Sophomore Julia Chapman, felt the sudden change of smaller classes due to COVID-19. "In Drama we have to stick with monologs or duos rather then [large] class activities." Julia lost a couple experiences she was looking forward to. She said "A lot of clubs I was really excited in participating in, I am unable to do. With the musical I would have wanted to do that." - Trenten Maize (12)
Sophomore Camryn Martin said the main things that have changed because of Covid-19 is having to wear a mask while she plays volleyball and having to be socially distanced all the time. She likes where we are right now at level 2. She said “ Where we're at now, I feel like it is helping, and we’ve had very few cases, so I feel like if we went down to [level] 1 and don't take the precautions, it wouldn’t help anything.” She hopes to one day be back to normal so she can see her friends more often. - Aiden McKim (12)
I sat down with Crissy Bane, high school social studies teacher, to get her thoughts on teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic. She told me it is harder to make connections with students from behind a mask as well as her shower curtain around her desk. Bane prefers to be out in front of the class including face to face teaching. Bane added that A & B days have their perks, “It’s easier to keep up with grading.” She also mentioned that this system is not ideal for students because bigger classes make it more comfortable for students to speak in class. Bane said “There’s safety in numbers”. Regarding classwork, Bane mentioned that there is no difference in productivity compared to a normal school year. “Those students who do their homework keep up, those who don’t still have issues”. Regarding teaching the same thing every A & B day, Bane told me, “I hate teaching it with every fiber in my body”. She says repeating every two days makes it harder to get through the curriculum and it is hard to keep students up to date in class. - Madison Payne (12)
I interviewed the Athletic Director Sara Williams on her thoughts about Covid-19 and how it affects sports. Williams takes athlete’s safety seriously to ensure that we have a full schedule of games for all sports. Williams wants us all to focus on the positives like the live streaming of games. She also wants us to know that they are doing the best they can to make sure we are safe, but also have fun at this unprecedented time. - Aiden McKim (12)
Debbie Snyder, an education teacher at KATC, shared her thoughts on COVID-19 teaching with me. Snyder said it is hard for her to do group activities since students are separated by the A & B day schedule.
This teaching style has forced her to stop doing some of her research based strategies she normally likes to use in class. She also has few interactions with her students. Her daily classwork is going at a slow pace, but everyone is keeping up with it.
“I’m super impressed with our students”, Snyder commented in regards to working around this pandemic. She also mentioned that level 3 would be hard to teach. This was an hour before we found out we had pivoted to level 3.
She also mentioned “I am super impressed with the Kirksville teachers.” Snyder said teaching half of the class at home and half the class at school is hard enough, but teachers here are handling it well.
I asked Snyder what her thoughts were on the future of teaching, she told me she was afraid that these new developments would be the new standard for teaching. Regarding online instructions, Snyder stated, “They have told us to have it in the back of our mind”.
She also told me that she had some idea this would eventually happen. Snyder added that the administrators have done a fair job with the school year so far. She mentioned that other schools are not doing as much as they should to help prevent COVID from spreading around us.
-Madison Payne (12)