learning through covid-19

By Marlene C

Covid-19 didn’t just impact working adults, it also impacted students in a huge way. It made it difficult for students to learn after going into lockdown, Covid-19 took all students by storm.

Covid-19 was hard for most students. Especially since some students and parents weren’t able to access the technology needed. According to Ms. Borrego, a Parent and Community Involvement Specialist at Yerba Buena High School, “ Distance learning was very difficult. Talking about technology, a lot of our students, especially our ELD population which are some of our students who are learning English, some of those students are not tech savvy. So it was very difficult, I had a lot of calls that I need to make to do a lot of tech support. Families that couldn’t get into Zoom, stuff like that.”

Source: Lajos Repasi / E+ / Getty Images

Students’ mental and emotional health was progressively getting worse. “Mental and emotional health was worse than before the pandemic. Kids became more fearful, poor appetites, and had trouble sleeping. 47% of teens had signs of new or worsening mental health conditions.” said in an article by Newsweek LLC. As students make their way back to school the fear of potentially catching the virus lingers in the back of their heads, and for some they would lose their appetite at school and not eat till back at home which is about 7-8 hours of not eating all day.

Students are less likely to be productive, they wouldn’t get anything done. This was a strong cause of grades dropping.The students would enter class and go to sleep ignoring the work that needed to get done. Sometimes they wouldn’t even log into class, which resulted in them failing both semesters and some are now even at risk of not graduating. There were increases of absences, meaning less learning opportunities, says Jesscia Cardichon at USA Today.

Distance learning affected students by not giving them the attention and support they need from teachers. Some students even found it difficult to focus and learn through a screen, since they weren’t in the correct environment. Sergio Murguia a senior at Yerba Buena High School says “I kinda did to be honest because, well, distance learning I didn’t pay attention as much as in-person like you get to talk. You get to hear the teacher no matter what and then just in distance learning like you would just get distracted easily.”

Arilene Soto, a sophomore at Yerba Buena says “Distance learning was kinda hard for me because sometimes I wouldn’t get the work and when I would email the teachers they wouldn’t respond..” Soto found it better to come back in person because she knew she would finally get the help and support she wasn’t able to receive the previous year.

Coming back to in-person learning was difficult for some but for others not as much. Ms.Borrego said “ Coming back for me it wasn’t because technically I didn’t leave… it was that transition of having everybody come back was a very happy moment for sure.” For some students it was a happy moment as well because they wouldn’t be stuck at home in bed all day anymore, instead they finally get to be on school campus with their friends.

Source: Gershon Elinson/ Flash90, www.timesofisrael.com

For other students it was a good moment because they prefer to just be learning in-person. Murguia feels in-person learning is better since the students get to better communicate with their teachers, and ask more questions rather than struggling and not asking for help.

Learning during Covid-19 was a struggle but students pushed as best as they could with the situation we were in and still succeeded.