Less Kids Attending School In Person

This year school looks very different than it did in the past. Most students are remote three days and in person two days, but there is also a majority of students that are fully remote all five days. Even though school is not an option, it certainly feels like it is this year. Since we are broken up into two different cohorts. We do not  always see our friends either.

With all of these factors it makes students not want to attend school, because it is easier to log onto zoom and do your work from home. That being said, many kids are not getting the proper education because of a lot of assignments we are teaching ourselves. It is also very hard for the teachers because they never know how to properly lesson plan, because the amount of students in person class varies each day.

According to the CDC, there are many different risks of going to school while there is still a spread of the coronavirus. The lowest risk is: ¨Students and teachers engage in virtual-only classes, activites, and events.¨ Even though this seems like a very simple thing to do, it is extremely difficult to stay home all the time, because teengaers need social interaction with their peers. Some risks about school include, ¨Small, in-person classes, activities, and events¨. Also, ¨No mixing of groups of students and teachers throughout/across school days¨. The two quotes above are the risks if a school offers hybrid learning, but most students are at home and a few are in the classroom.

 Medium risks include, ¨Larger in-person classes, activities, and events¨. Secondly,¨Some mixing of groups of students and teachers throughout/across school days¨. Medium risks are when most students are in person and only a few are online. The higher risks of school are, ¨Students and teachers freely sharing objects¨. Higher risks are when everybody is only in the classroom. Lastly the highest risk is, ¨Students mixing freely between classes and activities¨. This is when students attend school and are engaged in afterschool activities. Even though sometimes there are risks to your actions, going out while still being safe during the pandemic is what humans need to thrive in life. 

Now that we are approaching the second semester at Timberlane Regional High School ,students get a chance to pick what academic route we please. At the start of the school year all students got to decide whether or not we wanted to return back to school. First, it was 50/50 on the selection with hybrid and fully remote, but now that we are approaching the depth of winter most students are feeling extremely unmotivated to go into school. The students that chose to go fully remote will now get the option to return back to hybrid school.  It is unclear at this time the ratio between hybrid learning and fully remote.

When I am in class I have noticed less people in the classroom every time I attend. Is this because of the different types of risks above? Or, is it because attending zoom classes is easier than going into class? From the beginning of the year the population of students in the classroom has decreased. At this rate in the second semester there will be more students online than in person. With this difficult year, everybody is trying to get by. But is the new way to succeed in life by logging in from home?