Items

• 
  2021-10-08

  Lone Star WIN Journal Assignment

  What is similar, different, and changed since 4th grade.
• 
  2021-10-08

  Covid-19 experience

  My name is Annabelle Leal, and I go to Lone Star middle school. I’m currently in 7th grade. I enjoy shopping and eating out with family. The start of the school year has been mostly normal. At this point everyone either has covid or has already had it. Numbers of positive covid tests were low in the summer but when school started the numbers quickly began to rise again. I wouldn’t be surprised if we had to go back into lock down by December. Last year I was doing online learning because of the virus, but I guess it's like this year because I could talk to people online, and most of my schoolwork is online. It's different from last year because I have been able to go back in person. I was completely isolated last year. No friends, no social life. A lot has changed from 4th to 7th grade. Like my personality, being home with my brothers and parents has helped me learn to be more patient with people. Another example would be that I'm in middle school now. I have opened up more to people because I have a lot of classes around a lot of them. Lastly, I wanted to say that using computers has become a big part of our education.
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  0021-10-08

  Lone Star Win Journal Assignment - Shetler

  This is a story about how my life was changed during the pandemic
• 
  2021-10-08

  Lone Star Covid Archive

  This text is important to me because it tells me how hard life was during the pandemic. Everything was just restricted and I was not able to do the things I wanted to do. I signed up for flag and it was my first ever time playing football but when Covid hit or submission got canceled. Looking back at this moment in time helps me think that life is better than it has seemed before.
• 
  2021-10-08

  Lone Star WIN Journal Assignment

  The story says what has been the same, different and has changed since 4th grade.
• 
  2021-10-08

  Lone Star WIN Journal Assignment

  Each week Lone Star students sign up for a WIN session. WIN stands for What I Need - these session are designed as interventions for missed material or to provide an extension opportunity in classes. The students who completed this assignment were selected by their social studies teacher to create a journal entry to submit to the archive. WIN sessions take place 4 times per week and are only 30 minutes in length. Because of these time restrictions journal entry lengths are a little short but kids were very excited to write their names in the history books!
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  2021-10-08

  Covid-19 WIN Journal Archive

  My name is Lainey Thatcher and I am 12 years old. I go to Lone Star Middle School and was asked to do this archive. For fun, I like to hang out with my friends, play volleyball and basketball, and go on adventures. I have been to almost to half of the U.S.A. and I am growing up in Idaho. My 7th grade year is definitely less stressful than the last 3 years. This year is hardly anything like last year, other than having laptops and using Teams, it has been easier and comforting than those other years. My 7th grade year is in person, where I can walk to my classes instead of going into another meeting. I remember back in 5th grade; we were in the 4th quarter of school. It was a Monday, and everyone was already going crazy about covid. That next day we were supposed to watch a disturbing video about puberty and other things. I went home that Monday, and my mom told my siblings and I that school was officially shut down. We were so happy, screaming around the house, basically having a party. Thinking it would be easier than going to school. But what we did not know was that we had to start doing things on our own. We had to take quizzes, do a ton of work, and go into meetings. I started to stress, so did my family. There was a lot of yelling. Anyway, I am happy I am back in school. Yes, I’m tired of getting up early in the morning and sitting at school all day. But I can talk when I need help instead of being muted. I don’t have as many technical problems as much. I can finally relax, hang with friends, do sports, etc. I have always believed that when everything goes wrong, if you just wait patiently through it, work hard, and just keep going, everything gets better. And it works, at least for me it does. When I split my head open when I was eight, I thought my life was over (I was very dramatic). But I waited patiently, worked through it, and just kept going and I was fine. I plan to also do it through this pandemic. That was most of my 3 years. Yes, there isn’t a lot. But I had more family problems than school problems. That’s my 3 years for you.
• 
  2020-12-16

  Bring Your Pet to School Day: Quarantine Edition

  2021-2022 is my second year being a middle teacher, but it feels like my first. Teaching for the first time last year was a whirlwind. From teaching students how to use their devices to pull up our class page and join a Zoom meeting to getting all of the technology to work on my end, it proved difficult many times. Not to mention, kids enjoyed the luxury of crawling right out of bed and attending class. Sleepy faces, tons of distractions, and technological difficulties made up about 90% of remote learning. However, there were often fun moments where we could put aside the learning for just a bit and focus on lifting each other up and getting to know each other. I took one day to have a "bring your pet to class" party. It ended up being much more convenient than bringing animals to "real" school anyway. The kids ran across their house looking for their pets and brought them up to their screens. Some had multiple pets to show off! Moments like these made 2020 memorable--for good reasons.
• 
  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.
• 
  2021-08-05

  Tucson Unified requires masks

  Arizona Governor Doug Ducey and the Arizona State Legislature have attempted to make it illegal for school districts to require face masks. Tucson Unified School District's school board voted for a mask mandate in defiance of this. Other Arizona districts followed, risking the withholding of COVID relief funds that the governor is refusing to disburse to any district with a mask mandate. A judge later ruled that the law was invalid and schools could have a mask mandate. As someone with children who are in school but are too young to receive a vaccine yet, I hope districts continue to require face masks for the safety of the students and staff. The Arizona Daily Star published a story about TUSD's decision. TEXT OF ARTICLE: Tucson Unified School District is requiring all staffers, students and visitors to wear masks at all its school sites when the school year begins on Thursday, Aug. 5. The TUSD decision defies a new state law that bans public schools from issuing mask mandates. “While Gov. (Doug) Ducey and the state Legislature has decided to ignore the advice of our public health experts and endanger our community, we can’t sit idle and watch COVID inevitably spread throughout our schools and devastate so many TUSD families,” said board member Ravi Grivois-Shah during an emergency Governing Board meeting Wednesday morning. “This is why I will support, along with my colleagues, a requirement to have masks on TUSD campuses and authorize TUSD to enforce this.” The board passed the measure 4-0. Board President Leila Counts was not present for the vote. Masking in schools is an important mitigation measure to slow the spread of COVID-19, and especially the new delta variant, health agencies at the county, state and federal level all say. This week, with Tucson classrooms back at capacity, as nearly 140,000 children across Pima County are returning to classrooms in person, indoor masking is one of the remaining virus mitigation measures schools have left. Social distancing is problematic at most school sites because of large class sizes, and there’s a state ban on a vaccine mandate. Further, a vaccine is unavailable to anyone younger than 12 years old. Between July 20 and Aug. 2, there were 102 virus cases in Pima County schools and 11 outbreaks, according to data from the Health Department. Those figures occurred when most schools here were not yet open. At the end of July, cases in schools accounted for about 8% of the Pima County’s total reported cases, compared to 4% of total cases during last school year — when masks were required. The county also has seen an increase in pediatric admissions and ER visits in children over the last two weeks of July. Vail Unified is the only Tucson school district that has been open for two weeks. Without a mask mandate, the district has 57 current COVID-19 cases in students and 12 in staff workers. The county Health Department has already temporarily closed three Vail classrooms and told staffers and students to quarantine. “Last year, schools had a number of tools that are no longer available,” said Vail Superintendent John Carruth. “They had the ability to do hybrid learning with smaller class sizes, require face coverings and close classrooms if needed. This year, Vail has two instructional options for families — fully in person and fully remote. With all of our teachers assigned to in-person or fully remote instruction, we are leaning on structures we built last year to support students when (the Health Department) requires them to quarantine.” And while some parents, especially those with children not old enough to be vaccinated, fear for their children’s safety in a packed classroom with unmasked people, other parents are staunchly against mask mandates, saying it is unnecessary and even harmful. In an informal survey by the Arizona Daily Star, with 180 participants two weeks ago when the COVID-19 numbers were lower, less than a third of respondents said masks should be optional, in line with the new state law. The other two-thirds said masks should be required or schools should at least have the option to require them. TUSD, with about 42,000 students, follows at least two other school districts in the state, the Phoenix Union High and Phoenix Elementary school districts, in defying the governor and state Legislature by requiring masks. A Phoenix Union teacher sued the district over the mandate, but a court hearing on the case that was set for Wednesday morning was postponed until next week. Science teacher Douglas Hester filed a lawsuit against the Phoenix Union school district’s board members and superintendent on Aug. 2, saying the mandate is illegal and can’t be enforced. A hearing on the case is set for Aug. 13. While most Tucson school districts are strongly recommending that students and staff wear masks indoors, most have also said they don’t intend on mandating masks, including Vail, Marana, Amphitheater, Sahuarita, Sunnyside and Tanque Verde. TUSD Board Member Adelita Grijalva said the mask mandate is necessary for the following reasons: More children are getting sick from the new COVID variant; new evidence has shown that fully vaccinated people may still be able to transmit the virus; the delta variant appears to be more contagious than chickenpox; and many students in the district are too young to be vaccinated. “Probably over 30% of our district cannot be vaccinated because of age,” she said. “I know my youngest can’t. I know many of our children cannot or their friends cannot, and so we have to do everything we can in the district to ensure their safety. That’s our No. 1 priority.”
• 
  2021-08-06

  Arizona Doctor Tweets Frustration After Child Exposed to COVID

  Dr. Christina Bergin shares a thread on Twitter after her child was exposed to COVID in the classroom. She provides a story about spending 18 months doing everything she could to not expose her family to COVID because of her work in a hospital, only to have her child exposed after three days of in-person learning at school. She addresses her tweets to Arizona Governor Doug Ducey, who (with the legislature) have attempted to prevent schools from instituting mask mandates and have threatened to withhold federal COVID relief funding that the state is supposed to disburse to Arizona school districts.
• 
  2020-08-01

  THE PANDEMIC

  The Pandemic change my life for better.
• 2020

  Finding Time

  Over the last five or so years, I've been dreaming about some event that would stir up some excitement in New York City, preferably some good event, but an event nonetheless. Never did I dream that it would actually come true, unfortunately in the form of a worldwide pandemic. Why couldn't it be something more fun, like aliens (although it seems like we might be getting there)? While the pandemic didn't bring anything exciting per se, it brought some change with it. When it began to be taken more seriously last year (2020), when all the shutdowns began to occur, I saw a major change in my day to day life. From being laid off of work, not being able to go to classes in-person anymore, and not being able to see any friends in person either, the normal, repetitive life that I had gotten so used to had disintegrated within just a couple weeks, if not shorter. It forced me to look at things in a different light, and as I was forced to be by myself for most of it, as we all were, I felt as if I needed to find some positivity and motivation in the few things I could do and had control over. I finally had time to focus on myself and made sure things like my physical/mental health and education were a priority. I took up cycling, as it was one way for me to be active and remain safe because it's not really something you need to do with others, and that opened the world up to me, especially with how empty the city was. Even my quiet pocket of Queens got quieter as barely anyone was outside, so while it did feel a bit post-apocalyptic out sometimes, it also gave me a sense of peace and freedom. Also, with having so much more time at home and not having to commute, I took advantage of online-learning to really give myself as much time as I needed, instead of the previous sense of rush and urgency I used to feel when it came to assignments, and actually turned my grades around pretty drastically. While the pandemic has been horrific on most fronts, by working my hardest to make the best of it, I've been able to better myself as it's given me time to enact real self-care. Something I've never taken the time to do before.
• 2020-03-20

  The blurry year

  I just started at Brooklyn College as a transfer student from Citytech. The semester was only like 5 weeks in when we started seeing reports of the Covid 19. Then the school closed for a day and we were told it only be for a short amount of time, we all know how that went. I haven't been on campus since that last day. There was so much unknown at the time with everything. How long we were going to be away from school, what was the deal with Covid 19, how dangerous was it, and how we were going to survive. At that point, everything closed, and the city was so quiet for the first time in my life. I came out a different person after the lockdown. It was a scary time for a lot of people. It felt like everyone was struggling with something. My biggest thing was just trying to make the best of the situation. and that's what I still do to this day.
• 2020-02-14

  COVID-19: From Italy To New York

  In February of 2020, from the 14th to the 22nd, I was on a school trip in Italy. It's safe to say I was having the best time of my life, until I became ill towards the end of the trip. I felt extremely lethargic and fatigued, my nose and throat were as stuffed as could be, my voice was gone, and my body was consistently hot. It wasn't until I got home from my trip that I suspected my illness was COVID-19, because I was informed that the exact day I returned home from Italy, Venice went on lockdown. I had been in Venice at the beginning of my trip. My suspicions heightened once my mother, father, and sister all got COVID-19 several days later, yet I was healthy as a horse again. In the weeks I had been quarantined with them, I hadn't gotten sick again. Now, this is my earliest memory from quarantine, and quite frankly one of the only memories since the days began to mesh together. I remember time no longer felt real, and I tried to pass it with as many activities as possible. The family began solving puzzles and playing more board games. I was playing more of my instruments, including piano and ukulele. I listened to countless albums and new artists. But, in all of the good, there still remained some low points such as overeating and inactiveness. I'm sure everybody can find pros and cons in their quarantine experience, definitely more cons for some. But, I just wanted to share what I remembered from my own experience. It's the story we always told people when they asked if we ever got infected; I'd say I'm pretty sure I came home from the best trip in the world only to infect my family and almost immediately go into lockdown.
• 2020-12-09

  Life in the Pandemic

  My life in the pandemic was tough. I couldn't work so I was not able to pay my bills, I like the rest of the world during lockdown had to sit at home bored out of my mind because nobody could leave. I was very scared for my mom when she got covid because she had oxygen issues and also heart issues. Going to school during the pandemic really bothered me because I lost a lot of focus and became very lazy when it came to handing in assignments. I would rather physically go onto campus because when I am actually listening to the professors' talk, it makes it so much easier to understand and to focus.
• 
  2021-09-24

  COVID-19 Archive Project

  Two students interview each other about the pandemic and how it affected their life.
• 
  2021-09-15

  COVID-19 Archive Project Interview

  [Curator's Note] Two persons interview each other about their experiences during the COVIS-19 pandemic. They both lived in different countries when the pandemic started, as one of them lives in Singapore and the other in India.
• 
  2021-09-22

  Jennifer Harris and Kevin Xin Oral History, 2021/09/22

  The object of this story was for us to tell our unique experiences living through the COVID-19 pandemic. We think that our interview is a good representation of what life could be like during the pandemic for two average teenagers.
• 
  2021-09-17

  MA, AP and JK Oral History, 2021/09/17

  This is a casual interview about the effects of COVID on mental health, academics, family life, etc. We discuss the biggest impact COVID had on us, our experience with the pandemic, what we did over quarantine, and much more, from the perspective of college freshmen.
• 
  2021-09-21

  Marc Carolla and Niccola Lutri Oral History, 2021/09/21

  Marc and Níccola talk about their personal experiences win COVID-19 and quarantine discussing family, mental health, and personal anecdotes.
• 
  2021-09-21

  Hogan Choi and Reily O'Buckley Oral History, 2021/09/21

  This is an interview between two Northeastern University students on how Covid-19 that shared their thoughts about the impact of Covid 19 both personally and globally.
• 
  2021-09-19

  Juliana Marston and Sydney Champagne, 2021/09/19

  This video interview discusses Sydney and I's respective experiences throughout the pandemic. It is important to me because the two of us realized (through the interview) that our experiences were more similar than we first thought.
• 2021-08-20

  A High School Class "Lost in Space"

  Lining the walls of my school’s athletic center are 113 shields containing the names of the members of the corresponding graduating class. Over this past summer (2021), the alumni association at my high school posted a photo from the Class of 2021 graduation presenting their shield with the caption included in this post. Out of 114 graduating classes, only one is missing from the wall, and that is my grade, the class of 2020. Like the “generation lost in space” referenced in Don McLean’s American Pie, the class of 2020 was the grade lost in space. I do not resent my school for the lack of an effort to ensure our class was included amongst the others. Yet as the wounds created by the pandemic were closing following a year in college, I returned home to find a deafening gap between the shields of 2019 and 2021 on the walls of my home of 13 years. For months, I felt the need to have in my back pocket a thesis to convince others that I had a right to feel disproportionately cheated by the pandemic. To my brother upset about his second year of college, to high school juniors, and to anyone else who dared to undermine my pain. “There are people dying, and you are complaining about your high school graduation?” Walking this hallway suggests that without a graduation ceremony, a high school class will not be documented in what is more or less an archive of the school. Ironically, it seems that perhaps this graduation was more important than anyone acknowledged.
• 
  2020-04-16

  The Diary of a Broken High School Senior

  I was a member of the class of 2020 at what I believe is the most incredible school imaginable. Perhaps after thirteen years I am far from unbiased, but the sense of community offered by my beautiful, 1,200 student Pre-K through 12th grade school is unmatched. Now, envision a girl who walked this campus with her childhood best friends, siblings, and cousins, and, rather frequently, her mother who made an effort to lead the Parents Association countless years. Overlay a history of homesickness and a global pandemic, and the product is March 2020 me when this blissful chapter of my life was abruptly ripped away, propelling me prematurely towards college at a school I had already decided could never fill the shoes of my high school. This tear stained entry was written on April 16th, when my state governor officially shut down all schools for the remainder of the school year. I had spent the last four weeks with a countdown on my iPhone tracking the days until I could return to school. The countdown had to be adjusted at one point when “coronacation” was extended from one to three weeks. Yet I remained the voice of naive optimism, unwilling to entertain the unfortunate reality that everyone around me had already accepted. This may seem dramatic and theatrical. But this same optimist in me hopes that, should anyone stumble upon my story, they will “respect what [they] cannot know” (Saidiya Hartman). There is much more to this story and my history than could ever be relayed to another person. But with the right lens, great value can be extracted from every story, no matter how many dried tears dot its pages. Hartman, Saidiya. "Venus in Two Acts." Small Axe, vol. 12 no. 2, 2008, p. 1-14. Project MUSE muse.jhu.edu/article/241115.
• 
  2021-09-14

  The Start to the School Year is Unlike Any Other

  I wrote an opinion piece for Idaho Education News last week after the latest school board meeting in Nampa, Idaho. Since March of 2020 educators have worked tirelessly to ensure that our students continue to receive a quality education. Initially, educators were seen as 'heroes' of the pandemic. However, over the last 9 months, the rhetoric surrounding schools and teachers has turned nasty. Yet, teachers continue to show up every single day and offer learning experiences to all children. At last week's board meeting, the discussion focused primarily on a mask mandate for our district as hospitals in our state began rationing care given the soaring number of Covid-19 cases. There was an even split between the trustees who were in favor of masking and the trustees who were against masking. This split did not come as a shock to me. However, the line of one trustee hit me in my gut, "I guess I go back to the mission statement. I'm here for the kids, so I'm not going to worry about the adults." The mission and vision statement the trustee is referencing states that teachers offer "exceptional learning experiences" for every child. Given the largely unvaccinated population of our community, the high numbers of teachers out sick, and the alarming number of students out sick as mask mandate seemed like a simple request. However, the board did not vote in favor of helping teachers ensure we are able to provide 'exceptional learning experiences.' Are masks the only answer? Not necessarily. Last year, students attended school 4 days per week while the 5th day was reserved for students to connect with students who were in quarantine/sick and unable to attend school. This year, all of those requirements are gone. That being said, students and teachers attend school 5 days per week and there is no time allotted for teachers to connect with students who are quarantined or sick. Given the latest numbers, about 25% of our entire district is out sick. That is 25% of students who do not have access to their teachers. The article was published on Tuesday, September 14, 2021, and Idaho Ed News shared it on their Facebook page as well. Shortly after 7 pm MST the post has over 160 comments (mostly in favor of teachers), 250 reactions, and over 50 shares. In addition, I have received numerous private messages and emails from other teachers who thank me for giving them a voice during this 'unprecedented' time. While I am still a fairly new teacher with only 3 years of experience, there are veteran teachers who are being pushed to the brink. Many would like to think this is an Idaho problem but the reality is that teachers across the country are feeling unsupported and unappreciated by the communities they serve. I am fearful this will be my last year teaching - I LOVE my job. I remain hopeful that this year turns out to be something amazing.
• 
  2020-03-20

  School Closings

  Most people thought that we were getting an extra two weeks off of school and that this covid "thing" would blow over. Everyone thought this was short term and nobody expected to not be in schools for a year and a half and have their lives rearranged.
• 
  2021-09-04

  hermit HERALD, ISSUE 127

  Taliban need outside help
• 2021-08-28

  A year and a half (and counting) in my room

  Before hell happened I had never exactly been much for being outside, I live in Texas what do you expect? I spent most of my days inside and only ever went out for 1.5 social events a week and weekly classes. Then things started to go bad. Suddenly I had no reason to ever go outside, suddenly I was alone in my room, surrounded by mess and with only the light from my lamp and monitors. I actually started to take more walks because of the pandemic, I just had to get outside, I had to move at all, I had to do something. The human brain is not well equipped for quite this level of repetition, day in day our in the same environment doing the same thing, checking the same few websites to see how bad things have gotten for those still brave enough stupid enough or desperate enough to be out in the world, to see the hell that the world became when everything changed. It is an experience that does not do well for motivation or mental health. I stopped really caring about school, I spent most of my days thoughtlessly doing the same thing and thinking, always fucking thinking about the state of the world and my own life and my own meaningless existence and I just couldn't... I couldn't stop thinking, thinking that my life had no meaning and I was worthless to all those around me and I was alone. Apparently, the human brain is not equipped for quite this level of repetition. It's quite a wonder I'm even stable now, considering the things I went through over this hellish year and a half, but here I am an, my life means nothing and I'm fine with that because life is beautiful, even if people are irresponsible and hateful it isn't their fault, it's the fault of the very people who let this get out of hand in the first place. I was able to finally see that, and I kept realizing it over and over and over and over again, and I'm still realizing it today. The real point is that we are not separated by race or religion or sexuality or gender identity or anything like that, we are all just people, and we need to help each other. The human brain is not well equipped for quite this level of repetition but that's only if we're alone.
• 
  2021-08-26T14:54

  The not so boring every day life

  I used to work at a store called Bed Bath & Beyond. It was a mediocre job at best. Getting up at 9am and working until 5pm. The occasional customer who’d come in every now and then and brighten my day was nice, but there has to be a balance. The occasional customer who would come in with the sole purpose to ruin your day. Pre December 31st, 2019. After work I would come home and play some video games, do homework, and if I had time go to the skatepark late at night. When I wasn’t at work, I was at school. I went to Palmetto Ridge High School, and it was my junior year. I was looking forwards to just graduating already. It was fun, I met a lot of friends, but it was just getting tedious, going to the same classes over and over again, just to meet the state requirements. I couldn’t wait to go to college, to pursue only the classes I needed for my future career. Life was pretty much mundane, no action, repetitive. December 31st, 2019. I had just awoken from my sleep and was getting ready to go into school, since it was a Tuesday. I turned on my TV and switched to the news channel to see if anything interesting was happening on the news, and to my surprise, this “virus” was said to have started in Wuhan China. Our “wonderful” president said it was nothing more than the common flu, so I shrugged it off and got ready for school. A couple of days had passed since the announcement of COVID-19 and things only escalated. I still thought it was nothing more than a virus, because at the time I followed Trump, (still don’t know why I ever did). That was until a customer came in, coughing their lungs out. I made sure not to check her out because she looked really, really ill. I stayed in the back most of the day, claiming that “Today was just not my day, I am tired, and I do not feel well”. I asked to leave work early that day and left. January 21st, 2020. By now I was seriously worried. I heard over the news that COVID-19 was spreading fast, and that it had just infected its first citizen in the U.S. I did not know what to do to counter it, so I treated it like a plague. I wore a medical mask everywhere I went, and double layered my hands with two latex gloves. My coworkers teased me, saying I was too worried and that it would pass. I almost wanted to listen to them, but I stuck to my guns and wore my protective gear in work. March 14th, 2020. Schools were now closed until April 14th. Things were starting to get serious, now my friends weren’t doubting my use of masks and gloves and they followed in my footsteps. There was no school now, which meant I had to work more hours. It was really weird not going to class, but I was kind of glad we weren’t. I was just happy to still be earning money. March 15th, 2020. I was supposed to work today, it was a Sunday, but seeing as my job was overstaffed that day, I called off saying that I was sick. (I really wasn’t). I wanted to go to the skatepark today with my friends and did not want to work overnight today. I am glad now that I skipped because a customer that had COVID-19 was not wearing a mask and had infected two co-workers. This had forced the building to shut down, and had the CDC close the building down to quarantine it. I really dodged a bullet. August 26th, 2021. (Present Day) A lot has changed over these past few years. Mainly lockdowns and mask mandates. I have been fully vaccinated with Moderna and am going to take my booster shot when the time comes. Oddly enough after the first major lockdown, nature started to come back. A lot of deer in the roads, alligators in swimming pools, and a ton of insects and amphibians. It is present day now, and we have a new variant of COVID-19, named the Delta Variant. Mask wearing was mandated, and then unmandated, and since Trump left office cases dropped with real facts on COVID-19 daily, none of this “fake news” as Trump used to say. COVID-19 is starting to die down a lot more now, but it still is not over. Hopefully people will use their brains and get vaccinated, and if they don’t, hopefully they use masks.
• 
  2021-08-15

  Vaccine Passport

  The Instagram page nochill_latinos share a meme directed at those who are making a big deal that vaccine cards are being required at schools and places of work.
• 
  2021-08-16

  from the eyes of a teacher

  A friend of mine is a teacher for the Los Angeles School District. She shared on social media how Covid has impacted her school and its students.
• 
  2021-08-19

  What if they are ahead?

  My year 10 English teacher shared this but unfortunately I don't have the original to credit it. I liked it because people are so panicked about kids missing school and so I thought this was a nice reminder that education is not just school, and success in life is so much more than an ATAR score. It was backed up when I came across the items and sign in the second photo which I assume have been made by kids and made me think that they are learning empathy and kindness which will stand them in good stead, even if they can't do long division.
• 
  2021-06-10

  School’s Out, I Finally Met My Teacher

  The day after school ended, we returned all the materials to my kid’s elementary school. While there, we were able to thank my son’s first grade teacher for all her work throughout the year in person. I will be forever in awe of this woman, keeping six year olds engaged over Zoom for a year. She is a testament to teaching and you could feel her genuine love for her students through the screen. There was something so bittersweet about my son’s first face to face meeting with her being after school ended. Such a bizarre way to begin an academic career.
• 
  2021-08-11

  First day of school

  While many on my social media feed are in arms about tighter vaccine regulations, some realize that the pandemic is not over. As the new school year starts there are many mothers who share in my fear. Covid is still alive and well, new strains continue to form breeding in the bodies of the unvaccinated. The worse part is that this time the elderly seem much safer than our children. Our children are being sent back to school, life has returned to "normal" as the number of hospitalized children continues to rise. I share my fears with this friend who popped up on my feed this morning. Will our kids be safe? Will my daughter get infected? Will there be another lockdown? I too feel like it's become too much to ask for my kids to simply be happy and healthy because both now depend on the actions (or misactions) of others.
• 2019-03-07

  My Covid Experience

  It all happened at the end of my freshman year. a teenager failing classes until what I thought was my savior sent me home for the longest summer I've experienced. It was after summer I realized the horrific effects of the disease. I would have rather stayed in school than lose loved ones to a virus that swept the world by surprise. This is important to me because I have sympathy for people who lost loved ones due to a virus that shouldn't have spread like it did.
• 
  2020-03

  Carla Dollar Oral History, 2020/03

  I was given the assignment to share a recipe I made during quarantine that started March 2020. However, the reality was that as an essential worker, I had no time to cook. And in my tiny, conservative town, we rallied together to support local business. We ordered more take-out foods during that time, to support our friends and family who owned restaurants, but also, just didn't have time to cook.
• 2021-08-06

  Times of Covid-19

  When Covid first started and we got the news we had to leave school for 3 weeks at first it was exciting because we just thought that we were getting extra fun weeks of spring break. After the three weeks, we didn't get to come back to school and it was rough because none of us knew what we were doing, we kinda had to learn by ourselves. All of my grades and begun to drop and it was not a fun time I would have rather been at school than that. Now a year later I have had and still have to retake classes to earn my credits and it really honestly sucks. Other than that literally right before school started we had taken a trip to Tennessee so that my younger sister and I could meet our older sisters and because of Covid we didn't get to go down there again until August of 2019 which was a whole year later.
• 2021-08-04

  The Rona

  When the school made us go virtual I knew a rough road was ahead and when it arrived it was a rapid rollercoaster of emotions. To start this roller coaster was the loneliness and intense boredom of virtual work with an escalating sense of excitement like the start of the proverbial rollercoaster. At the height of the rollercoaster, we started hybrid school, and the constant back and forth between people and home created a sense of longing for the way things used to be. When I eventually escaped the cycle there was a sense of finally escaping and being free to do as you want within your property. Some loneliness penetrated my days and this was broken when I could go out and find and speak to people which brought a geiser of happiness and eagerness to find and talk to others.
• 2020-06

  my covid times

  what covid was like for me was mostly just sleeping i slept through like 70 percent of it but other than sleep i did football over that summer of 2020 and starting that school year with full in person school and we then went full virtual which messed my grades up really bad due to how bad i was at getting out of bed and then hybrid practically destroyed my grades because my body and mind just couldn't handle going from sleeping in two days in a row then waking up early for school
• 
  2020-12-07

  Back to School

  This year has been hard for a lot of people. Like many others during quarantine, I decided the jobs that I had were not right for me. Almost by chance, a friend of my wife's told her about this program for a Graduate Certificate in Archival Studies at LSUOnline. It was designed for people who already had a master's degree, but were looking to get into the archival field or further their specialization. It seemed like a good fit for me. I have an MA in history and experience working in archives, so with everything shut down it seemed like the right time to do it. It has been tough, but I'm nearing the end of the program. One of the hardest parts for me has been that I have not been able to be as excited as I normally would be about this. I am experiencing a great deal of burnout with work, the program, and various COVID related things, but overall, I have been fortunate through this whole pandemic, and me finishing this program is proof of it. But so many people close to me are front line workers who are mentally struggling to get by from day to day. It is hard for me to post updates on my COVID success story on my social media, when my closest friends are burnt out and were not in as fortunate a position as I have been. For me, it has been hard to celebrate my triumphs when I see some of my closest friends reaching their breaking points and feel completely helpless.
• 
  2020-10-27

  Banner Health: Current COVID-19 surge could surpass rates from June

  Preparing for a surge; Banner warns that things could be worse than in the summer.
• 
  2020

  Humorous Memes About Quarantine and Covid

  During quarantine I collected many humorous memes about staying at home and the problems that brought. All sorts of subjects were covered: cooking, getting along with your spouse/roommates, homeschooling the kids, learning to bake bread, being stuck at home, sanitizing, facemasks, people hoarding toilet paper, boredom, effects of isolation, etc. Here are a few of those memes.
• 
  07/08/2021

  Collett Hall Oral History, 2021/07/08

  Collett Hall talks about her fears about her daughter getting the virus, her system for obtaining groceries, and her experiences working as a special education teacher.
• 
  2021-06-23

  HERMIT HERALD, ISSUE 118

  Portland promotion
• 
  2020-08-04

  U.S. History Classroom

  When I came home from my last deployment in December 2019, I began to look for teaching jobs- I was for the first time preparing for the teaching job market. Suddenly, when Covid-19 hit the streets, most business and shops closed their doors and were only open for carry-out. In May 2020, I was worried because most school corporations announced that they would presume classes virtually or through a mix of hybrid days that would consists of both synchronous and asynchronous learning for the first portion of the school year. I thought that this would be a learning curve for me if I ended up getting a position. By August 2020, I got a position as an 11th-grade high school teacher in my hometown. Before the bell rang on 03 August 2020, I put the rubber gloves on that the school’s office gave me and sprayed each desk down with bleach. The tight latex gloves did not fit my hand properly but worked for its purpose. The disinfectant left an aroma in the air, similar to a hospital. Brinnnnng, the bell sounded, and the students began marching into the building as I watched them from my window. My forehead began to bead up with sweet (I was nervous for my first day). Then, I put on my mask and stood outside my door. As I waited at the door, I remembered the old days when I was a student at that same school, I was now a teacher. Back then, the hallways were filled with my peers, there were lots of hugging and other high schoolers interaction going on. Everywhere I turned, my peers were smiling and excited to share summer stories. In a blink of eyes, when I looked at the hallways, my peers were no longer there. Neither was the high schooler me. Now, I look through the hallways and it is filled with faceless students. The unnatural phenomena brought forth by Covid-19. The wearing of a mask in the U.S. society is unnatural. The students tried to stay six feet away and tried not make physical contact with anyone. The masks covered their faces, and many wore gloves to open their lockers. As I greeted my students entering my class first period, they seemed happy to be in school in-person since all surrounding corporations had announced they would have online instruction. As they seated, they soon realized that each desk was coated in residues from the cleaning products. I then went to the front of my class and tried to write my name on the board. The marker streaked the board. The cleaning products from wiping each room down from the cleaning staff had left a clear coating that made it impossible to write on. This was a common theme for each class that entered my room. By the end of the day, the room was filled with body and cleaning supplies odors. The coating on the board ruined my marker. My hands shriveled from the gloves, and my ears were red and irritated from the mask. I thought to myself, “this is the new norm now. I must get used to it, so students do not feel overwhelmed.”
• 
  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.
• 
  2020-05-25

  My Pandemic Stories

  Story 1 -- Personal Reflections on a Global Pandemic: How I approached and dealt with the impending doom of world pandemic. Story 2 -- Global History during a Global Pandemic: How my study of global history in Spring 2020 helped me deal with a global pandemic Story 3--Double Jeopardy: Pandemic + Earthquake = Stress: How a major quake in March 2020 intensified the Pandmic arrival in Utah
• 
  2021-06-04

  Truth during our COVID PANDEMIC

  Through this Pandemic, I personally had to mature past the age I currently am. Now having to take on such a huge responsibility to be safe and avoid as many people as possible, it really took a toll on my social skills. Especially for someone who had problems with anxiety, I found some peace and salvation being around and talking with the people I liked. now having to avoid them? Well, that was one big change. Although it was hard at first, I encourage whoever sees and reads this to embrace change and curve it to your steering. After all, I overcame my anxiety through this quarantine. Some people may say COVID has affected them in ways they may not recover from but I just assume that it is all adults speaking. I have grown as a person and have actually realized the small little injustices that happened to students and the misleading nature of the "system'. At this time, this era, highlights of racial acts have now shown itself as if you sprayed insects with raid pesticide. Surprisingly, it was more common in Police Departments believe it or not. The people who swore to protect and serve justice were the ones who were at the epicenter of injustice. Schools no longer served students but rather misled them into thinking they were being helped. The first I would love to emphasize on is the fact that nothing they simply teach us in school relates to anyone's lifestyle. Sure if you went the technical route to want a specific occupation it was helpful, but other than that, it was absolutely useless. As a straight A student, I found myself in "unknown" territory when I was outside of school. Nothing of what we were taught is to be put in use. We don't solve x to make a U turn, we don't need to do an entire analysis on a red stop light to know that it says stop and we certainly didn't need to know that the rocks that we kick on our walks to home are sedimentary rock or igneous rocks. The education system is flawed in helping individuals learn what they need to know. Handing out 7 different subjects when your goal is to be a computer engineer? that doesn't seem right does it? I'm sure you said yes and you are now beginning to see my point. A few months back, February 14, 2021, information was leaked on the edu system. These tests that they give us, these regents and state exams.. it's all a cover up to their hunger for money. They lie to us that our performance on the tests dictates whether or not we pass but that's not the case. It actually dictates how well the school is funded and how much the teachers are paid. YOUR TESTS.. they aren't doing anything for you. The better you perform, the central host that funds schools, uses that information and says "oh wait.. this school performed well. Lets fund them more and pay the teachers better for their *HARD WORK*" These things don't help us. That is why America Continues to see their homeless individual growth rate increase every year. The people are conditioned to do good on selecting a, b , c or d but have no idea how to get a job, do their taxes, get a business loan in real life!!.This problematic system needed to be changed and for my time, it won't. I hope that someone in the future sees this and does a comparison and contrasts on how things have changed or if it has even changed at all. I apologize for the long rant on school at this time, it's just at the center of all the youths' problems currently. Back on track to injustices here present. If we were to take a step back and really look at the racial events partaking currently, we begin to see how one of the most notorious orgs that stands against racism is to be considered a terrorist org. That is the BLM foundation. Now you may have thought that they do good, but I assure you it isn't what it seems. Let's first analyze what makes an organization a terrorist foundation. 1) The people sway from the cause and place the blame on someone else 2) propaganda is at the forefront of the organization 3) they destroy and hurt lives more than they help. Let's compare al Queda to BLM. al queda, the organization that was behind the 9/11 incident is no less different from BLM. 1) Al Queda sole purpose was to send a message to the US saying that they will fight back at any US involvement in the Middle east. They swayed from that and blamed all their actions on the US including the beheading of innocents and the raping of innocent women. They blamed the US even though the US was not present in the Middle east. BLM was to stand and say that there is injustice to black lives but they swayed and pinned all their problems on the White people. 2) Al queda said they were to bring peace for the people they represented but they instead lied and used those peoples as their weapons. The BLM founder used all the funds to make a large property investment. 3) al Queda, destroyed buildings and hurt the innocent. BLM riot's and protests, destroyed small business, beat and killed innocent bystanders, robbed stores, robbed innocents of all their belongings, destroyed any from of mobile property and most importantly, went against peaceful protests and went against the law. BLM representatives also took part in Black on Asian crime. This is to evaluate the fact that COVID was not only a small problem but helped highlight the true concept of humanity and it's injustice that went on in the darkness. In many ways COVID 19 was bad indeed but in high alert, it showed us what people really are when the light is shined on them.