Students Miss Friends and Adjust to Online School

Students+Miss+Friends+and+Adjust+to+Online+School

Ryan Watt and Sydni Smith, News Editors

The coronavirus: something we are all too familiar with came quickly and took so many things with it. It has taken so many things from so many people. It has taken the lives of family members and friends. It has taken school, sports, and normal lives from everyone. It’s impact will last for an unknown amount of time, and that’s what is one of the hardest parts of it: the unknown.

March 13th and until now has been a strange time for students. We have had to readjust to a new, temporary normal.

Student Morgan Jensen says it’s mostly scary because we don’t know when it will be safe again. Most would probably agree. With so many precautions in place, doctors are predicting when the peak will happen. There are predictions but no one can be certain when all this pandemic will end.

With the closure of schools in the Canyons District and others across the nation, the question of when everything will get back to normal is being asked more often now. Ian Smith says one of his biggest fears with the coronavirus is “that it will go on for longer than past May.” People are saying that after May, things might go back to normal very slowly but still, everyone is anxious about the future.

Online classes through Zoom and Google Meets are just one of the ways teachers are teaching their students. “It is easier for me to learn from home,” says Kennedy Phillips. “When I learn from home I can move at my own pace.”

The closure is helping many students learn at their own pace, but is it also affecting their learning? Kennedy Phillips points out that a lot of the teachers are expecting their students to work just as hard at home as they do in class. Though this sounds like a good thing, Kennedy expressed concerns for the students who might be struggling with at-home learning.  “There are some kids who struggle at school with the teacher there. So imagine how difficult it is when the teacher isn’t there to help them. Those students can’t get help from peers anymore and emailing the teachers might not always be the best way of getting help”.

Education isn’t the only thing that has changed for students. Now, there is no social aspect of school when it is at home. Students can’t even go see each other because of the risk of getting the coronavirus from their friends or giving the coronavirus to them.

I miss school. I miss being with all of my friends and going through the day with them, but I also know that by staying away from them during this time, I’m not only keeping myself safe from getting the virus, but I’m also protecting my family and anyone else I may accidentally come into contact with.

— Alisha Ruiz

For seniors, they may have had their last day of school without even knowing. There were so many plans and things to look forward to, and then suddenly it is not there anymore. Austin Palmer says, “It sucks that I won’t be able to say goodbye to my school friends and that our last school dances were canceled.”

However, some students are optimistic about how the closure of schools will impact school and themselves. Some even think that this will prepare schools to handle situations like this in the future if at-home learning is ever required again. Megan Palmer is one of these optimists and states, “I think we will be prepared if something of this nature ever happens again. The teachers would then have a sense of how to put their classes online. Even classes like Woodshop, where you need to be in class to work, can use this time to figure out how to teach online if something like this ever happens again.”

There are so many different ways people are staying positive during all this. Ireland Perri says “I’m just trying to make sure I’m controlling what I can in my life.” While Audrey Iverson is doing things outside as much as possible and painting as well.

The COVID-19 pandemic is one to mark history. This is new for all of us and we all need to hang in there. This is tough, and it is taking so much from us, but for now, we have to stay in quarantine so we don’t put ourselves or the people we love at risk of getting the coronavirus. There are so many unknowns in this all right now, so just remember to stay positive and control the things we can!