With the school year coming to an end, both students and teachers have time to reflect on their year and the year to come. With the way the school year has been many students wounderd about how next year will be if it will truly be a return to normalcy that the school and state is promising.
Current school year student’s responses were met with concerns about grades and others doing fine. James Threet, a junior at Sierra Pacific High School said that “My goal was just to make it through this year with a grade I’m proud of. ”He also added that “It wasn’t any easier with me starting to take two AP classes, ap english and history.”
Both students and teachers were satisfied with the block bell schedules some more than others. Vicki Alves and Mary Quintero both teachers at Sierra Pacific high school. Alves teaches integrated science and chemistry while Quintero teaches AP literature, English 3 and lit survey.
Alves stated that “The longer periods are excellent, sadly we won’t keep them next year but if there were a vote to bring them back I wouldn’t vote to not bring them back. Quintero said “The bell schedule will not stay but it was very beneficial for my class specifically letting me teach a subject and not have to wait until the next day to check if students understood I could teach and let students practice and then give feedback all in one period.”
Students like Jonathen Gil along with others said “ This bell schedule is not being used to its fullest extent and leaving much wasted time”. He also stated that “ I know the extra time we have is good to work on other classwork and missing work but what if you don’t have any.”
Another student had the same issue. Grace Nguyen said “The extra time to do homework and study is great but much of the time is wasted.” Also that “Classes are really long and most students around like 50 percent of them lose attention especially for those who already struggled to pay attention to begin with.”
Andres Carrillo said “This current three to four periods a day is much less overwhelming than the standard seven periods a day more digestible.” Gil agrees with Carrillo stating “ The three to four classes a day at first were odd but after some time it became normal and switching it back to seven classes a day would be hard at first but I believe it’s a step in the right direction.”
The thought of every student returning has students and teachers alike excited. “ It feels like it’s the natural next step to return everyone hopefully by then mostly everyone is vaccinated.” stated Threet. “ I’m looking forward to seeing everyone on campus again. We have been discussing at meetings how to deal with everyone already,” said Alves.
Quintero stated “I missed talking with everyone and you guys on the meet rarely speak unless you’re told to so having everyone back will make school more interesting.” When asked to elaborate on what was interesting, she said “ Classes always have personalities to them but this year only two of my classes have people who speak and chat while others like my third period are silent no one talks ever.”
Student’s thoughts on teachers adapting well and caring were with the ones that care for their grades saying yes teachers were more understanding and the others who don’t mind a F or two saying they didn’t see much of a difference. “I think they were supportive and understanding,” Nguyen said.
Quintero stated “ Students did get affected by the pandemic and did have to adapt to learning in new conditions but a majority of students did that well and kept their grades up while others refused and kept blaming the pandemic.”
Alves stated “ I’ve always been good with technology and using computers so adapting to online learning wasn’t a big issue but I did learn new things during this time like the capabilities of the chromebooks.” Queintero would state the same that she has never been bad with technology but she does forget to unmute every now and then.
Gil said “That this time spent online and the new learning system has brought many positives in being able to not need to carry a pound heavy book around and being able to reach out to teachers easier.”
Threet stated “ That students will have a hard time readapting next year especially those who stayed on distance learning they will have more issues to face.” Nguyen went on to add “Cohort C students have had more free time then students at school. The teachers let them out earlier though they get distracted more while we stay in school and study.” Carrillo went on to say that “ Cohort C students will have some difficulties as always but will only last the first week at most.” It will be difficult for those who stayed in distance learning to adapt to school learning at first but students are optimistic that it’s not going to be an issue for long.
“I uh don’t really know if I had any goals this year or have any for next year I guess I would say to get all A’s and B’s” said Gil. Many students had the same response as Gil with hopes to have A’s and B’s and perform well on AP exams passing with a score of four or five.
Teachers’ goals were looking forward to seeing all students against seeing everyone one with their friends and being happy with the halls full and their classrooms fuller. “Teachers have had discotions already about next year preparing to review past subjects.” Alves stated. In terms of being prepared teachers have had meetings already and are preparing to reteach if they must to students in case a large number of them aren’t as prepared.
Most students said that they are prepared for next year and that the teachers did their job well. It’s not up to the teachers to learn the subjects they teach its students who must learn it with or without struggling. Threet says ”I personally feel prepared and my teachers have prepared me well.”
Masks are a big part of everyone’s daily lives and teachers are having difficulties with them. “Masks make kid’s voices muffled and for those soft speakers in class who I can barely hear already, not being able to hear them let alone read their lips is a hindrance.” Quintero stated. Alves had the same issue with masks having to ask kids to lower it, lift it or to speak louder.
For next year teachers and students both hope that marks won’t be as needed but they have no issue with counting to wear them. Corrillo says that I personally like wearing masks because they make me look better and I’ve heard from female friends that they like them for similar reasons.”
Students as well as teachers had the same views on getting vaccinated and having everyone vaccinated. Alves, Quientero, Threet, along with others agreed that the students should be advised to be vaccinated not forced to but recommended to vaccinate. There is a lot of misinformation out there and people are just ignorant. The faster people get vaccinated the faster we can return to normalcy.