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online learning
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2021-01-21
13,000 School Districts, 13,000 Approaches to Teaching During Covid
As a teacher, I miss our old normal. I miss my students. I miss the connections. The numbers where I live are pretty high and we have not been inside a classroom since March of last year. The kids are not doing well. No amount of scaffolding would be enough right now. My English Language learners are struggling and most have just stopped coming. Parents are frustrated (understandably), and it is evident in their desperate e-mails to me. I am failing them all but I keep pushing and adapting for them. I am so homesick for these kids. Seeing how other schools are dealing with Covid-19 definitely makes me sad. Apart of me wants to go back so badly that I would risk getting sick. The other part of me knows that I have children of my own and asthma. I need to be here for my own family. -
2021-01-20
A Digital Hermit and Surviving Covid
For billions of people around the world, the Covid-19 pandemic has been a major disruption in their lives. Jobs either put you at risk, go online, or cease to exist. People's schedules change dramatically as they confront new challenges like working from home. However, for a much smaller subset of people of whom I am a part, life during the pandemic has changed very little. I am what one could call a digital hermit. Even before the pandemic started, I was the kind of person who already had all my groceries delivered with Instacart, and spent a vast majority of my time cloistered in my apartment on my computer. While I was at NDSU, I would leave my apartment most days to attend class, but even that was not universally true. During the summers I took on extra courses in order to complete my undergraduate degree faster, and it just so happens at NDSU that most summer classes were online. That meant for me that during the summer I spent not just most of my time, but all of my time in my apartment, going weeks or potentially months without seeing anyone else in person. When Covid hit and everything transferred online, I was particularly prepared to survive that situation. While most people began to whither away from lack of contact, or perhaps too much close quarters contact, I was in my zone. I survived socially by communicating with friends daily over Discord, a popular program not unlike Slack for hosting private chat rooms including both voice communication and text channels. Discord is primarily focused on video games, and that is indeed how me and my friends spent our time. Transitioning to online classes was only difficult to begin with due to most professors I had being unfamiliar with online teaching tools, while I was well-versed in maintaining a schedule, checking assignments, and doing what needed to be done to more independently manage my school time. My experience surviving prolonged isolation even before the pandemic via the wonders of digital technology and the internet reflect the means by which many people had to adjust their lives and the ways this era of history will be remembered. Digital archives such as this have enabled the collection of stories and other data to study in the future from disparate locations and backgrounds, this one written by me in the comfort of my own bedroom. Collaboration between professionals using Slack and other platforms is a more serious reflection of me and my friend's private Discord server, over which I rule as a tyrant by imposing at this point 58 arbitrary and often contradictory rules. While I have survived isolation as a digital hermit, it is important to remember that I do so because of all the people who cannot do the same. I am incredibly fortunate to be attending college and surviving just fine without working a job, which the same can not be said for many other people. Even something as basic as getting groceries for me is reliant on underpaid, underappreciated, and certainly exploited Instacart employees, who put themselves at risk so that I can get the Oreo cookies I crave and they can keep a roof over their heads. Me and my friends can keep ourselves entertained by jumping in the Discord server and cracking some skulls together from all over the country in the video game Vermintide 2, but we also acknowledge that many people do not have it so easy. For me, the end of lockdown is more daunting than the beginning. I have enjoyed my time as a more socially acceptable recluse, and yet there will come a time in which I will need to go back out into the world to attend classes and other important events in person. Whether that time comes sooner rather than later, I will continue to be a digital hermit, though perhaps one who gets some fresh air more often. -
2021-01-20
Rules and Procedures
We have had and still have many rules and procedures during the corona virus pandemic. I have very much disliked some and appreciated others. One procedure that I have appreciated being online was having a very easy structure and schedule and one that I have not liked was having too much freedom during classes. Sometimes in class I would be lazy and not paying attention while in person you can't be relaxed on your comfortable chair with a blanket. One rule that I have appreciated was full time class, some schools do not have a full school day with merely one or two hours of classes. One rule that I have disliked is being in class the full 80 minutes and I lose attention span within that time frame. These are the rules and procedures I have experienced during the corona virus pandemic. -
2021-01-20
COVID and Kindergarten
For years, I had been counting down the days, week, and months to late-August, 2020. This was supposed to be when my daughter, who turned five in April, 2020, would finally start Kindergarten. But most importantly from my perspective, this was the glorious moment when my kid was old enough to go school for free! What kept me sane through all those years of paying the exorbitant cost of babysitters, nannies, day cares, and preschools was the promise that one day my wife and I wouldn't have pay what could easily amount to a house payment for the privilege of having jobs, working on a graduate degree, and having children all at the same time. As you can probably guess, COVID-19 made achieving my dream significantly more difficult. In July, my family and I moved from California to Arizona so I could start a PhD program here. A positive side-effect of this move, I assumed, would be that the local public school would offer in-person instruction to those who wanted it. After all, Arizona is a more conservative state than California. When our local school bailed on their plans for in-person instruction beginning in August, I decided that we would move heaven and earth to find a school that was willing to stand firm against public pressure and fear-mongering to do what, in my view, is in the best interest of students -- offer in-person instruction for those that want it. After countless emails and phone calls, I finally found a good school -- Leading Edge Academy in Gilbert -- where my daughter could attend in-person and we wouldn't be charged tuition. My daughter has been attending in-person at Leading Edge ever since. She's learned a lot, has socialized with other children, and hasn't contracted COVID-19. While COVID-19 is certainly a serious and scary disease, my view is that those who are opposed to an in-person learning option during the pandemic should be honest about what they are actually advocating: sacrificing the education and well-being of children (not to mention the well-being and finances of parents) to make things a bit safer for a very small percentage of the population for whom the virus poses a significant health risk -- most of whom are elderly and have the option of remaining safe at home. Also, many of these people have already received a COVID-19 vaccine or will be receiving one soon. I know this view is shared by countless other parents who have gone to great lengths to enroll their children in in-person learning. I feel terrible for many parents who have wanted an in-person learning option for their children, but have had to tolerate Zoom learning because they are not in the same privileged position my family is in. -
2021-01-11
Pandemic Prompts
Over the winter break, ASU launched an Innovation Quarter. For that quarter I created a series of pandemic prompts for students to respond to. Erin Craft also created half the prompts. The idea was to create specific, personal contributions for the archive. I used some of the prompts in the first week of the internship in HST 580 Archives and HST 494 the Undergraduate Research Experience -
2021-01-20
Covid-19 Procedures
During the Coronavirus pandemic the government has assigned us many rules to follow, and suggestions so we are able to stay healthy. Around march when the pandemic took control of the U.S. We were ordered to stay home and we were advised to no come in contact with friends or other people. For most of march and April everyone stayed at home, and rarely went out because everything was closed including grocery stores. Whenever my mom and dad would go they would wear a face mask and gloves to make sure the didn't catch the virus. Also lines in stores were socially distanced so we'd have to stay six feet apart from all people. At first masks were hard to find, and some people even said that masks don't do anything. Soon enough, everyone was able to get a mask, and the government required you to wear a mask anytime you went somewhere in public. Throughout the summer all these rules remained in place, and since I was starting 8th grade; we had to continue with online school. We did online school until Christmas, and luckily throughout these months more stores had opened up, and even thought superiors still advised we didn't see any friends, I still got to hang out with my best friend quite a bit. It is currently January of 2021, and the covid-19 cases are higher now than the ever were. At this point wearing a mask has almost become second nature, and we recently went back to school earlier this month. We are required to wear a masks, and the desks are socially distances in the classrooms. The procedures can be a bit annoying at times, but we all know that they are to protect us and the rest of the community. -
2020-09-14
Remote Learning
I had stared virtual learning with a good mindset... I would get to be home all day, have no homework, and do whatever I wanted to. I very quickly realized that was not the case, I was occupied with siblings and pets all day, had at least double the work, and spent most of my day on a device. Honestly online school has been horrible. I resorted to social media as my only distraction, I would scroll through TikTok for hours; I related to a lot of creators which brought me some hope that I wasn't the only one with the feeling of drifting away from society, but the second I put my phone down it all came fooding back. Eventually this new lifestyle was normalized and I was numb. If I had to name this chapter of my childhood, it would be loop. Every single day was the exact same pointless routine, I was wasting my life almost. I have learned a lot learning remotely, and am in a way grateful, but also disappointed, yet still very confused about my final take on things. I changed a lot, but I think for the better. Lost and made friendships. Cried and laughed both a great amount of times. Felt nothing. Felt everything. -
2021-01-17
Entering 2021
2020 was rough. I don’t want 2021 to be a repeat. This is my hope for 2021. This is what I hope to accomplish this year to keep myself motivated. -
2021-01-16
Enjoying home life
This is a brief entry describing some of my favorite personal things to come about from the pandemic. There were many difficulties faced, but still, experiences to enjoy and appreciate. -
2021-01-15
Learning virtually
I woke up on a warm California spring day at 7:30 a.m. to my mother bantering on about something. I got up and walked to my dresser half asleep, ready to collapse. I put on a blue nylon t-shirt with some black shorts and walked into the bathroom to brush my teeth. Then I slowly walked downstairs pretty anxious and excited to start online. My Dad was already downstairs cooking my up some scrambled eggs and toast to start the new day. As usually my sister was complaining about something, I just tuned her out. My dog the lazy thing he is climbed onto the couch and my mom somehow found something to yell at me about. It might of been about getting on early, but I am not quit sure. any way after breakfast I walked into the living room to get on zoom. It was pretty boring trying to sit through math we were talking about pre-algebra, but I managed to get through it. My dad was super load laughing over the phone, I could hear him perfectly through 2 doors and in another room. My mom was on meetings all day and my sister was in the same boat as me. All the while my dog was sleeeping on the couch next to me without a care in the world. My next 2 periods flew by I don't know why because I had English as one of those. And my last period was rocketry which was fun in the fact that I got to build things, but it would of been a lot more fun in person. Overall the day went by pretty fast ending at approximately 2:45 p.m. After school was finished I slipped by with no homework for the day but I would much rather be in person. The rest of the day was fairly normal I turned on the Television to watch my favorite shows until my sister came down and started bossing me around that I need to get off the T.V and do something productive, shesh she is like a mini mom. Anyway I decided to go for a walk with the dog, and just my luck before I could slip out the door she saw me and made me wait 10 whole minutes to slip on a pair of shoes. When she finally got downstairs she snagged the leash from me and we were on our way. My sister is incapable of controlling a small 40 pound dog so you can only imagine how this walk went. I tried to take control of the leash, but she snatched it back and threw a fit, classic. My dog has a habit of peeing on 14 things in a trip so it delayed it even more. When we finally turned the corner to go up our hill it felt like we've been walking forever. We walked in the door took off the dog's collar and sat on the couch. mom walked in the room and asked us how it went, we said it was pretty good. And after that it was pretty much the end of the day we ate dinner sat in front of thee T.V. and then went to bed. -
2021-01-12
The beginning
When i first heard of covid, i didn't think much of it. I heard it was something in china and i didn't expect it to spread anywhere. Then i heard that it came to America and our school started discussing going online if it got bad. My school finally decided to go online and we started school from home and i have been doing it for almost a year now. -
2020-03-13
The Beginning
My mom said that we were going to keep me home from school for a couple of days and I remember thinking...what is happening? I stayed home from Wednesday-Friday and on that Friday, my mom drove me to school in our Black honda to go pick up my books and clean out my locker because we were going to have an "extended spring break" which really turned into 8 months+ of online school. I thought that this was all super crazy! I was in shock that we had to stay home and learn from a computer. My opinions have changed a bit from back then. I started off thinking that this all would fly by and we would be back in school in a couple of weeks and maybe a month, but now I am not even sure if the world will ever be the same. Will we always have to wear masks? Maybe, but no one knows because the virus keeps getting bigger and bigger. I just couldn't believe that all of this was happening, at first, I thought it would be fun, but as time went by it just got kinda boring. -
2021-01-11
The orgin of Covid 19
I first heard about the coronavirus around February. I heard of it mainly from my mom and friends. In the beginning, I was told it started from someone eating a bat in Wuhan China. Then it spread super fast. I was never too afraid of Covid and I never imagined that my school would get shut down from it. We were still going to school until around March 16th when my school got shut down. We did online school for the rest of the year and we also went into quarantine in March. My family still wasn't too afraid of the virus but for the most part, we quarantined and kept our distance from friends. we are still not too afraid of the virus and my family and my opinions have changed too much. -
2020-01-11
Origin of COVID-19
I came back from Christmas break and I heard rumors of a virus in China. At first I did not believe it, but after I asked my dad, and he said that it was an actual thing. I was not afraid of it and I still am not, but there are many people who are terrified of it. After about a month, people started saying it was in California. This was confirmed when we went to online school. I did not enjoy it. It was the first year that I needed to work on my computer to do assignments, and having to do everything on my computer was a challenge, but I was able to figure it out and learned a lot more about computer usage. -
2021-01-07
Covid-19
My first memory of Covid-19 was in late December of 2019. I was sitting on my couch watching TV when I heard my dad in the other room talking to my mom about how the new "coronavirus" desiese was getting worse in China. I was shocked at first about what he was talking about, so I went into the next room to ask him what was going on. He explained to me how there was an epidemic going on in China, and how some people have died. It all seemed very new and since it was all the way in China I wasn't very concerned with it other than thinking that it must be scary for residents of China. Fast forward a few weeks when we get back to school, lots of kids in the hallways were making jokes about the disease that was spreading, and were saying things like, "Don't forget to use hand sanitizer cuz of corona." Up until mid march the jokes kept on running, and the epidemic in China became more and more of a big deal. Until the night before march 14, 2020 everything was still a joke, and the rumor of us doing online school from home was still a running joke. But on the night of march 13 we all got an email telling us that we'd be doing virtual school from home for the next two weeks. The following Monday we started online school, and we all thought it would just be for two weeks. I was up in my room all day, and we only got short breaks in between classes. The first week everyone seemed to enjoy it was we had to use zoom calls for our class periods. The second week of school everyone including myself started not liking the idea of virtual school as much. Even though we got to sleep in later, people were sick of sitting at a desk almost all day long. Soon enough they extended our time we would be doing school from home because of a pandemic for longer. The coronavirus had spread to the U.S. and most people rarely left the house except to go to the grocery store because everything was closed. Whenever my mom or dad would go to the store they would wear a mask and gloves to make sure they didn't catch any germs. Lots of other people did the same. By this time almost the entire country was in lockdown. It had grown into a full-blown pandemic; other countries like Italy we also bombarded with the panic of Covid-19. Everything was a complete disaster just by mid-april. I had no idea when we would be going back to school, or when things would return to normal. I still don't as a matter of fact. by this time I thought we'd go back in may, but we didn't. In the first couple weeks of may, just a few days before my 13th birthday, everyone at this point hated online school, it was dreaded by children across the country. This gradually got worse and worse, teenagers' mental heath was tanking by a landslide. Quarantine was now taking over my life completely. Most days I would sit in my room the entire day even on weekends since we couldn't go anywhere. Throughout June was probably the worst moth for my metal heath, and I think many others would agree. Saying we were bored would be an understatement; I wasn't depressed much like a quite a few of my other friends ,as far as I'm concerned, but it felt like all of our happiness and livelihood had been taken from us since what we started lockdown. Soon after, in July things started to open up again, the cases for covid-19 were getting lower(which was good), and people basically assumed quarantine was over. The nest month since things were opening up previously we all thought we would go back to school, but a few days before school was supposed to start we were informed that we wouldn't be going back, and we had to continue with online school. I was extremely disappointed, and I thought hopefully we'd go back by at least October. The following months through Christmas break we stayed in online school, and almost nothing happened. I spent my days the exact same as the day before I would sit in my room do school and then look on my phone or listen to music(mostly One Direction, The Beatles, and 80's music). My life became dark, boring, and quiet. By this time everyone was so fed up with quarantine, since we had been in lockdown for the past 9 months. Even Christmas felt different this year; usually I'm super excited and this year I almost didn't even care about the holiday's and I can't explain why. I'm currently writing this on January 7, 2021 at 9:05 pm. We've luckily gone back to school yesterday for the first time in ten months. There are plenty of safety precautions to make sure none of us get sick like: wearing a mask, social distancing( staying 6 feet away from people), and there are even certain ways to we have to walk around hallways and the campus to keep us in order. I can already feel a change in myself since we went back yesterday. It already feels like things are getting better now that we don't have to do virtual school with zoom calls for classes. I'm also really glad I get to see my friends, and hopefully make some new ones. If there's anything I've learned from being a part of the current pandemic it's that you can't give up or give in to other things going on with the world or even within your own life. No matter how tuff things you have to remember who you are and what you want to be. If anyone in the distant future is reading this I want them to know that, and how lucky they are to be apart of something as wonderful as life can be. I found myself more often than never longing for the past hoping for answers, only to find out the past is inside all of us, and even when the hardships of reality kick in you have to remember how amazing it is to get to experience something as rare and beautiful as life is. So don't take things for granted and appreciate every moment because you'll never know when something as mind-boggling as a world-wide pandemic will happen to you. Long story short never give up on your hopes and fantasies; it might just be the thing you'll need the most. -
2020-12-21
An 8th grader's Christmas in Covid
My Christmas this year did not feel right. Every year, I look forward to Christmas break from school and every year there is some sort of party or celebration for it. This year I had online school so the entire time I was just sitting at home, by my desk. The week of Christmas, it didn't feel like Christmas. We normally don't go anywhere for Christmas but it still felt different. We still held the same traditions as every year but the initial excitement was gone. School really does impact Christmas. -
2020-10-05
Senior Year in NYC: The Monumental Moments - Time Flies By
My friends toasting to senior year. Our time flew from beginning in the small, compact freshman dorms to needing to find a reason every day to get on campus because classes are fully-online for our senior year. How did we make it this far? **Fordham University, SOCI2200 -
2020-12-10
Connecting Past COVID-19: #8
On this professor’s birthday, students hold up hand-made signs thanking him and wishing him a happy birthday during their Zoom class. He expresses that “this is the most wonderful present.” -
2020-12-10
Connecting Past COVID-19: #7
This professor is in complete shock when her students hold up signs thanking her during their Zoom class. -
2020-12-10
Connecting Past COVID-19: #6
The students of this class cry alongside their professor when he explains his gratitude for this act of kindness. He states that “this is something that [he] will definitely recall forever.” -
2020-12-10
Connecting Past COVID-19: #5
In this class, the professor had stayed up with his students late each night preparing for their final exam. After they show him the signs they made to thank him, he is completely speechless. -
2022-12-17
Online times
I think that remote learning is going okay so far but i’d rather be in school where I can get help easier and I can have face to face conversations with my friends. I feel like we go kinda fast in remote learning I wish we could slow it down. I also we started earlier and ended earlier at like 12. Although quarantine was nice and I got to hang with my friends, I would like to see the people I never got the chance to hang out with. -
2020-09-29
The Struggles of Living During a Pandemic
This journal entry was written as a part of the American Studies class at California High School in San Ramon, California. During the COVID-19 pandemic, I have faced a series of challenges. The biggest challenge I have faced is my emotions and accepting myself. Being stuck at home has raised my anxiety levels, and question my self-worth. I feel like when I was outside, around my friends, I was much more confident and free- but being isolated really damages you mentally and emotionally. A challenge that my family has faced is that they usually love going outside doing exercise, and they always take us out for runs. However, now that my sisters and I are extremely occupied with school, we can only manage to go together around once or twice a week. A major challenge for society is adapting to remote learning. It has been a very difficult process for myself and other students as well. Staring at a big computer screen for 7 hours is extremely draining, and I find myself falling asleep during the middle of the day, and I even fell asleep during my AP Biology lecture, and I am not the one to fall asleep during school. I also crashed to sleep yesterday immediately after school ended because I was so worn out and exhausted from school. It’s a lot, and I really hope a vaccine for the virus comes our way soon, because I don’t know how I’m going to be able to handle online school for the rest of the school year. -
2020-09-25
A Quick Journal from a Junior in Highschool
This journal entry was written as a part of the American Studies class at California High School in San Ramon, California. During quarantine, I’ve noticed that I have a lot more fun in groups than I do by myself. I like being around people if they don’t tire me out- people who are super high energy all the time make me so tired. It’s just hard to keep up, honestly, and it’s definitely not a them thing, so I’ve kind of accepted I just have a really low social battery. School is going to be so draining this year once we go back since a lot of the people I don’t like are in my classes, but I’m not too worried about it since it’s only a few people and I can just ignore them. Quarantine hasn’t really led me on much of a self-journey type of thing, though. I just feel like who I did at the beginning but more anxious; I do know, however, that I am very indecisive. I want to build a PC for gaming and those are usually super expensive, so I’ve pretty much been putting it off for the past few weeks and just building it online instead of in person. The parts come out to around a thousand dollars and I physically do not have that amount of money with me at the moment, which means waiting for deals, which means waiting until Cyber Monday two months from now, and I am very impatient. I’m hoping that my birthday will pull in enough cash to afford the grand fee, because not only do I have to build the computer but I also have to buy a microphone, earbuds, monitors, etc. It’d be pretty cool and I’d be able to cut my time down by an entire month, but because of quarantine I probably won’t have a big birthday even though I’m turning 16- which is for the better because it’s safer. It’s just kind of funny because my Mom wants a cool, socially distanced sweet 16, and that works in my favor thankfully! -
2020-09-14
How Covid-19 Shaped my lifestyle
Covid-19 shaped my summer by making me feel more grateful. It made realize that a lot of people around the world are losing their life even when they were taking precaution for the virus. I am grateful that I live a healthy lifestyle and so does my family. The first part of quarantine we were not even supposed to leave our house, which at first sucked. But as time went on, I started to begin to feel really appreciative of the things that I didn’t notice could have such a huge impact. For example, before quarantine, my dad would take me to school, and bring me home from school. My mom was a teacher so she was at school the same time I was at school, so she was never available to pick me up. My dad went from working in an office 24/7, to working at home 24/7, so he was there for me at any time of the day when I possibly needed him. Even though he worked at home, he was constantly busy with phone calls and virtual conferences, just like he would be doing if he was in an office. So when quarantine started I had told him, “at least you don’t have to drive me to school anymore.” He had told me that even when I was school, how stressful it was to try and make it to school at 2:55pm, I am super excited for this weekend because I go get to hang out with my sister and her new roommates that she moving in with in October. My whole family has known them since before I was born, and my other sister and her fiance are coming so no parents, yay! I also get to hang out with my friends tomorrow which I have been doing, but it’s hard to hang out as a group because everyone has different schedules. We have construction going on in our house so it is super loud and kind of hard to do school while a nail gun and drills are going on upstairs. My dog gets super anxious while loud noises are near so we have to keep her on a leash and she won’t sit still and will bark which really makes me fussy . -
2020-12-18
What I learned about not going to school
I learned about myself that every day I get up the laziness stops my body move an inch away from my bed even through the weekend. Since I got class still for learning like a normal school day but in our own home. This let me remember the good old times when we learn in school struggling. -
2020-09-14
Virtual School During COVID
This journal entry was written as a part of the American Studies class at California High School in San Ramon, California. I think virtual school has some pros and cons. I definitely prefer it over in-class learning right now just because I still don’t think we are where we want to be in terms of the number of coronavirus cases. I definitely think that learning online is a lot harder. I like the “atmosphere” better because I’m more comfortable learning in my own house. But it’s hard to remember things that I’ve learned through a screen. Some of my teachers act like we should know everything like we are still in school. I appreciate them wanting to treat it as much like a classroom as possible, but it’s honestly hard to learn normally through a screen. It’s also harder to ask questions when the whole class is watching you. I don’t think that teachers should put a lot of pressure on us to know as much as we should as if we were in school. It’s pretty stressful. Also, all of our homework is on the computer and I don’t know about anyone else but doing homework online takes forever. I basically only do homework when I’m not in class; before school, afters school, I’m always doing homework. I don’t really have time to do anything else. I wish the teachers would give a little less homework because it just takes so long to upload everything and input answers from my papers. I get about 4-5 or even 6 hours of homework every night which is kind of overwhelming. Even though I know junior year is supposed to be hard, I didn’t think that it would mean more hours of me doing homework than me sleeping. I think the online aspect of it makes it take longer, and I’d really like for teachers to maybe loosen up on the homework load. -
2020-12-17
Relaxation to being Brain dead
During COVID I have learned how much I actually missed school. When COVID first hit I was happy, no school, and time to relax, but then sports and hanging with friends stopped. Going to school is really where I saw my friends and it was time to socialize and learn. I went brain dead during quarantine that when school started i was completely lost and out of it. I say i miss school because online learning is tough and not enjoyable. I learned that school was actually kinda fun. When cases started too slowly decrease many places opened back up and hanging with friends were aloud with caution, this was the time when life started to feel normal again, until it wasn't. December we start to see a rise to cases and we are no longer aloud to see people and the stay at home order has been in place. -
2020-12-17
Online School During COVID-19
Thursday 9/17- Overall I have mixed feelings about online learning. It’s nice to say at home, instead of going to school at 7 or 8 am. However I feel like online school is messing with my productivity. It's not fun staring at a screen for 6 hours straight sitting in the same position. Also, it feel like I;m not learning anything, school used to be about learning but now its just trying to pass the classes and turn work in on time. Additionally, some teachers (not you, or all teachers) are giving us a lot of work. Since this whole online learning is new, it's still hard to adjust to it. When we don't finish classwork during class, we have to finish it for homework, which also adds on to our work load. It's difficult to soak in the information during online lectures or lessons because it's sometimes hard to focus at home. I tend to view my home as a place to relax and outside of my house is where i get work done, but constantly being stuck in one room doing 6 hours of classes and at least 4 hours to do homework is not good for my mental or physical health. On the other hand, i'm not really the type of person who likes to be in social setting, so online learning is somewhat nice. My procrastination has gotten much worse because I get too overwhelmed to start homework i just push it off and i have no motivation left to do any homework or assignments anymore. There also is a lot of stress when it comes to technical difficulties. Sometimes the wifi goes down, or the computer jams which causes u to be late or marked tardy. It's also really confusing for homework due dates and grades. -
2020-11-14
Online Learning Notice in Alife, Italy
Translation to the above newsletter - Activities in the presence of the childcare services and the first grades of primary school will resume from 24 November, after screening on a voluntary basis on teaching and non-teaching staff and on pupils. For different school levels and orders, the Regional Crisis Unit unanimously felt it was necessary to confirm distance learning. This newsletter explains the precautions that a small town in Italy is taking in order to prevent the spread of COVID-19. I think it is important to learn about what other countries are doing in order to keep the community safe. This is important to me because my family is from a small town in Italy called Alife. My family in Alife has younger children that have been directly affected by this new decision to move the school from in-person to online learning. This object demonstrates something significant about my generation under COVID because many children are being taught online rather than in person in order to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. As the article entitled “What do archivists keep or not” describes “documents of all types help us to remember, to share, to compare, to analyse and to synthesize information” *Thompson, 3). Documents are pivotal because they can create a snapshot of what life was like during a monumental event in history. Many of these children have never experienced online learning and therefore, it can be challenging for children to remain engaged and motivated to learn. -
2020-12-13
Online Learning during Covid
In March of 2020, My school Oaks christian was shut down and moved to online because of Covid-19. At first I was extremely excited for this and thought it would be just an easy two weeks of doing online work. It was very nice and a good break to have for the time being and I did really enjoy it, I was so relaxed by it and took off a lot of stress. After 2 months that changed fast. It went from all fun and easy then to more work than I have ever done, I was extremely overwhelmed and had to do so many things and I hated it. Lucky summer break came along and I was finally stress free, That was until the school year of 2020 came up and now I am more stressed than ever. I am a eighth grader that's getting assigned high school level work at a much higher than average work load, I do hope this gets better but this is truly hard to get through. -
2020-12-14T12:39
covid 19 experience
During this pandemic, I started doing online school, which is horrible. I had to sit on zoom ALL DAY LONG which is just as awful as it sounds. The only good thing was that I didn't have to wear a uniform hehehe. I actually had a good summer even though everything in my state was closed. I went to Wyoming, Utah, Newport, and Lake Powell. In the middle of 8th grade this past month I found out I was moving from California to Utah, which I was happy about because I like Utah a lot better than California, even though I'm sad to leave all my friends and family behind. My parents were lucky enough to keep their jobs when a lot of other people aren't. -
2020-05-05
A Tough College Year
Life was hard for me for the last two years. As 2020 comes close to an end, I am almost wrapped up with my first year in college, though barely. Last year, due to some family issue, my grade was failing in high school, so I could not enter the college I was applied to, while in this year, the transition to college was still extremely tough due to the COVID pandemic. I had little to no social interactions with others, lives in complete isolation, while had to deal with college workloads. It was tough as I felt that my life was not in my control, and became increasingly frustrated. I had an extremely respiratory system as well, coughing and wheezing constantly, so I had to be careful at managing myself to not contain COVID. I felt like I was a burden on my family, who supports me financially right now, as well as a burden on the society. However, as I took a long walk across the city street during the night, I realized that this was out of my control. It was not my fault that the pandemic happened, and I am doing my part to prevent further spread of the disease. I am no burden of the society - no more than people who are not properly quarantining themselves, at least. -
2020-11-10
Virtual Learning for the Parents of New Middle Schoolers
As a mother of twin 12-year-olds who started middle school during the pandemic, virtually, there are many challenges we have faced. I am working from home during the pandemic and must help them both with school work. They are both in the gifted program, which makes the curriculum that much more difficult, especially since as 6th graders this is their first year in middle school. I find that on top of working from home, I have to learn the materials my children are learning before I can help them. As a parent, I have been forced into the teaching role, and there is not much anyone can do about it. The teachers are doing all that they can but virtual learning is difficult fpr all parties involved. As a history major, I am struggling to help my daughters in pre-algebra, an eight grade math class, and worry that the virtual setup may damage their academic progress. Also, there has been a major social development delay, as this is a transitional time. -
2020-12-11
Family Gatherings in the Plague Year
Gathering as a family has been extremely hard over the last year as the country has dealt with Covid. Not being able to hang out as a family and go over my grandma's house as often has taken some of the joy away from this year. Zoom has been really helpful for my family to stay connected. Especially with me being in college this year and away from home. Family has been super important getting through this pandemic. If I ever feel like I am losing out on different opportunities, I always know that no matter what I have my family. These times can be stressful especially with school bearing down on me and having to keep up with assignments. I always have my family to help relieve my stress. -
2020-12-11
My introduction to Covid
My day began like any other, I got up at 6:30 on a beautiful morning. I got up and grabbed my glasses off my desk. Then I went to the bathroom and dropped off my retainer. After that I went downstairs and ate some scrambled eggs and prepared my backpack and made my water. We left the house, my mom and I, at 7:40 like usual and arrived at Oaks Christian Middle School at 7:50. I said goodbye to my mom and walked to the cafeteria. There were my friends waiting for me playing games on their phones. When it was time to go to class at 8:00 I ran to my locker number 7068, on the upper floor, I opened it up. Inside were my binders and books lined up just how I had left them on Friday. I grabbed my math binder and my pencil pouch and I was off to class. It was a normal class we were going over the lesson like usual. When I got out of class I quickly grabbed my things from my locker and ran straight for the Bible room, I made it. We talked about how Jesus loves us and wrote down words in our journals and were assigned a little homework just like math. Then I went to break. I went to the usual spot with my friends the Gaga pit which is my favorite thing to play at recess. I won a couple games as did my other friends. When the recess bell called us in I was off to English. As fast as I could I grabbed a mountain of books from my locker and dashed for the room. The lesson was the same we started out with a little grammar and then moved into a little vocabulary and then had a writing section. By that time I could tell that something was going on, but I thought nothing of it a moved on. I went to my next class, rocketry which I really enjoyed we were making some cool model rockets and testing them out. That helped me stop thinking about the awkward looks on people's faces. It was after that class that I noticed that hand sanitizer machines had been put up, and lots of people were using them. I moved on to history. We were talking about awesome and successful civilizations. After that I went to lunch and got a burger like usual. I went and played Gaga with my friends again and when the bell rang. I ran upstairs and got my stuff. Then I went to science where it all changed. In the beginning of class I overheard someone talking about something spreading and everyone seemed distracted throughout the period. At the end of class it got t me and I asked what was up. He said there is a disease going around and China and it is spreading to Italy, and the rest of the world. I smiled and thought no way I finished my last class which was Spanish and finished a little work in academic help but what that kid said was still in the back of my mind. The bell rang and I went down to the lunch room to see my friends and hangout. I went home wondering what had happened and went to bed. A few weeks later I went to math class and our teacher looked sad she told us that the school was moving to online and that we would have to do it from home. I was pumped I get to wake up later and watch T.V the second that I get out of school. That same day my Dad and I went out to find some supplies. Their was none. The shelves had been wiped clean of all wipes, paper towels, toilet paper, pasta, canned food, masks, eggs, rice, and milk, even all the meat was gone. People went insane. At the time my family still wasn't wearing masks even though everyone in the store had them on. We went to home depot to get some supplies to finish a project on the house and all of the gloves and masks and hand sanitizer was gone. So we went home. We weren't affected too much because right before we heard about this we had filled up on toilet paper and paper towels which was a stroke of luck. And as the days go on I haven't been bothered by this and am still happy to be out of school but hopeful that we can go back soon. -
2020-12-11
Before Covid-19
Before Covid-19 in the year 2020 in February I was going to school normally and not thinking much of the virus I heard of that was in China. I thought it was just a small virus and we continued with our daily life. A few days later as I was waking up and eating my cheerios for breakfast and I told my parents that the faculty of Oaks Christian Middle School was talking about closing the school for a week or two and they were telling me that we would find a cure for the virus and the school wouldn't close. I believed that nothing would change but as the time was coming nearer I realized that we would be quarantined for a few weeks. A few days later as we started preparing to have online school I was hopeful it would only be a few weeks and here I am 8 months later telling the story. -
2020-12-11
My life before Covid
Before Covid i was at school, playing sports, seeing friends, watching movies, going out to eat and other normal things. I then heard the news of a virus in China but didn't think much of it. Then i heard the news of it spreading across the world and they brought up the idea of online school but i thought that would be too good to be true. My school then anounced that it would happen and we had a long weekend as the teachers prepared for online school. we finally started and I thought it was the most amazing thing to do school from home. I luckily got a haircut before everything closed. Now I would like to get back to school because doing it online is very boring and i want to talk to friends again. -
2020-12-10
Now vs. Before COVID
My life before COVID was just going to school, sports (tennis and dance), then going home to eat dinner and going to bed so I can repeat the process the next day. Now during COVID I wake up and go straight to my computer to start school, after I finish school I practice online dance lessons and sometimes play tennis and then I eat dinner and go to bed. I think I knew things were going to change when my sisters school shut down and my friends and I started talking about this new disease that is spreading. -
2020-12-11
School during a Pandemic
Everything was going great, I was doing good in school and I loved being able to go to the beach and spend time with my family. When all of a sudden I got a news alert on my phone about an outbreak about something called COVID- 19. I ran to my parent's room and asked them what it was. They told me it was a disease with flu-like symptoms that has already affected thousands of people. Places had started to shut down and the next thing I knew there was a stay-at-home order. During this time I was making a move from Puerto Rico back to California and was scared about having to fly. We wore masks the whole flight and weren't allowed to take them off unless we were eating or drinking. Once we landed in California we walked through many doors that had built-in thermometers that we're taking our temperatures. Fast forward a few months I had been accepted into Oaks Christian and was ecstatic. I couldn't wait to make new friends and try out for the dance team. A week later we had gotten an email saying that school was shut down until further notice and that we would take our classes via zoom. As expected I was bummed out because I was starting my eighth-grade year in a new school online. I couldn't make any connections and had/ still have to stare at my computer for 80 minute periods 4 times a day. Overall, COVID-19 had made my eight grade year very different than I had hoped it would be. -
2020-12-10
The most memorable curation
The most memorable story that I have curated was an email by the president of Washington and Lee University. In the email, President William Dudley announced that the on-campus classes will be suspended for the rest of the semester and instructions will be shifted to an online model. Students affairs, competitions, performances, and graduation ceremonies had to be canceled to ensure students’ safety. Before the pandemic, he would watch students and faculties walking to classrooms as he walked to work every morning, he would pass by and see sports teams practicing in the field in the afternoon, and now everything was gone. For graduating seniors, he expressed his sorry for what they will miss. Although professors were trying their best to learn new technologies and most of the students' events will be online, nothing will be the same. What aches me the most is a sentence from President Dudley’s email, “In June, a campus without students is peaceful. In March, it is eerie and sad.” I could not help but imagine what it is like at University of San Francisco. Is it like a ghost town? Every time I think about it, I regret that I did not look at it for the last time. I remember the last time when I was on campus, it was the day before spring break, and I walked out of theology class with my friend. We were discussing what we should do during the spring break. We had to cancel our plans to travel to Hawaii because of the pandemic. Although the U.S has not taken any precautions at that time, we learned from the news that there were several confirmed cases in travelers who have recently been to Hawaii. After debating and hesitating for days, eventually, we decided to cancel the trip although the flight tickets were non-refundable because we did not want to take the risk of exposing ourselves to the virus. Every Chinese student I knew made the same decision. What happened to our home country made us realize how harmful this virus could be. On the way walking out of the campus, I was texting and discussing should we stock some disinfectant and stay at home for the whole spring break with my friend, I could never imagine that it was the last time I walked on campus and saw USF. It hurts my heart when I try to remember what it was like to walk on campus, how the St. Ignatius Church would shine under the sunset; I hate myself for not looking at everything for the one last time because I was busy texting. Shortly, USF announced online classes for the rest of the semester and I returned to China within weeks. When the fall 2020 semester was announced to be online, I first made the decision to take a gap semester because I want to spend my last semester with friends, and most importantly, to celebrate the graduation ceremony with my friends and family on campus. However, with the U.S. government putting visa restrictions on Chinese and the conflict between the U.S and China getting more serious, I began to fear that if I do not complete my degree now, there could be a possibility that I never would. Yesterday, I finished my last class in college life and my virtual graduation ceremony is only days away. I envy those seniors who graduated before me, they had a chance to celebrate with families and friends, they had a chance to say goodbye to their college life; I envy those who will graduate in the following years, they will have the chance to celebrate their graduation ceremony on campus. Everything that has ever happened in the past months seems like a dream. Only if I know how to end this dream. -
2020-02-20
My Life in February before COVID-19
My name is Athena Errico and I am an 8th grade student at Oaks Christian currently, but at the time I was in seventh grade. It was January-February, I love to ski and I have been skiing my whole life, recently I have been trying to get into racing. I had just heard of the corona outbreak in China and was instantly worried. I had my first compition coming up for skiing and my parents told me I couldnt go because it was Chinese New Year and many people from China go to that specific ski mountain every year to celebrate. A few weeks later at school I had heard about schools in the area shutting down due to corona. Then about a week later I noticed my teachers canceling quizzes and giving very little homework. At lunch many off the kids talked about corona and the group of people who went with a teacher named Mrs. Hacker to Italy over break, there where roomers they all got COVID. Then a girl was not in school and many poeple thought she had COVID. Thats when I new things where going to change. COVID! COVID! COVID! that was all anyone ever talked about. Soon my parents wouldnt let me go to the grocery stores with them and wouldn't let me go to friends houses unless they new the parents well. Then my school shut down and that's when everything got really strange. -
2020-02
What My Life was Like in February 2020 before Covid-19
Compared to my life back in February, my life now is exceedingly different. I was still attending in-person school at Oaks Christian, and I had no idea how drastically my life would change. For example, back in February, I was on a track team called the "Thousand Oaks Flyers". My practices for that track team would later get cancelled in March, but back then I was having the time of my life and running with one of my best friends, Olivia. I was also participating in a swim team called Class Aquatics, which practices, or used to practice, at the Oaks Christian High School pool. I did not enjoy being on the swim team, and I would later get the courage to tell my parents that I wanted to quit. Back in February, I was always busy on the weekends and weekdays, from hanging out with my best friends, to always being at a sports practice. One sign that something was wrong, or about to be wrong, is that my parents, my dad is a surgeon and my mom is a nurse, were constantly talking about some kind of virus that was growing and spreading throughout Asia and most of Europe. When I asked them about it, they said that it was a virus that originated in China and was spreading. I initially laughed it off, and thought that I had nothing to worry about, when some relatives that live in Asia shipped my family and my grandmother packs of N-95 masks, and told us all to "be safe". Shortly after that, my first Covid-19 cases were reported in the U.S. and also in California. My parents were starting to get worried, but I wasn't until some teachers at school told me that the school might have to shut down if more Covid-19, or coronavirus cases were diagnosed. Shortly after that, in March, Oaks Christian switched to an online learning school program, and my family and I went into a "quarantine lockdown". That is what my life in February, and early March, of 2020 was like, and some events that were happening in my day-to-day life, and also all around the world. -
2020-12-10
Life the Week Before Covid
On Wednesday, the 2 days before my school told us we were going online, I had my oaks Christian interview for going to school the following year. I remember going to my interview and then everything covid blowing up in my face the same day. I got accepted to oaks Christian the day I had my interview, and then the next day we were told starting Monday we would be going online. That Friday, we were working on setting up for online school, all of the tests and quizzes were canceled. My friends and I didn't think it would get this far, we thought we would go do online school for 3 weeks, and then come back. We thought we would be able to hang out at each other's houses and do online school there. We were told that the flu was worse and that it was a big deal and that it would be over soon. We quickly were put on lockdown and we didn't see each other for months. -
2020-12-10T09:31:50
My Perspective Of Life.
I remember the day Friday March 13th clear as day. I do because this is the day that literally changed everyones lives. I was in school and Just thinking to myself "cmon just like 20 more minutes of class and then I'm done for the day." Rights as I get out of class the school has been notified that the state of California will go into a state of emergency. The tv's just lit up with the hazard sign. Everyone in my grade just starts going bonkers because us kids had no idea what was happening. I left school just thinking what the world is. Then it was the weekend. you might've thought this was a normal weekend but, no. Saturday we hear from the school saying we will not be having regular school days anymore. Now this, this hit me hard. Everyones thinking whats going on whats happening. No answer. At the start of 2020 everyone said "oh this is going to be our year nothing bad's going to happen." We seriously just jinxed it. How could quite possibly the worst pandemic happen right now? Jut why now? Why cant it happen when Im older or something? These questions wont get answered. I kid you not the past what 8 months of been extremely boring. I know kids say this a lot but Im sure pretty much everyone will agree on this one. Have you ever watched the "Simpsons"?? Well, if you haven't already got caught up they predicted another event. Im not joking. They had workers working in a factory in China and they had a bat that was contaminated and they shipped it to the united states for a project or something. They had the same bat concept as Covid 19. And that episode came out months before Covid or even a couple years. Search it up. June, July just went by so fast but also its like it slowed down reality at the same time. When august comes around school starts back up. It is the hardest time yet. Zoom classes all the time no going back to school.Okay, Im a huge Disney freak so you're gonna want to hear this. This is the third time in history in HISTORY that a multi billion theme park has closed. This is the first and the very first time Disneyland and every other Disney park has been closed for more than a day. This is history. Can you really believe that Covid has done all of this?? Oh, too any store or marketplace that sold toilet paper in March, April, and May were all sold out because everyone was so panicked that they couldn't restock on stuff like that. Can you believe my generation seriously that they would run out of toilet paper?!?!? Then on that note, may 2020 rest in those that are essential workers and my generation. -
2020
The Pandemic Shown Through Spongebob
This particular screenshot of an episode shows Squidward looking through his blinds at Spongebob and Patrick as they seem to be enjoying themselves and having fun. So, the reason why I decided this best expressed my experiences during the pandemic is because it shows mine and many others efforts to stay-at-home to lessen the spread of COVID-19. I remember the first time when the pandemic affected me. I was a member of the Ventura College History Association and we were having a meeting around mid-March of 2020. There were rumors that the college was gonna shut down due to the pandemic worsening, even some of my professors warned us about the potential of having to switch to online classes. So, during the meeting, the advisor of the association received an email stating that the college was indeed gonna close the campus and switch to online classes. This was the moment when I first realized how serious the pandemic was getting. So of course from this point on, many people and I have been adhering to the guidelines and restrictions that have been placed to stem the tide of the outbreak. Meanwhile, those who ignore the guidelines go outside and sometimes don’t take the necessary precautionary measures like mask wearing or social distancing risk getting infected with COVID-19 and risk infecting others who may be at a higher risk of the disease. I’ve personally only met with friends about twice during the whole duration of the pandemic when it was a bit safer to finally hang out with them, albeit with social distancing and mask wearing of course. Now with the rise in cases going up exponentially, especially as the United States is entering winter which could potentially increase the spread of the disease, we have been issued a new stay-at-home order here in our region of California. But again, the cycle of those adhering to the guidelines and those who don’t has been repeating again. -
2020-12-09
Faculty Meeting
Our school is a private one in a larger metropolitan area in the United States. Our administration is doing everything it can to keep us physically in school. We currently are still operating on a hybrid plan where most of our kids are in class with us but some are online at home. Our school has kept strict guidelines - social distancing, masks, hand sanitizer, and many more precautions have been put in place, including virtual faculty meetings so we won't gather in large groups. In a world where people are clamoring to stay home, I feel safe in my school and I feel that we have done a great job. Some students have tested positive, but our administration and nurse have taken the necessary steps to identify close contacts quickly, quarantine all involved, and test individuals who require it. The pandemic is not being taken lightly at our school and our administration is working many extra hours to make sure we don't have to go virtual. Our teachers and staff still keep a very positive attitude and I feel very thankful to be at this school. -
2020-12-03
Lets talk March 13th
I was in my second semester of college when COVID-19 hit, all my classes got moved to online, due to the effects of Covid I ended up having to move out of my home, I switched jobs three times, and as I'm ending my third semester we are still fully remote. There is so much history in just 2020 alone, our children will probably do homework projects about it, or our grandkids will want to interview us for a history report. I want to have something to remember a time i wrote it all down to hopefully help them understand what we actually went through. -
2020-11-19
Student Life During a Global Pandemic in Boston
I was supposed to spend my first semester of college abroad in Rome, Italy as part of my acceptance into Northeastern's NUin program. Due to the pandemic, I had to switch my location to London, England and then ended up having to switch to Boston, Massachusetts. But despite the unexpected change in location and covid-19 guidelines, I ended up having an amazing first semester here in Boston. Life on the Northeastern campus was definitely not what I was expecting for my first year of college, but my peers and I were able to quickly adapt to the safety guidelines and online classes. My entire education relied on one thing this year... the strength of my WiFi connection. As you can see in the photo, all of my classwork, textbooks, assignments, and professors were primarily accessible from my laptop. Instead of being taught in-person with a live professor, all I had to do to get to my class was open my computer and click a link to a Zoom meeting. This made it easy to attend class, but it also made it very difficult to focus during class because I was able to mute myself if I didn't feel like paying attention. If I learned anything from going to school during the covid-19 pandemic, it was self discipline. This is because I had to make sure that I stayed focused on my classes when I could have easily not been paying attention. -
2020-12-07
Using Early American History to Interpret 2020 - HIS103 Final Project Assignment
This is the assignment instructions for the final project for HIS 103 (United States History to 1877) at Niagara University. Students have written essays about how contemporary people use early American history to influence their interpretations of 2020- The Plague Year.