Learning Through A Pandemic

COVID-19 came as a surprise to many, its sudden arrival changed our way of living.

Photo by Fusion Medical Animation on Unsplash

Many businesses were highly impacted, people lost their jobs, while others lost their life. Education was greatly affected by the virus. In person classes were canceled. Schools and universities switched to online learning, causing a problem for many.

Davian, 4th grade student, discussed his experience with online learning,

“The hardest thing about learning online is that sometimes the assignments would be very hard because you can’t see the examples of what the teacher is saying or explaining or doing which makes it very hard to understand. COVID-19 taught me to be safe, distance, it is still the same, you just have to distance. You’re still with your friends, everything is fine, you just have to be safe.”

It’s been over a year since COVID-19 was declared as a pandemic. Students and teachers have struggled since then to adjust to new methods of teaching and learning.

Perla Lopez, high school senior, described the challenges she faced as the school year progressed,

“At first it was really hard, internet connectivity, the platforms that they were using were having trouble. My teachers didn’t know what to do or how to present things to us, multiple times my teachers forgot to put the recordings in the classroom so we were all over the place, we weren’t really learning at first, now it kind of got better. My advice is you know there’s going to be things that are going to affect you and your way of learning, just stay positive, we’re all in the same boat. There’s more people that are going through this than just me, just stay positive, things will go back normal now that people are getting vaccinated, pretty soon we’re going to be back to normality.”

Students were not the only ones who suffered, educators had many obstacles to overcome as well.

Davian Milan is currently a 4th grade student attending Cloverleaf Elementary through virtual classes ever since COVID-19 was declared as a global pandemic in 2020(left). This is what Davian’s desk looks like. He attends classes from his bedroom(middle). Each student was provided with a Chromebook to ensure that those with no access to computers were able to complete their school work(right).

This is the overall view of Davian’s working station. He makes sure to keep his backpack within arms reach so he does not miss a minute of lecture(left). Students in Texas are expected to take the STAAR test, a test designed to determine their academic ability. Davian describes how hard it has been to accommodate learning virtually but has high hopes that he will pass the important exam(middle). Davian’s teachers instruct through a Zoom meeting then split into smaller groups. Throughout the day the teachers allow the students to do work on their own but if any questions come up, they are able to reach out to them by using Zoom(right).

After an entire year of not attending classes in person, Davian prepares to head to school for his first day of face-to-face instruction(left). Davian is excited to be able to attend school in person instead of a screen even if it is just for the last nine weeks of school(right).

Ms. Milan, elementary school teacher, explains the difficulties that arose,

“I think that the hardest thing about teaching online was that the little ones, the kindergarteners, it was hard for them to read a book because they are not holding the book so they don’t know how to start from left to right or teaching them how to write because in order for them to learn how to write, you have to hold their hand and because of COVID-19, we’re not allowed to touch them a lot.”

It is uncertain what will happen but it is best to remain hopeful that one day things will go back to normal.