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2020-08-07
HIST30060: Food Relief Centre Queue
This is a photograph taken of a queue to enter a food relief centre in South Melbourne in August 2020. The queue was several hundred metres long. As lockdowns began to ravage Melbourne, most businesses were forced to close, resulting in many people losing their jobs. Where this food relief centre had services around 100 people at the start of 2020, this number swelled to over 2000 by the height of the pandemic. Among the most vulnerable demographics affected by the pandemic restrictions were international casual workers and students. Where citizens were eligible to apply for various emergency relief payments, such as Job Keeper or Job Seeker, migrants did not have access to these resources. This food bank only required a form of identification to register the recipients. Several pandemic related restrictions are shown in this picture. The recipients are socially distanced, standing on makeshift markings spaced 1.5 metres apart by government restriction. They wear masks; a government requirement both indoors and outdoors at the height of the pandemic in Victoria. The food bank volunteers wear neon orange high-visibility vests and hold QR codes for the recipients to register on their own devices. I have volunteered at the food relief centre since 2020, performing the same role as the volunteers in the photograph. Where mainstream historical narratives and media may focus on how the lockdowns affected citizens, it is important to remember how migrants too were affected by the pandemic and had little to know support from the Australian government. -
2021-02
Hoping for Good Days
It was several months since my last day in a classroom. March 13, 2020 to be exact. Friday the 13th. The previous school year we were told it was to be a possible 2 week break that ended up going until the end of the year. What was to become of the next school year of 2020-21? I tried to stay optimistic over the summer and enjoy the time spent with family. We were lucky to have each other and have a yard and house where we felt safe to be quarantined. I knew a lot of my students were not so lucky in that they lived in apartments with several family members. Still I wanted to be optimistic about the upcoming year. As the start of school year date got closer, it was apparent we were to continue online teaching via zoom. I felt I was pretty tech savvy and could integrate technology enough to keep my students engaged, but it was still challenging. I taught incoming freshman 9th grade students. They did not get the “new students” experience of coming to my school and meeting and greeting all the faculty and each other. Initially the expectation was to have all students have cameras on, and for the most part in that Fall semester, my students did. But then towards the break students started getting sick, parents were losing their jobs, some even lost family members. People were sad. We barely made it into the winter break with students attending “online”. I was fortunate to have most of my students log in but in other classes students stopped showing up. And if they did log in, cameras were off and it felt like talking to a void. Were they still paying attention? Were some of them just logging in and doing other things like playing video games or sleeping? I was frustrated, but also empathetic knowing for a lot of these students survival, not academics, was their priority during the time. After the winter break and a return to zoom teaching, it was a palpable sadness. There were people who had lost loved ones, and my students were depressed. I could feel the grief and sorrow through the screen and sometimes I would weep after my classes ended for the day. I had to maintain a persona of optimism for my students online and also keep encouraging their academic pursuits. I have never had such a challenging teaching year like the 2020-21 year. The sensory experience I am recalling is sometime in February of 2021. It was the second semester of school, back from the break and many people had a rough time of the holiday season with loneliness, fear, and loss. I don't know how I came up with the idea but I thought about students sharing playlists with the class. I would review them, and if we had a test together on zoom I would play songs on the background. One particular song I found was “Good Days” by SZA. It was not my style of music, but I knew it was what my students listened to. The day I played that song I started to get a lot of feedback from the zoom chat from all my classes about that song. By this time a majority of students had stopped showing themselves on camera and/or stopped talking, however Good Days sparked something in my students. The intro of the song is very melodic and serene. It is one of those songs that sounds very sweet, but is very sad at the same time. I could tell by the response of my students that it hit a nerve. A few of them began to speak up again in class, a few would turn their camera on again. And of course, I had several sending messages after class thanking me for the song. This happy/sad song connected me again to my students that I thought I had lost over winter break. It gave me a little hope again, and I think it gave some of them hope too. Now, whenever I hear Good Days by Sza it reminds me of those lonely online zoom classes in February and how we were all feeling a bit sad, but a simple song gave us all a bit of hope that the future was to have some Good Days ahead. Lyrics to Good Days All the while, I'll await my armored fate with a smile Still wanna try, still believe in (good days) Good days, always (good days) Always inside (always in my mind, always in my mind, mind) Good day living in my mind -
2022-07-21
SMhopes and the Big Blue Bus
Through a grant from the City of Santa Monica Cultural Affairs Department program, Art of Recovery, artist Paula Goldman designed five banners based on uploads to the project call page on this website, SMhopes: an Archive of Hopes and Dreams. The banners will run on Santa Monica's Big Blue Bus transit system for the month of July, 2022. -
2021-03-20
Debating Through the Pandemic
I've been doing Model United Nations since my freshman year. Although it is a club infamous for the insanely intense students it produces, it's also known for its beyond fun 4-day conferences with food, a delegate dance (like a Homecoming), and chaotic debate sessions. However, COVID changed all of that for me, when all MUN conferences started going virtual, including our school's own conference. We started making speeches on Zoom and raising our virtual hands to get called on. We used Breakout Rooms to talk with other delegates and sat at our desks through four long strenuous days of debating. This story represents the dozens of other school clubs and sports teams that were thrown off guard in trying to alter their events to fit these new guidelines of the pandemic. But, to echo a larger sentiment, it represents how kids and their interests were able to adapt. Students still had safe spaces to pursue their interests, even if it was over Zoom. During this time, communities banded together and in some cases, even expanded, allowing classes of COVID-impacted kids to continue building their passions. In my case, I actually learned to love MUN for what it is, rather than be distracted by its bells and whistles. So, while the pandemic brought along its own challenges, it fostered adaptation at its finest, and relationships centered on keeping a sense of normalcy alive, even with something as small as a school club. -
2022-01-13
Addressing Trauma from COVID-19 on Students and Teachers
COVID-19 has had a huge impact on both students and teachers. Not only has there been learning gaps, but there has also been an impact on the social and emotional well-being of teachers and students. Many experts now say that these issues need to be addressed before focusing more on academics. -
2022-04-03
Teachers reflect on covid struggle
This article details the reflection of a few Arkansas teachers as we reach two years since the beginning of the pandemic. The teachers highlight the drastic changes not only in safety precautions, but also the adjustments in order to provide meaningful learning in an entirely new landscape. Many of the teachers reported excitement at the prospect of a return to normalcy, however they desire some aspects of the pandemic adjustments to remain in place. Flexible learning, new and creative ideas of conveying topics, and more individualized learning methods have seen an increase in retention of material, which is fundamentally what education is all about. The teachers would also like an end to the stigma surrounding the covid learning adjustments, primarily the notion that education is now "entirely computer based". This notion is quite the contrary, according to educators, rather the new methods not only encourage flexibility and invite individualized learning but also promotes computer skills which will be vital for adulthood. I think this article is interesting because it highlights the fundamental change covid has made and continues to make on society. In order to promote public health and safety, teachers were forced to adjust and were forced to rework how they educated. This compelling of behavior has rendered some positivity. I think it is critical that children are able to have the safest and most effective education, and while covid seems terribly negative, there is a small glimmer of improvement from the pre-pandemic world. This article was published in the Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette. -
2022-04-12
SMhopes and Civic Wellbeing Partners
Using a grant from Civic Wellbeing Partners in Santa Monica, teachers at the Virginia Avenue Park Spring Camp program asked their students, from grades 1 through 8, to envision their hopes for the future. The students responded with drawings (and one story). Facilitated by artist Paula Goldman as part of SMhopes, the students were also asked to rank how happy they were with their lives now, and how they view their future prospects, two indicators of well being. -
2021-01-05
The Covid Pandemic as a Senior in Highschool
The website that I am linking describes what happened to students all over the world in March of 2020 when all students in schools and universities had to go on lockdown and switch abruptly to complete online learning. This is an important covid-19 related topic to me because I was a senior in high school during that time, and I really struggled with my mental health, academic achievements, responsibilities, body image, and just overall my whole life. This article isn't as personal as it could get, but it gives a good historical and general idea of what student experience during the pandemic was like. -
2021-11-01
From Every Part of the World! - St. Mary's International Students Map
This map shows how many international students St. Mary's University has in Fall 2021. This year St. Mary's received approximately 50 new international students which is only half of the total they were supposed to have in Fall 2021. In Spring 2022 they hope to receive more than 30 international students, making this map just bigger. The biggest amount of International Students St. Mary's has come from Peru and Honduras, with a total of 25 students. Mexico goes in second place with 24 students and in third place, Saudi Arabia with 18 students. -
2021-12-03
Kaitlin Teniente Oral History, 2021/12/03
An interview with the Director of Esports at St. Mary's University, Kaitlin Teniente, discussing how the pandemic affected interacting with the students through esports and other casual videogame events. -
2021-11-29
Rattler Retention
This is an oral interview with two employees of the Office of Students retention at St. Mary's University. This showcases how the office of student retention played its part in guiding the transition from in-person to online and back to in-person classes throughout the pandemic. Their dedication to supporting students throughout the pandemic enriched the student experience for rattlers coming back to campus after an all online semester. -
2021-10-05
Child's Letter to Doug Ducey
Twitter user @amybchan tweeted a photo of a letter that a 7-year-old student wrote to Governor Doug Ducey. She tells him that she and her sister both got COVID and asks him to make masks at school mandatory. Governor Ducey has not only refused to mandate masks at K-12 schools in Arizona but he has punished public school districts in the state that have chosen to require masks by withholding federal funding meant for COVID mitigation strategies. Parents, students, and educators have been outspoken about this policy and the federal government has weighed in over the mishandling of these COVID relief funds. My children are in a district that requires masks and have put in a grant application for those specific funds but have been told that it is "pending review" and has not released the money to the district. It is hurting districts who are actually trying to keep students and families safe and rewarding schools for not following proven mitigation strategies. At a time when children under 12 cannot get the vaccine this is especially troubling to many Arizona families. -
2021-10-05
PTA during Covid-19
I have been volunteering in the PTA for the last 13 years. Two of these years occurred when I was the PTA president at my daughter's middle school during the Covid-19 pandemic. Once the pandemic started and Utah moved all schools to online in March 2020, PTA had to adjust. We cancelled all of our meetings and delivered the end-of-year teacher gifts to the teachers’ and staff’s homes. The next school year (2020-2021), the students returned to school but had to wear masks and large group activities were cancelled. PTA held our monthly meetings outside or via Zoom (once it became too cold to hold them outside) and we cancelled our assemblies. The school district required PTA to individually wrap treats/food that we provided for the teachers. Rather than the potluck-style lunches that we had always provided, we needed to cater the lunches which tripled our costs. We went from a budget of $700 for teacher lunches/treats/gifts to $2200. We made significant cuts in other areas in order to make this adjustment. The pictures above show treats for the teachers from 2021 that are individually wrapped and a partial list of teacher addresses and driving times when the PTA delivered presents to the homes of teachers and staff in 2020 because they were working from home. It took about eight volunteers, each with a 1 1/2 to 2 hour route, to get everything delivered. -
2021-09-17
"Big Y offering COVID vaccinations at Springfield schools as rates among teens languish
This MassLive article reports on the efforts of Big Y, a local grocery store chain in Massachusetts and Connecticut, to offer vaccinations to high school and middle school students in Springfield, Massachusetts. -
2020-03-20
The Signal of Approaching Silence
On Friday, March 20, 2020, I was grocery shopping at Hy-Vee in Canton, Illinois when my mobile phone pinged with an alert from a local news app: the Illinois governor had officially issued a stay-at-home order to prevent the spread of Covid-19. Rumors of the impending order had been circulating for the past few days. I teach English at Canton High School, and we were scheduled to start a week of Spring Break that Friday. That morning the principal had cautioned us to take home our computers and any teaching materials that we might need, just in case we did not return to school after Break. So, the text message confirmed a stark reality. Talk of the stay-at-home order overtook the conversations of shoppers around me. People were speculating about what would come next, now that schools and businesses would be closed. I remember passing the meat counter where I overheard the department manager taking a phone call from a gentleman who wanted to place an apocalypse-sized order of beef. This is it, I thought to myself, trying to figure out what kind of groceries to buy that would sustain my family over for an indefinite period of time, because even though the stay-at-home order was for just two weeks, I had a sinking suspicion we were not going to best Covid-19 in two weeks’ time. I began pushing my cart up and down the aisles faster, a little more frantically, in response to a burgeoning awareness that the virus could already be circulating within our community. Looking back now, I see that we were somewhat cocooned in Fulton County, Illinois, a mostly rural county. The health department announced the first positive case on April 10; the first death occurred on October 21. The virus was slow to take a foothold, but eventually it did. In late July, our school district’s board unanimously voted to start the school year fully remote. Each school day, teachers reported to ghost-town school buildings and holed up in their empty classrooms, with admonitions from administrators not to co-mingle with each other. During that time, I dutifully logged onto Google Meets for each class period, where various avatars greeted me because students were not required to turn on their cameras, so none did. Sometimes I got to hear tinny student voices, which sounded a lot further away than across town, and I wondered if each voice matched the person I pictured in my mind’s eye. I had never met the majority of my students in person, and the photographs on our school’s student management system had not been updated since the fall of 2019. I remember the frustration I struggled to keep capped when I would call on students and be met with silence. Were they even sitting by the computer? Were they afraid to say something in front of their classmates, lest they look stupid? Were they just willfully ignoring me? Were they okay, physically and mentally? I pulled more words out of students through written assignments and chat boxes than through Google Meets. Although part of the student body returned to in-person school in January of 2021 while the rest remained remote by choice (we taught both groups concurrently), it was still difficult to get students to speak, even to each other. Sadly, many of our students had become so accustomed to the idea of school as a radio broadcast—one from which they could easily disengage if they so wished—that they no longer felt it necessary to contribute their voices. In Illinois, we’ve been told that all students will return to in-person learning in the fall of 2021, with few exceptions, but I fear the virus has done irrevocable damage to our students’ speech. -
2020-09-08
First Day of School Scents
September 8, 2020 was the first day of school at my regional high school and I was beginning my third year as a teacher. As always, the night before the first day of school was marked by butterflies, but this time around, the butterflies were not due to the excitement and hecticness of the first day, but due to fear. As someone who social distanced to an extent unmatched by most of my peers, coming to school on the first day terrified me, as I was concerned with putting myself around so many other people in such a small room, specifically high school students who certainly enjoyed more social interaction over the summer than I did. However, as a teacher, I had to come in with a smile on my face, as you can see in the picture, despite the immense fear I was feeling in the pit of my stomach. What I remember most clearly is the smell of the school. The hallways were filled with hand sanitizer dispensers which released a scent that could overpower all else. Individual classrooms were packed with cleaning supplies and Lysol wipes which I had to clean each desk with between periods. What is so shocking is that more than anything, it is these smells that I associate with the fear I felt that first day of school. Though that first day was one of the most fear-inducing days of my life, the year ended up being incredibly rewarding and my students and I together helped each other through one o f the mo st difficult years of our lives. Though originally nervous to teach in 2020, I am incredibly grateful to have been able to conquer this year with my students by my side. Hopefully someday I will not have such an adverse reaction to the smell of hand sanitizer. -
2020-09-08
A Different Type of First Day of School Butterflies
September 8, 2020 was the first day of school at my regional high school and I was beginning my third year as a teacher. As always, the night before the first day of school was marked by butterflies, but this time around, the butterflies were not due to the excitement and hecticness of the first day, but due to fear. As someone who social distanced to an extent unmatched by most of my peers, coming to school on the first day terrified me, as I was concerned with putting myself around so many other people in such a small room, specifically high school students who certainly enjoyed more social interaction over the summer than I did. However, as a teacher, I had to come in with a smile on my face, as you can see in the picture, despite the immense fear I was feeling in the pit of my stomach. Though that first day was one of the most fear-inducing days of my life, the year ended up being incredibly rewarding and my students and I together helped each other through one of the most difficult years of our lives. Though originally nervous to teach in 2020, I am incredibly grateful to have been able to conquer this year with my students by my side. -
2020-06-23
SRVUSD Budget and Reopening Protest Photographs
These are unpublished photographs I took while reporting for my school's newspaper, The Californian. These photographs show the people who attended the protest, including a mixture of students and parents. There are also a variety of signs showing various motivations for protesting. This entry is connected to the "San Ramon community protests SRVUSD spending and issues with remote learning" submission. -
2020-09
College Students During COVID
This is a story about how college student's mental health has been affected during COVID as a unique population. I wanted to include this to provide context about why my interviewee may have been reluctant to seek out resources due to the extra stress that he had been experiencing. This study goes into how the factors that college students, in particular, are experiencing. This article was done by a survey and shows how common these feelings are that may have deterred students from seeking help due to stress. -
2021
ASU COVID Resources
This is the Arizona State University-specific COVID-19 resources for students. I wanted to include this University's specific resources because one of the people I interviewed attends ASU as a student and I want to provide this source as a supplement for some of the difficulty that he mentioned having in finding resources while living as a person experiencing housing instability. The website houses all messages and updates the university has sent to students with regard to the Coronavirus. The site focuses on health and staying healthy for students but seems to lack a clear guide on how to access resources and aid that students may qualify for. -
11/28/2020
Clay Carpenter Oral History, 2020/11/28
This is an interview with Clay Carpenter. Clay Carpenter was born in Devils Lake, North Dakota and grew up multiple small North Dakota towns. He studied Elementary Education and Physical Education at the University of North Dakota, where he met Melody Carpenter, his wife. They moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico, where they work in the education system. They had a son, Dakota Carpenter, and moved to Arizona shortly after. In Arizona they continued to work as educators with Clay teaching in elementary school, middle school, and high school before becoming a high school administrator,. While working in Arizona they adopted two sons, Artem Carpenter and Andrey Carpenter. Clay’s long experience in the field of education as both a teacher and an administrator provides him with a wealth of knowledge, experiences, and a view of the changes made in the education system. In this interview, he reflects on the coronavirus and the affect it has had on the education system, students, and teachers. -
11/19/2020
David McKenney Oral History, 2020/11/19
David John McKenney lived in rural Michigan for most of his life. In this interview, David reflects upon the challenges that COVID-19 wrought on the rural school districts for which he works. He describes how he and his coworkers wrote code that helped transition students to remote learning and saved other districts countless hours of labor. David also touches upon his experience in Ukraine and the flu quarantine that occurred there seasonally. He contrasts this with the current American quarantine and highlights his concerns about freedoms of speech in reference to lockdowns. His concerns about freedoms of speech also extends to the future of Christianity and the church. He expresses his anger about the 2020 election season. In addition, David discusses his frustration with rioting in Portland, Oregon and Seattle, Washington. David remarks on the shift in real estate from urban areas to suburban areas and the rise in construction. Finally, David comments on his participation in pandemic trends (such as baking bread) and increased time spent with family. -
2020-11-23
St. Mary's Student Oral History, 2020/11/23
________ is a sophomore at S. Mary's University. He was able to sit down over zoom and do an interview with me to talk about his experience of online learning during the pandemic. He goes into depth about the changes in the class structures and the changes in his college experience. -
2020
Jewish Melbourne: Jewish Care blog post - Remote Learning
Blog post for Jewish Care by Cassandra Barrett – Program Manager, Healthy Communities, writing about how to support students during online learning -
2020-11-06
The Effects of Covid-19 on both a student and teacher
In this video, I interview a former high school teacher of mine and I ask her questions about experiences she's had while battling this pandemic. I believe she's also attending Brooklyn College Graduate (Law) school. -
2020-09-21
Visiting Derry, NH
This photo is from the three days that my friends and I spent in Derry, New Hampshire at the end of September. Because all of us were home for either the year or for the semester, we all realized that being at home was getting a bit restless, so, the four of us decided to pay a visit to my friend Michaela's house up in Derry and visit. There was a weird sense of deja vu for me since I was born there and there were places that I could still remember going to with my family. This photo was taken in the sunroom, a place where two of us often did homework, while the sun was rising on our second day. Right after this, we went back to sleep until our classes stop and Abbie, despite having the idea, did not make it out of bed for this. -
2020-10-30
Teaching Today
This is a photo of my friend, Lindsay. She is a high school teacher here in Colorado. We live in a small town that was fortunate enough to not feel the panic of the pandemic until well-after other places had. She misses her students, and there are real concerns for the mental health of not only the kids, but the teachers too. -
2020-06-23
Online Learning Leaves Students in Poverty Behind
This article puts in perspective the effects of distance learning on families at or below the poverty line. Many students in poverty with food insecurity, family instability, and even homelessness are also lacking a quality education due to the pandemic and virtual learning. Along with these already existing problems, these students also lack some of the necessary requirements to learn at all including internet access and availability of technology. This is leading them to fall farther behind than they already were. -
2020-09-28
Masks, Floor Decals, Mute Buttons: How Schools are Scrambling to Open
The main point of this news article is to show how teachers and administrators are struggling to adjust to the new lifestyle of having school during a pandemic, while being safe at the same time. I chose this news article because as a student, it’s important to be aware of what you may have to experience when going back to school. Also, the precautions and safety nets that teachers are taking should be addressed because they’re putting in lots of work for students. This news article shows that the school lifestyle is going to change drastically for teachers and students due to the new learning spaces, social distancing, and hygiene necessities. Furthermore, this news article is important because it’s not evident on how long this pandemic may affect our lives, so the public needs to be educated on the situation that we’re going to be put in and may continue to be put in. There’s no bias evident in the article, however there is a perspective point of view from New York teachers and how they are forced to handle these harsh times. The responsibility of the media during the COVID-19 pandemic is to spread awareness on how everyone can be kept safe and that we must take extra precautions so we can go back to our daily lives and see students go back to school freely again. -
09/19/2020
Cameron Mitchell Oral History, 2020/09/19
The submission is a testament to how much the pandemic has influenced this very important year of both our lives, that a class we take in our first semester revolves so heavily around COVID-19. This is an audio file of my interview with fellow Northeastern University student Cameron Mitchell, for our History 1215 class. -
2020-08-15
Notre Dame campus testing meme
Notre Dame proudly declared months ago, that opening up campus was the right thing to do and "worth the risk." When campus opened, one of my previous advisors posted this meme inferring that the university is not widely testing, so COVID-19 cases are low. This was, of course, before there was a widespread outbreak and the U decided to force all students to stay in their dorms and learn virtually. -
2020-03-24
Mrs Middleton's Facebook Live Video
When first in shut down I made this video for my classroom facebook page. -
2020-07-21
If Schools Reopen Now...
Schools, education, and the development of students has become one of the new points of contention out of many concerning coronavirus. While in-person education is vital to the development of students, many plans seem to be overlooking the feasibility of safety guidelines, in addition to not fully addressing the fears of teachers and administrators. This item was added TAGS v6.1.9.1. I originally searched under the hashtag #ifschoolsreopennow. Within that search, I have chosen to add the following tweet because it is highlighting the divide amongst teachers concerning a desire to return and work with students while also fearing for their safety. Link to the article: (https://www.teenvogue.com/story/teachers-reopening-schools-coronavirus-covid-19/amp?__twitter_impression=true) -
2020-07-01
What should the school year of 2020-2021 mean for Cal High’s students?
The Californian, a student run newspaper at California High School in San Ramon, recently ran the story "What should the school year of 2020-2021 mean for Cal High's students?" The story features three student articles, each advocating for a different scenario. The first discusses returning to school full time, the second champions a hybrid learning model, and the third article evaluates fully remote online learning. All of the articles address the challenges and realities of education during the COVID-19 pandemic for students. Interestingly, none of the articles discuss the impact of these models on teachers. -
2020-06-08
State superintendent Tony Thurmond releases guidance for reopening California schools
As an educator in California I am eager to know what the final word on reopening will be. These are scary times, especially for educators over 65 or those of us who have pre-existing conditions. -
2020-05-26
Universities aren't planning cuts to tuition to compensate for online classes during COVID-19 pandemic
Article regarding the call for a reduction in university tuition for the upcoming school year/term from the Canadian Federation of Students and student governments across the country and the refusal of many major universities to do so. The universities rationale is that the quality of education will not be effected by the move to predominantly online/distant classes and that they are fulfilling all their obligations. The article outlines the decisions of each of the major Canadian universities including Dalhousie, McGill, the University of Toronto, the University of Ottawa, Carleton, Queen's, the University of Winnipeg, the University of Alberta, and the University of British Columbia. -
2020-05-25
Queen's University Student Trustee and Rector Call for Tuition Decrease During Pandemic
In keeping with the Canadian Federation of Students and Student Governors from Universities across the country, the Undergraduate Trustee and Rector of Queen's University at Kingston call for a reduction of tuition for the upcoming school term to reflect the quality of education which will be received in predominantly online/distant learning classes and the decreased potential for student earnings through summer employment to pay for school when many seasonal industries, such as tourism, have been closed completely due to the pandemic.