Students Touch On Adjusting To New Normal
By Andre Hoofnagle
After a long school year of LaunchED, everyone was looking forward to finally going back to normal. The lack of social interactions, all assignments being online, and the difficulty of learning through long distance teaching made the year a challenging hurdle to overcome. However, with less restrictions put in place and the pandemic overall slowing down, it has allowed for the reopening of schools for all students to return back to campus. Meeting back up with friends, in-person tutoring sessions, and classroom interactions face-to-face are just some of the benefits reacquired. Nevertheless, this means the morning traffic, early mornings, and sleepless nights have returned also. That being said, it will take some time before all are fully adjusted to the return on campus.
One of the hardest parts of school returning to normal is having to wake up earlier. With LaunchED, students were able to sleep in until 7:00 a.m. and then jump onto the online conference, but regular school years require quite a bit more time to perform the morning routine. “Now I have to wake up at 6:00 a.m. to get ready on time which is a bit rough,” junior Parker Meeks explains. To be able to reach and make one’s way to school in a reasonable time, waking up early is necessary. Additionally, some people tend to be night owls rather than early birds. Getting up early and having to get dressed while squeezing in breakfast can be difficult for some students.This is where it has become challenging for the adjustment back to normal.
Since students are able to return back to school, it has allowed for social interactions to return once again, too. “I’m glad to finally be back on campus and to be able to reconnect with friends,” junior Alejandro Bernard Romero says. Returning serves as a significant benefit because students are able to connect, meet up with friends, and develop and establish new friendships more easily. Throughout the LaunchED phase, students were limited to interactions with their peers via online. This tended to be complicated and led to school becoming more of an individualistic environment than the community learning that it’s made for. Attendance rates being at a low also contributed to this environment formed. Essentially, students have been able to reconnect and socialize with friends their age once more this school year.
Another change that has taken some getting used to as students make their way back to school is having to shift from doing all online work to having a lot more work on paper. This year, many teachers have been utilizing work on paper more to change it up a bit compared to the school year prior. Although students have done work on paper since the start of their school careers, it still has made students miss the online work. Online work was able to be completed in a more efficient and organized manner, while work on paper tends to take longer and leave one’s hand worn out from all the writing. Nevertheless, the change is still welcomed by many students who prefer less screen time due to eye strain. In addition to this, instances such as the Internet going out for some and conference programs not operating accordingly caused both students and teachers alike to be looking forward to in-person classes again.
Overall, being back on campus is a step in the right direction, but will certainly take time to adjust to. Some benefits of being back on campus include the reinstitution of social interactions, the easier conditions to learn content thoroughly in, and the integration back into a community to be associated with. Getting into a routine, learning where classes are, and trying to follow safety guidelines with the COVID pandemic all come into play in getting back on track for the 2021 school year. Needless to say, the adaptation to the new-old norm will eventually occur for each and every one of us as the year continues to progress on.
