make to show to students so they can see how I form sounds and words! We already have a very heavy load. Remove the mask mandate for educators.