In the past, school was only canceled due to severe weather. However, March 2020 changed all of that. With the emergence of the deadly illness COVID-19, some schools across the world have had to completely shut down, even temporarily, and all schools have had to adjust curriculum to accommodate students working from home.
Marshfield High School junior, Sierra Belisle, has few complaints as to how the year has been going so far. According to Belisle she prefers online school because it has made focusing in class much easier for her.
“I like how all of my assignments are in one spot,” said Belisle. “I can pay attention better on the zoom call because they are dispersed and not for very long, compared to school where you have to focus for up to 6 hours everyday.”
From another perspective, senior Cameron Miller dislikes online school because it is more difficult for him to focus and stay on task.
“It is hard to stay on task because it is very easy to break the habit of doing work every day and once you do that it gets harder and harder to get caught up,” said Miller.
This year, a learning program called Edgenuity has been adopted by the school district to try to keep things equitable and make the same education available for all students. According to Social Studies teacher Ashley Caballero, she misses teaching her own material.
“I do not prefer Edgenuity because it is that one size fits all education,” said Caballero. “It is not personable or specific to each student; I understand the need for Edgenuity, however I do not prefer it for myself because I like to personalize my class.”
According to Caballero, she dislikes online school as a whole because it is very hard to form a relationship with her students.
“During the year, I get my motivation to do my job from the kids,” said Caballero. “Being at a distance, you don’t get that motivation because you don’t have those connections and relationships because you are teaching, a lot of times, to black boxes. It is really difficult to make a relationship with a black box and not a face.”
