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It’s 8:45 am and you just woke up and went to your first period zoom. Your teacher is staring at a sea of black squares with the occasional photogenic. The first semester of the school year is off to a great start.
With the absence of a COVID-19 vaccine, online learning persists into the fall of the 2020 school year. Compared to online learning last semester, this year presents new challenges to students and teachers such as a new class schedule, while keeping with the same working-at-home environment. By going into the new year with no means of communication other than zoom calls and emails, the distance between students and teachers grows both physically and emotionally.
“It feels like we are working 24/7, 7 days a week,” said Encinal counselor Pallavi Nandakishore. “From reaching out to students, to getting back to email, and attending meetings, everything is different… the hardest and saddest part of working from home is not being able to reach out to students in full capacity. When we are in school, we can just send a pass, but with distant learning, I find that it is really difficult to connect with students,” Nandakishore said.
As online learning prevents students from seeing each other in person, the only way students get to know their new classmates is through zoom breakout rooms and icebreakers. Despite the efforts, students are having a hard time getting to know their classmates. In the virtual world, students can choose not to talk, not show their faces, or not do their school work, which make breakout rooms an awkward event.
“Some people told me about it... sometimes they'll ask a question to the group and nobody responds,” said senior Sidney Ung.
Teachers also feel the distance between their own students. With the ability to not show your face on zoom, teachers can’t do anything but talk to a black screen when students don’t turn on their cameras.
“It's hard to get to know students this way. I'm still not sure what some of my students look like” said history teacher Andy Lee.
In addition to having to meet new people over zoom, students and teachers also have to face a new class schedule. The new class schedule EHS put in place splits the six classes per year into three classes taken per semester. So far, most are in favor of the new schedule, saying it is easier to manage three classes at a time.
“With everything being online, having only three classes has helped me stay organized because there’s less assignments all at once,” said junior Averie Martin.
But, the new schedule does pose setbacks, as teachers have to cram a year’s worth of class into half of a year.
“I have two Spanish 2 classes [and a Spanish 4/5 class], so it's much better than having all six classes but at the same time,” said Spanish teacher Elizabeth Fernandez. “I feel a little bit of anxiety around the fact that I have to teach everything in one semester that I would teach in one year.”
As students can’t choose which classes they will have for each semester, AP teachers and students are critical of the arrangement as it does pose problems with the AP tests in May.
“For the AP class, I feel very concerned because if the class ends and I never my students again by the end of January and they decide to take the test in May, that's a huge time to not be practicing,” said Fernandez. “I think it's unfair to have that huge gap between when students have class and then when the test is.”
From checking an instagram feed to noisy family members, students can get distracted easily during class. Students and teachers have remarked on the distractions presented by at home learning with mixed reactions to the topic. While some students seem to be thriving with the minimal distractions presented in their environments, most are not finding it so easy to concentrate.
“Because I have other family members in my house and they are loud...it is mentally draining to stay in my room all day,” said an Encinal senior.
Although this school year is unconventional, students and teachers are making the best of it.
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