By Talia Reiss
Education during a pandemic is not easy. Students have the daunting responsibility of balancing schoolwork with co-curriculars, personal responsibilities, and mental health; a challenge that is exacerbated by rising economic insecurity and today’s political turmoil. Likewise, being an educator in the age of COVID comes with its own set of obstacles, and it’s certainly not a position I envy.
If we want to create a hybrid system in which we can all thrive, we need to listen to one another and work together as a Nyack community. To begin this process, I spoke with four students whose experiences I felt best represented Nyack: freshman Sydnie Ampofo (red cohort), sophomore Nina Petrou (blue cohort), junior Kryss Rojas (fully remote), and senior Calvin D’Andrea (red cohort).
Needless to say, their experiences do not speak for our entire community. However, each student offered a unique perspective that, when combined with the others, form a guide that explains how teachers and administrators can work toward a more perfect system.
The Good
There’s a lot about our hybrid system that is working well; administrators have created a schedule that generally helps students maintain a solid routine, and teachers have adopted creative solutions that are helping students learn and navigate such a challenging period in our lives.
Responding to a question about the positive aspects of our hybrid system, D’Andrea said he likes the alternating day schedule because “if you’re out of school for too long, you get out of your element.”With a schedule based on rotating days, he said, “you don’t have to re-adjust.” Petrou agreed: “Hybrid learning is a good change from doing the same thing every day.”
Socially and emotionally speaking, most students seem to appreciate frequent emails from guidance counselors. Wellness checks, like the Google Forms some of Ampofo’s teachers have been posting on Schoology are also helpful. Similarly, Rojas is grateful teachers have “open arms for any feedback,” adding “students know that if they have a problem, they can email their teacher [who is] working just as hard to try to balance things”.
Academically, “I think teachers are adjusting the workload decently well as they need to,” Rojas said.
The Bad
Every student I spoke with agreed that a major problem with our hybrid system is their ability to focus during remote days. D’Andrea, in particular, is struggling with distractions like a lonely instrument or a comfy bed, perhaps laced with a little senioritis. Each of the other students commented on their limited focus while learning at home as well, which is a serious problem for fully remote students like Rojas, who spend five days a week learning in an environment full of distractions. Sydnie Apofo is finding herself putting more energy into staying mentally present while learning virtually, causing her to “feel a lot more tired on the days that [she’s] fully virtual.”
Because teachers are moving forward with their curriculums by introducing a new lesson each day, it’s important for students to receive the same quality of education every day of the week - not just when they’re physically in the building. Petrou is finding that “[teachers] always either neglect the group that’s online and just focus on the students that are in the class and vice versa.” For fully remote students, these issues could set them back tremendously in comparison to those who are attending school part-time.
In response to a question asking if students have been able to balance their personal and emotional lives with a seemingly increased workload, Ampofo said, “I don’t really think I’ve been able to. Maybe it’s just high school and I’m just not used to it, but I feel like the teachers are giving us more work so I don’t have too much time to focus on mental health.” During a time when our lives hardly resemble the ones we once knew, mental health needs to be prioritized, not placed on the back burner.
Generally, Petrou is “not exactly a fan of the double day schedule with two A days and then two B days,” adding that the alternating Fridays have been confusing for her and many of her teachers.
The Fix
Each of these problems has a solution, and it’s important that teachers and administrators take into account the ideas of those who are most impacted by hybrid education: the student body. “I feel like teachers should cut students some slack with online learning and hybrid,” Petrou suggested. “[Teachers] could be a little more understanding towards students who might be struggling with stress because we’re not used to this, and with everything going on, they really don’t know every situation.”
D’Andrea recommended each teacher post a schedule or even a calendar to help students maintain a routine during “such an unstructured time,” and Ampofo requested that teachers “actively check their emails to make sure that everybody’s getting the help they need.”
For Rojas, the solution is simple: “less is more.”