Jill Biden wrapped up her first day back in the classroom on Tuesday by watching from the Truman balcony as President Joe Biden retur...
Jill Biden wrapped up her first day back in the classroom on Tuesday by watching from the Truman balcony as President Joe Biden returned to the White House from his trip visiting flood damage in New York and New Jersey.
President Biden waved to his wife as he disembarked from Marine One, wrapping up a long day seeing the damage from Hurricane Ida, which killed 52 people in the North East.
The first lady, in a blue suit jacket, looked pensive as she stood, partially behind one of the pillars of the second-story balcony, which is connected to the White House residence.
Jill Biden, 70, followed the lead of many other students and teachers on Tuesday when she returned to the classroom at Northern Virginia Community College, where she has worked since 2009, teaching English and writing.
She is the first first lady in modern history to have a paying job outside of her White House duties. The role of first lady is largely ceremonial and, while it includes a staff, it is an unpaid position.
Jill Biden watches from the Truman Balcony as President Biden returns to the White House
President Joe Biden waves to his wife Jill as he exits Marine One on the South Lawn
Biden defines herself by her teaching job, which she talks about frequently in public appearances and in interviews.
'Teaching isn't just what I do. It's who I am,' she says. She has two masters and a doctorate in education.
She had taught through the COVID pandemic by zoom - even when traveling she would delay official events until the afternoon so she could teach in the mornings. She often grades papers on flights.
But she spoke of her longing to be back in the same room with her students.
'I can't wait to get back in the classroom,' she recently told Good Housekeeping magazine.
During the pandemic, she flew around the country to schools and COVID clinics, urging people to get vaccinated to help lives return to their normal routines. She was advocate - along with her husband - to reopen schools.
In March, she and Miguel Cardona, the secretary of education, visited classrooms in Connecticut and Pennsylvania where students were wearing masks and sitting behind plastic dividers. In May, she and the president visited a class of fifth-grade students at an elementary school in Yorktown to see how they were learning during the pandemic.
Going back to class is old hat for the first lady. She taught at the Northern Virginia school while her husband was vice president.
Jill Biden returned to in-person teaching on Tuesday at her job at Northern Virginia Community College
She watched from the second-story Truman Balcony, which is connected to the residential part of the White House
She arrived for her first day back in class via a presidential motorcade. She has Secret Service agents with her - as she did when she was second lady - but, back then, the agents, at her request, dressed in jeans and toted back packs to mix in with her students.
She will teach on Tuesdays and Thursdays, with travel on days when she is not in the classroom.
And she'll be wearing a face mask. The state of Virginia requires everyone to wear face coverings indoors on Northern Virginia Community College campuses, regardless of vaccination status. Biden is fully vaccinated.
President Biden, meanwhile, expressed confidence his administration can help out New York and New Jersey along with other areas affected by Hurricane Ida.
'A great trip to New Jersey and New York. People need help. I'm confident we can give it to them. I'm confident we can help change their circumstances,' he told reporters on the South Lawn.
He paused to talk to the press for a few minutes before going into the White House, where the first lady was waiting.
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