Items

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  2021

  High School Yearbook in 2021

  Included is a picture of the page of a yearbook from the school that I work at for the 2021-2022 school year. This school year was very unique in that we started the year online. All classes were held virtually through Zoom from August to the end of September. At the end of September, students returned to school using a phased-in approach where one grade level at a time returned. After Winter Break, the school was held virtually again for two weeks. During the time that we were in-person, teachers were required to teach students in-person and online through Zoom at the same time. Because of that, I would have students in the classroom, and students listening to me and interacting with me through Zoom. Many students with health concerns never came to school in person. For everyone else, masks were required at all times. In addition, teachers were required to move desks in a way that students were at least three feet apart from each other shoulder-to-shoulder. This yearbook page shows different ways that teachers and students were affected during this year. The top left picture showed a Zoom screen with the students attending Zoom class. The large picture underneath shows a masked teacher standing in front of her students while also showing her students on Zoom behind her. Other pictures show teachers with their Zoom classes and empty classrooms. The text on the side was written by students who took the Yearbook class. It shows a student perspective on the pandemic and why classes were made to be held virtually for students. The 2021-2022 yearbook as a whole is an important object to me as this is the first and only school year that was affected by COVID-19 in its entirety in a way that can be seen visually. This year was unlike any other and forced me to have to change and adapt constantly. During this school year, I had to space students apart and had to make a seating chart for every class. If a student needed to move for a few minutes for any reason (like needing to charge their laptop), I would have to update the seating chart with the date to show where that student was and who they were sitting by. If a student tested positive for COVID-19, any students within three feet of them then had to stay home and learn virtually for a set amount of time. This time changed throughout the year but could be six to ten days. Looking back on these memories, I believe that it is so important to see what students and teachers went through during this time, as we are all still trying to catch up and adjust to the way that the pandemic disrupted and changed beliefs, attitudes, expectations, and ways of learning.
• 2022-04-26

  Time Machine

  As many have most likely stated, living through the COVID-19 pandemic is like living in a time machine, or fast forward. At the beginning of the pandemic, I was an eighteen year old who had no idea where she was going after high school. I had about five outstanding college decisions at this point. I know - I applied to a lot of schools. Since then, it has been two years that flashed before my eyes. I am in a completely different state and a completely different person. However, it does not feel like two years have passed since I graduated from high school. I remember the last time I stepped foot in my high school. It was March 13, 2020. I was so stressed out about exams and was just ready to get out of there. I know now that if I knew it was my last real day of school, I would have lived it very differently. My graduating class (the class of 2020) was referred to as the pandemic class, or the champions of senior skip day. Believe it or not, my graduation was a drive through that took place in my high school’s parking lot. My senior prom was canceled twice. The second time, I was getting ready and Idaho (my home state) went back a COVID recovery stage. So, they canceled the dance two hours prior to its scheduled start time. Beginning college during a pandemic was a weird experience. We were not permitted to have guests in our dorms and had to eat our meals outside or in our own dorms. Making friends was so hard. My only friends were my suitemates until second semester. All of our classes were on Zoom. This made my parents question why they paid for my dorm. I still think it was worth coming to school last year because I made my life long friends here.
• 
  2022-04-26

  Street food snacks

  My daughter is attending 2nd grade in Arequipa, Peru for a few months. Today was her first day, and when we went to pick her up the school exit was surrounded by food vendors ready to sell a snack to the kids and parents. In the background of the photo, you can see two food vendors wearing masks, both offering deserts (the woman in the background has an ice cream cart).
• 
  2020-07-22

  School reopening Jenga

  A comic strip about Covid-19
• 
  2022-04-12

  VAP and SMhopes #30

  I wish that in the future I would have a trillion dollars; I wish the animal the Phoenix would still exist; I wish I had a gingerbread house; I wish I had another cat.
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  2022-04-12

  VAP and SMhopes #29

  I hope the future has more nature, and animals can talk. (The bulldozer is tearing down buildings, and the animals are attacking, to make more room for nature.)
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  2022-04-12

  VAP and SMhopes #28

  Help the Earth! We want Covid to end! Stop littering! Stop fires! Stop capturing animals! Stop wasting! Stop cutting trees!
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  2022-04-12

  VAP and SMhopes #27

  I hope I will have a house that can make dinosaurs and more trees, and no fire.
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  2022-04-12

  VAP and SMhopes #26

  I hope the world turns to chocolate and I hope the world is eatable.
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  2022-04-12

  VAP and SMhopes #25

  There will be shoes with fire shooting out of them in the future.
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  2022-04-12

  VAP and SMhopes #24

  Back to the future
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  2022-04-12

  VAP and SMhopes #23

  Me: We can help the earth. Diego: We can save earth.
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  2022-04-12

  VAP and SMhopes #22

  I hope for a cleaner world
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  2022-04-12

  VAP and SMhopes #21

  Technology will take over the World!
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  2022-04-12

  VAP and SMhopes #20

  There will be roads connecting buildings in the sky and over water.
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  2022-04-12

  VAP and SMhopes #19

  More nature
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  2022-04-12

  VAP and SMhopes #18

  End world pollution
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  2022-04-12

  VAP and SMhopes #17

  In the future I want to be a singer and an artist
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  2022-04-12

  VAP and SMhopes #16

  World peace is one project that we all have to do together!
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  2022-04-12

  VAP and SMhopes #15

  I think that the world can be a better place.
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  2022-04-12

  VAP and SMhopes #14

  In the future, I will be a singer and fashion designer
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  2022-04-03

  Teachers reflect on covid struggle

  This article details the reflection of a few Arkansas teachers as we reach two years since the beginning of the pandemic. The teachers highlight the drastic changes not only in safety precautions, but also the adjustments in order to provide meaningful learning in an entirely new landscape. Many of the teachers reported excitement at the prospect of a return to normalcy, however they desire some aspects of the pandemic adjustments to remain in place. Flexible learning, new and creative ideas of conveying topics, and more individualized learning methods have seen an increase in retention of material, which is fundamentally what education is all about. The teachers would also like an end to the stigma surrounding the covid learning adjustments, primarily the notion that education is now "entirely computer based". This notion is quite the contrary, according to educators, rather the new methods not only encourage flexibility and invite individualized learning but also promotes computer skills which will be vital for adulthood. I think this article is interesting because it highlights the fundamental change covid has made and continues to make on society. In order to promote public health and safety, teachers were forced to adjust and were forced to rework how they educated. This compelling of behavior has rendered some positivity. I think it is critical that children are able to have the safest and most effective education, and while covid seems terribly negative, there is a small glimmer of improvement from the pre-pandemic world. This article was published in the Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette.
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  2022-04-12

  VAP and SMhopes #13

  In the future, the world will be clean, with no germs.
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  2022-04-12

  VAP and SMhopes #12

  In the future I want to be a baseball player.
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  2022-04-12

  VAP and SMhopes #11

  Yo quiero ser un jugador de fútbol
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  2022-04-12

  VAP and SMhopes #10

  No taxes, no Roblox, no homework, no veggies, no pollution. Edgar will be President and I will be Vice President
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  2022-04-12

  VAP and SMhopes #9

  Ser el jugador, estrella de todo el mundo.
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  2022-04-12

  VAP and SMhopes #8

  I hope that in the future I am a gajillionaire and the world will have high tech cars, machines, etc. All humans will be smart so schools will not exist! I also hope that people will live forever, but that will also mean that people cannot have babies. Which means that we cannot reproduce because the world would be over populated. The world will also have a high technology system named "Operation Last Long" which will allow us to survive when the Sun eats Earth, which will be kind of cool because we will be living inside the Sun. The sight would be cool and I'd be very fortunate to not be melting! But before that happens life will be extraordinary! All food will be brought to the next level! Everybody will have super powers too! And Magic will finally exist! With infinite land, space and etc. with infinite money too! Because then everyone will be gajillionaires! So there will be no homeless people and no one will suffer from financial problems.
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  2022-04-12

  VAP and SMhopes #7

  Santa Monica is the future
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  2022-04-12

  VAP and SMhopes #6

  20 years in the future
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  2022-04-12

  VAP and SMhopes #5

  All these eyes will help for seeing things better. Or if you're getting attacked these eyes will help you dodge or more.
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  2022-04-12

  VAP and SMhopes #4

  No more people = no more pollution; it's the truth
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  2022-04-12

  VAP and SMhopes #3

  No violence in the world
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  2022-04-12

  VAP and SMhopes #2

  Let's celebrate our differences
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  2022-04-12

  VAP and SMhopes #1

  I wish that I turned into the Flash,
• 2020-07

  Covid-19 and my Experience with High School + Religion

  I remember when I received the news that we would be taking 2 weeks off of school due to covid-19. I thought that the world would quarantine, and life would proceed to normal. I was a sophomore in high school and very religious at the time. Soon enough the 2 weeks passed by, but now we had to spend even more time at home. After a month or two, and the grocery store shelves started to empty, that's when I finally realized how much of an impact covid-19 was going to have on my life. I realized that my now temporarily online school was going to remain that way in the foreseeable future. My weekly Sunday church services were canceled as well. School quickly became an unbearable chore for me. My high school was not efficient in the slightest at conducting school online. Their idea of an ‘improved’ online course was simply to assign more work. I had had enough. I decided I was going to be in control of my education, not covid-19. During junior year, I decided to get high school over with and graduate early. It was not easy, but I buckled down and completed two years of school all during my 3rd year of high school. Because I was not attending church or in-person school anymore, I was able to dedicate more time to complete high school early. By the time my church was open again to the public, I had other priorities in my life. I no longer had the time or motivation to keep attending these meetings. Even when I officially graduated high school, I found religion to no longer be an interest of mine. I had become accustomed to life without church. Now that I am almost done with my first year of college as a 17-year-old, I find that covid-19 is not much of a stressor in my life anymore. I am also glad that quarantine allowed me the opportunity to see what my life is like without religion. If it weren't for the pandemic, I’m almost certain I would still go to my church services and dread it every single time. As hard as the pandemic was for me, and as difficult as it was to get through quarantine, I’m grateful that it changed my life in the ways it did. I grew a lot during this time period and it made me grateful for the freedoms I already have every day.
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  2022-04-21

  Effects of COVID - even in April 2022

  This a screenshot of a Twitter post. In the post, @DrumUltimA describes how even in April 2022, COVID-19 is still having major effects on different aspects of his life. He also points out that he disagrees with so many precautionary measures being dropped. These viewpoints are important as it shows that even though many mandates, regulations, and laws meant to prevent COVID-19 have been lifted, COVID-19 is still around and causing many problems for people.
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  2022-04-12

  SMhopes and Civic Wellbeing Partners

  Using a grant from Civic Wellbeing Partners in Santa Monica, teachers at the Virginia Avenue Park Spring Camp program asked their students, from grades 1 through 8, to envision their hopes for the future. The students responded with drawings (and one story). Facilitated by artist Paula Goldman as part of SMhopes, the students were also asked to rank how happy they were with their lives now, and how they view their future prospects, two indicators of well being.
• 2022-04-18

  COVID-19 and my life.

  I’ll keep this as short and detailed as possible since I could go on and on about how the past few years sucked but also were good. When COVID-19 came to the United States in 2020 I was a Senior in Highschool about to graduate. I was in band with the wind ensemble and I did winter guard as well. I went to Meridian tech in the afternoon for biomedical sciences and was in all sorts of honors clubs. Because of COVID-19 I missed all of our band competitions in the spring, the rest of winter guard, all of my senior activities, a “normal” graduation, and more. I graduated in July instead of May. I respect and followed the mask mandates but it definitely sucked during times like graduation because that was such a special moment that was tarnished by the pandemic. I feel for the 2021 seniors but they at least had a warning. We didn’t. They had time to plan and we didn’t. After that I went to Oklahoma state university and I’m still there. It’s hard to believe that I’m about to be a Junior in college. The last few years have flown by. I missed out on a lot of opportunities and experiences along with everyone else. Luckily, the pandemic seems to be dying down but I know it’s still here. It pisses me off when people say it’s not that bad. One death or millions of deaths is bad and I wish people respected and understood that. But sadly, some don’t and they take this pandemic as a joke. I have yet to get COVID and I’m very happy about that and don’t plan on getting it ever hopefully. It’s caused de watering consequences on both a personal level and a nation wide level. This past year I had other personal experiences that didn’t help which was that my Grandma passed (from heart condition) unexpectedly, I came out to my parents as a lesbian and they’re homophobic, one of my dogs is in renal failure currently, my elderly neighbor who is like another grandma to me got run over by a car (she’s doing good now), I’ve made mistakes that caused me a lot of pain but I corrected them and am working on myself, and more. I know everything I’m saying is so negative but I can’t recall a whole lot that was positive in the last two years. My best friend is my girlfriend and we’ve been dating for 4 years, I just went to an oddities expo, etc. so at least there’s some positive things. There’s more that I haven’t said but not a whole lot more. Either way since 2020 life has been very hard. Not just for me but everyone. I just hope it goes up from here.
• 
  2022-01-21

  School Apologizes After Viral Photo Of Teacher Taping Mask To Student's Face Outrages Parents

  This is a news story from Your Tango by Nia Tipton. This is about a middle school in Pennsylvania, where a video of a teacher taping a mask to a student caused outrage. The photo was taken at Pennfield Middle School in Hatfield. The photo went viral and appeared on Sean Hannity's website. The middle school announced that they are going to conduct an investigation over this scandal. Parents also expressed their anger at school board meetings over this. The mother of the student getting his mask taped to his face says that she never intended for the story to go viral. She used the photo to gain support from a Facebook group prior to a school board meeting. She says that other individuals in the group took it upon themselves to spread this story further.
• 2022-04-05

  No masks on campus

  Masks are no longer mandatory in the state of Arizona. As of April 2022, as a former high school teacher, masks are no longer required for students, faculty, and staff at San Luis High School. Some students decide to keep wearing their masks, and others do not; the same thing happens with faculty and staff, some wear them, and others don't. For the most part, everyone is respectful about wearing and not wearing masks. Students and staff understand that these are the new norms we currently live in and are working great at San Luis High School.
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  2020-04-08

  Neighborhood Sidewalk Art

  A few weeks into quarantine our neighborhood decided to decorate all the sidewalks and driveways with sidewalk chalk. This was a great way for the kids of the neighborhood to express themselves and feel a sense of togetherness, even though they were all apart. With the use of the neighborhood Facebook group, we were able to coordinate times for the kids to go around and check out all the cool sidewalk art and leave messages for their friends to read. This really made my son feel like part of something, as a kindergartener he was just getting used to being in school, and then after Spring Break he was not able to return to class and we had to get creative. This neighborhood art project was a bright spot in a very difficult and uncertain time.
• 
  2020-08-29

  Socially distanced and socially safe summer camp

  The attached article is something that is probably not well known. In Seattle, Washington there is the Pacific Science Museum, a fun educational museum for all ages, but focused on kids. Every summer they run educational camps for K-8 graders. It was unclear if after months of distance learning (early pandemic, 2020) students would be physically or emotionally ready to do a group activity in person. PacSci’s camps were able to run while students were socially distanced and masked. This matters because there has been a lot of rhetoric about kids not being able to wear masks for a variety of reasons, but this article proves that kids were able to understand social distancing and mask-wearing so they could have a safe and fun thing to do. With these practices in place, combined with low group sizes, and the use of a lot of outdoor time, they didn’t have any transmission cases for the whole summer. Not included in the article but they had the same success the next summer, 2021, and are on track to continue again the summer of 2022. The significance is not just to a collection focused on children, but also to the service industry since this is a less formal education setting that leans more toward front-facing customer service.
• 2022-03-30

  The Impact of SARS-CoV-2 on Students

  At the beginning of the pandemic there was mass confusion and scares about what was to come of this new, unknown virus called SARS-CoV-2 or COVID-19. Once widespread outbreaks were prevalent, everyone was sent home from work and schools. A lot of smaller businesses could no longer make rent and went out of business, and many people did not know how they were going to make ends meet. However, one of the most vital impacts, was on our students in upper elementary and above. Many public and private schools, from elementary to high school, did not make any school work necessary to be completed in Oklahoma, and as a result, created a gap in the knowledge needed for the continuation of schooling in the years to come. For freshmen college students, as I was at the time, if you were living on campus, in the dorm rooms and apartments, many of us were given notice that we had two weeks to move out unless we had extenuating circumstances. Additionally, all of our classes after spring break were moved online (in the best way possible) but often times were unsuitable to the in person experience. As a Microbiology Major enrolled in several different science classes with labs, it was nearly impossible to get the necessary experience to properly understand the laboratory material. As a result, this made it more difficult in the semesters to come to understand what was required of me, due to the lack of knowledge of materials I would have learned had I been able to attend my labs. Because of the severity of this virus and the rapid spread which sent everyone quarantining in their homes, we may see a lasting impact, not due to the viruses long-term side-effects, but due to our educational generations having a detrimental gap in proper school education.
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  2022-03-25

  Virginia's Law Barring Mask Mandates Does Not Apply to 12 Children with Disabilities

  A news article from NPR talks about the parents of 12 children that challenged the newly signed law by Governor Glenn Youngkin to halt the enforcement of that law because it violated the children's rights under the federal American with Disabilities Act. This law would only give parents the right to choose for their own children. The group of parents have kids with health conditions that range from asthma to cystic fibrosis, which put them at heightened risk for COVID-19. What about other kids that have health conditions that make them a heightened risk for COVID whose parents didn't say their federal rights were violated?
• 
  2020-05-06

  Graduating Without the Pomp: Students, parents push back against virtual and drive-through graduation ceremonies

  My oldest daughter is now a senior in high school, and she is still pretty upset that she didn’t get to have a junior prom. She understands that in the context of everything happening in the world, it’s not the most important or most tragic thing that could happen, but it still stings. For many students, it’s the milestones like prom and graduation that make the whole four years worthwhile. If the milestones that high school students look forward to can’t be held, it can affect them deeply. As schools closed and Covid-19 became a fixture in our everyday lives, school events like sports, proms, and graduations went away. Some schools held virtual graduations featuring videos and speeches over Zoom. Others attempted to maintain an atmosphere of celebration by holding drive-up graduations with decorated cars and parking lots. However, many students and parents were upset by this change. While this is understandable, most school districts prioritized the health and safety of students, families, and staff over having an in-person ceremony. This article helps to capture some of the frustrations seniors expressed in 2020 when their hopes of walking the stage and receiving their diploma seemed to vanish overnight.
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  2022-01-11

  Arizona teacher shortage getting worse with COVID-19

  Arizona teachers have struggled with obtaining higher pay and better funding for years. Add to that a legislative body that doesn’t prioritize educational funding, improving teaching conditions or student learning. When Covid-19 reared its ugly head, the pressure public school teachers normally deal with in overcrowded, undersupplied classrooms intensified and – for many overworked teachers – this was the last straw. Teachers who were in a position to took early retirement. Others simply left the profession for the private sector. Still, some remained and adapted to whatever model of learning their school district employed – sometimes on a week-to-week basis. Now that most schools have returned to an in-person modality, teachers are still leaving the classroom. This article sheds lights on the teacher shortage and how, even still, Arizona educators are contending with Covid-19 in their classrooms and families, leading them to reconsider their decision to stay in education.
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  2022-03-21

  In Hanover, the anti-LGBTQ school board needs discipline, not protesting students

  This story is about the school board of Hanover County in Virginia needing discipline instead of letting it's students protest and participate in walk-outs during school hours because of the policies against their transgender students. The school board is accused of having no intentions of supporting the non-binary and transgender students of Hanover. This is important because it is once again showing discriminatory policies that the school board keeps bringing up against transgender students during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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  2021-07-15

  High School COVID-19 Expectations and Procedures

  The document is the "COVID-19 Parent/Guardian Expectations" section of a school handbook for the 2021-2022 school year. For this school district, the 2021-2022 school year is the first year since the pandemic started that would be entirely in-person. Due to this, school staff, parent/guardians, and students were expected to comply with essential health and safety standards. The handbook covers when students should be kept home from school, how to report symptoms of COVID-19 or a positive test, bus protocols, sanitation policies followed by teachers and school staff, mask expectations, cafeteria and food procedures, accommodations for social distancing, requirements of school volunteers, and athletics. This document shows how schools worked to create policies and procedures in order to keep students in school in-person. These procedures were created in anticipation of the first school year that would be completely in-person, since the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 school years were partially online.
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  2020-05-20

  Drive-Thru Graduation at a Phoenix High School

  The photos are from the Drive-Thru Graduation Ceremony at Bostrom High School in Phoenix, Arizona. To have a graduation ceremony for the 2020 graduates, the high school put on a socially-distant commencement where parents and families could show their support from their cars. These images show the creative lengths that school staff, district staff, and parents went to give 2020 graduates a celebration that they deserve. In 2020, all people made some level of sacrifice, and the photos are an example of how communities worked together so that students did not have to lose another milestone in their lives.