STASis Ezine Spring 2021
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Table of 06. Table Of Contents
08. Meet The Editors 10. From The Ground Up
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16. Efficiency Over Time 18. Surviving In An Online World
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f Contents 22. How To Be Productive In A Pandemic 24. Cooking Over Quarantine 28. Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies 30. LASA During Covid 32. Mental Health Quiz 36. A How To On Healthy Eyes 40. Easy Eye Excercises
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Meet the Chris Martin is a freshman at the Liberal Arts and Science Academy. During his introduction to 9th grade, Covid hit and created a motivation and activity vacuum during the early portions of the year. Chris quickly invested in a hobby of video games and watching Youtube, which has kept him afloat for the time being. It doesn’t hurt that his family are all big fans of video games as well, and it is not uncommon to join together as a family to play a session of Minecraft.
CHRIS MARTIN
Wyatt Saydah is a freshm watch baseball and play born in San Francisco b was eight. He has a dog She is very energetic an cook all sorts of foods. S include pizza, cookies, c pancake recipe. Some o pizza, authentic Californ WYATT SAYDAH
Nifemi Soyemi is in her first year at LASA High School, and her main interests are in mathematics and computer science. She likes to do a little drawing on the side as a hobby and her extracurriculars involve guitar and volleyball. Nifemi has no pets, but she did use to have a turtle named Dr. Num who she cared for dearly. Her favorite pastime is watching classic movies and old sitcoms such as “Can’t Buy Me Love,” or “Friends,” for they’ve always provided her much comfort.
NIFEMI SOYEMI
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editors Sparrow Marks is a house hermit who spends most of her time inside, drawing digitally or using watercolor. Her drawings consist of many beautiful girls but for the life of her she cannot draw a male without a reference. She is currently a freshman at LASA who is learning online over zoom. She collects mugs in her free time, and currently her favorite is a mug that has a cat sitting in the bottom. Her favorite tea is almond vanilla and she drinks it on the daily. She has three cats named Princess Melvin, Snugglebutt, and Dryer. She adores them all, albeit how needy they are.
SPARROW MARKS
man at LASA. He loves to play and ys on LASA’s baseball team. He was but then moved to Austin when he named Poppy who is a labradoodle. nd loves to play. He also likes to Some of his favorite foods to cook chicken wings, and his family’s secret of his favorite foods to eat include nia burritos, and KitKats.
Conner Beam is a freshman at LASA High School. He was born in San Marcos, but moved to Austin when he was a baby. He likes to play video games and take naps in his free time. He has a Flame Point Siamese cat named Zuko. His favorite color is blue, and his favorite food is burgers. CONNER BEAM
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p U d n tin u r o a r G e h isM T r m h C Fro When Covid struck early in the year of 2020, one of the first systems to completely shut down was the school systems. The following details how that system was built, and how the plane that was contructed midfllght has weathered the storm.
The Doss Mascot watches from behind wooden beams. This comes at a time when the mascot of a School sitting behind bars calls a the future of the education system into question. photo by JoneDBR and Stantec.
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nvision sitting in the principal’s office. Not due to any punishment, but because you have climbed here, through teacher hood, through upper management, and finally principal of the school you love. You’ve left your positive impact wherever it would stick, and you run the school inching towards perfection every day. Day in, day out, you follow a schedule marked by a bell that your compatriots share, that you’ve built much of your life around. Then imagine then all that is torn to shreds as a global pandemic jumps out suddenly with no apparent ideas of leaving. Suddenly you’re no longer in a comfort zone, you’re in a minefield. Suddenly you’ve been tasked with wrangling the teachers, students, and parents under a fledgling and vulnerable system you have yet to build.
Congratulations, you’ve put your hypothetical self into the imaginary shoes of the two very real individuals that experienced this material conundrum.
the initial landing, it’s a good time to reflect.
The quick leap into the age of Covid left many daily systems winded. And that breathlessness extended to the School systems as well. After the fateful day on March 13, 2020, school principals had to kick into high gear to prepare a landing mat on which their school would land when summer that year wrapped up. Principals had to find out whether school would even be at school. It was a difficult time of rapid decision-making, so as the dust settles a bit from
Nathan Steenport is the Principal currently operating out of Doss Elementary School. He oversaw the year-long construction of a new building that finished up this year, and is currently pioneering the management of an Elementary School when the safest option requires First graders to forgo friendships and interaction. Nicole Griffith is the Principal at McCallum High School. She is preparing students for college while taking advantage of the precedent-setting time the world is in. Both schools are in very similar situations from an economic standpoint, both currently have students
An early morning shines down on the preparation for the Covid-style Pre-SAT as a McCallum test administrator waits for students to arrive. Photo by MACStudentMedia
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attending in person to their schools, as well as those at home, and both had to figure out a plan to keep students learning real fast. The first response to covid from the school system as a whole was to move education to an online platform. This action had to be taken swiftly if school was to take place at all, so the schools worked with the untested ideas they had on hand. A lot of the experience and expertise of operating an in-person school had to be thrown out the window. “Because at the end of the day, if you’re a teacher and you’re designing your lesson, and twenty-eight of your students are at home and two are in your classroom, you’re designing it for an online platform,” said Nicole “That is what you’re designing it for. It doesn’t make any sense to design it for an inperson platform because the approach to teaching is different in person than online, of course.”
to access learning. And it gets old. It was never intended to be used like this because we never intended there to be a pandemic,” said Nicole. “But one more thing about that is that a lot of school districts were not set up like that, and scrambled mightily trying to get it figured out,” continued Nicole. “ And we did have a leg up because of Blend,” Zoom was a relative newcomer, as opposed to the long-standing district recommendation that all schools use Blend. The need for the program had never been in such high demand.
What teachers commonly had on hand to teach an online student body were tools such as Blend and Zoom. These tools themselves came with some struggles. However, understanding these tools early on gave both Doss and McCallum a bit more flexibility and responsiveness when covid hit.
“It’s not the best learning environment, I don’t think, for our teachers or our students. But they’re still doing it and they’re still doing a great job. But, I think after two years, I think we are kind of getting a little bit better with that communication and just try to be on the same page as we move forward,” said Nathan.
“Blend is a tool ...
Many teachers and students also shared that sentiment,
that school would be more impactful in school buildings while taking extra precautions to ensure safety.
“I’ve always been a big believer in being in classrooms, just because I feel like that’s my job, is to [physically] see what’s going on in the instructional basis,” said Nathan. Some students didn’t even have the basic requirements needed to log in from home. Many students lacked a stable wireless connection, or any connection at all, and relied upon the schools to bring everyone up to online and information connectivity. But opening the schools in service of these students would call upon the caveat that the task of bringing students and staff in an organized and safe manner would be herculean. One step
at a time, it was critical the schools made the learning environment a safe place to avoid Covid. Photo by JoneDBR and Stantec
“We’ve done a lot this year taken, but at least as far as improving our precautions and our health we can do it with and safety standards,” Nathan a smile on our said. “I think we’ll be wearing masks for a couple of years. I face and greeting think the social distancing and people as they the little Plexiglas barriers, I see those staying around next come in,” said year… It leaves some questions Nicole. as far as what happens when they break and they become three to five years old or longer All of these complex and experimental systems in place than that. What does that are but thoughts without the replacement cycle look like?” soldiers on the frontlines. The key goal of a leader is to But physically making the inspire loyalty among their school safe would only staff. provide a half-complete job. School has to feel safe and welcoming, a home for knowledge and learning.
Doss staff plan how to move teachers into teaching in person at the school building. This is an image of the building that finished construction recently in 2020.
“You have to come through and get your temperature
Nathan recounted of the principal at Doss before him, Janna Griffin, “What she did really well when she was here was she supported the teachers. That was it, that’s the most important thing here, is that you support the teachers. That’s something I noticed pretty fast.”
McCallum staff and volunteers work on the construction of the school's newly designed outdoor stage. photo by MACStudentMedia
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Both schools have done a great deal of work experimenting with new ideas and campus arrangements. With all of the experimenting already necessary to hold school at all, now is certainly the time to try new ideas. With many of these systems advancing past infancy, it begs the question on which system will grow to have strong roots and which are only sustained by the times we’re in. Now is the time to plant the seeds that may someday grow into a foundational piece of the education system. “I do have some teachers who, whether or not they have kids there that day or that period, are teaching outside,” Nicole said. “They’re just dedicated to it… And it makes our staff feel better. Some of the staff that are the most worried are the ones like, ‘Oh, but I can do outside’” And as for Doss, they have recently finished construction on a brand new building. Nathan said that the task of building the citadel of knowledge took as much effort and keeping it as safe as possible “I see hard times like these are good times for us to learn and
to grow from. So I’m more of an optimist by nature. And so I see these types of things and I’m like, ‘Hey there’s a lot of good things that can come from this,’” Nathan posited. For the Principals from Elementary to High School, the primary takeaways are more tools for the toolbelt. The kind of things the schools had never needed to attempt before, but are now finding to prove incredibly useful. “So Zoom, I don’t think it’s going away,” Nicole predicts. “I think it’s a great way to, I mean, I’ll give you an example. I’m used to having Parent Coffey’s and parent meetings and I’m used to 20, 30 people show up and you’re like, wow, huge crowds for a parent coffee. Well now it’s not that weird for me to have to have 150
people there. They can come from wherever they are. It’s way easier than fighting traffic and getting to McCallum’s.” “There are some kids that learn well in the virtual sense,” Nathan pointed out. “That’s great. I think it’s a great question for our district to explore.”
“There’s always going to be something you don’t want to do. But you take that path that has the hill, with the rough road. You take the road that’s not so clear, because there’s a lot of great things that provide green lights, green lights meaning that’s the way you want to go... This Covid thing, moving into a new campus, staying on people and making sure they’re doing what’s best for kids, that’s the hard road.” - Nathan Steenport
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EfficiencY WE HAVE NO CHOICE but to conclude that we have unwittingly killed efficency. We are gifted an oppertunity to bring it back.
- over -
TIME
The Key of Life S choolork W
Information aquired from The Washington Post. The work at school as had a lot of factors affecting it after covid hit. First off, the teachers are much more understanding if a student were to need something from them. That’s because of the newfound vital dependence on by technology. But importantly, what was once waiting for the bell to ring is now home watching a short youtube video
Commute
Sleep
Information aquired from The Austin American Statesman. The commute for many, esspecially those attending a magnet, private, out of city or other long distance school has gone from a moderate time investment to a short walk downstairs. This catagory shows 30 minutes there nd back Pre-covid, while showing nothing during Quarantine
Sleep remains (at least in theory) simliar on either end of the covid routine change line, so no source on this one. The clock will resemble the common answer to the question, “How much sleep do people need?” A full eight hours.
HOMEWORK
Information aquired from Routlege Research in Learning Technology. Homework is simply more difficult to accomplish than it would otherwise be in school. Less direct teacher assistance, fewer classmates helping classmates, and distractions at every turn. At least 40 minutes is peent overcoming these
The majority of the time scales here are based off of the author’s personal experience. It also doesn’t take into account that humans tend to enjoy communicating, and that even the most antisocial introvert wouldn’t be opposed to meeting someone out of their house if conditions allowed. This only judges how much time a student with a moderate commute, decent work ethic, and 8 hour consistent sleep schedule would supposedly have to their own diveses. And it would seem that the Quarantine system edgdes out a lead in that case.
The hour less of commute, paired with the purely free lunch break pack a doubl punch to give us a new system to go by.
Pre-Covid
Quarantine
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SURVIVING IN AN ONLINE W
The Ramifications of our Students’ Daily Lives After an Unexpecte
By Nifemi Soyemi
All schools went virtual spread of CO nation wide
Photo by Jul
WORLD
r Being Hit by ed Pandemic
across the U.S. l after the sudden OVID-19 caused a lockdown
lia M Cameron
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nvision you’re an eighth-grader who’s about to leave middle school and enter the unfamiliar world of high school. You had just gotten comfortable in your environment and had made a safe and stable community for yourself, leaving you not quite ready to leave. You and your friends made plans for the summer before freshman year and organized in advance for the high school years to come. However, towards the end of your semester, when you were just about to prepare for your goodbyes and summer vacations, a strange and unforeseen new virus enters your life and changes everything… COVID-19 became a lifechanging part of society in December of 2019 when it was originally discovered in Wuhan, China. The virus didn’t officially make an impact on U.S.communities until March 2020, when franchises started to close down, public places began being regulated, and schools went completely online. Education systems across the U.S. were left short-changed when being in mere proximity
with your peers meant putting yourself in harm’s way from an easily transmitted virus with no known cure. This forced faculty members and students to make drastic changes, and adapt to many problems to come in the upcoming 20202021 school year. Selin Yilan, a first-year student at Bowie High School, was especially affected by COVID-19 when transitioning to high school amongst COVID-19 meant moving to a whole new setting, and along with that, into an online school environment. Yilan has expressed that one of the things she struggled with this school year was her motivation when it came to consistently attending her virtual classes. She said that the only thing keeping her remotely responsible at all was her fear of getting in trouble or reprimanded for her lack of attendance and turned in assignments.
because my mom does get mad at me a lot, and she lectures me a lot about my grades.” Yilan indicates that a big part of why she doesn’t have the motivation she needs is because learning content through a zoom meeting doesn’t accommodate well for her learning needs, even though she revealed that she loves to learn. This is a struggle that a lot of current students in the U.S. are battling during these times. “I cannot learn very well from zoom classes, so a lot of the time if I can, I just don’t attend the class and I do the work on my own,” Yilan said. “Or I sit through the class and then later on my own time, I have to go through and take notes on everything because it’s easier for me to take notes on my work than to listen to the teacher explain it to me.” Ayaaz Vohra, another current freshman who is attending Akins High School, tells us about the new systems he had to implement into his life to keep himself on top of things during this online school year. This ranges from things like him setting up more than the necessary amount of
“Honestly, I haven’t
really been keeping
myself accountable” Yilan said. “I only do it out of fear of my mother getting mad at me
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Keeping up with work can be hard during these times Photo curtesy of Yuhna satia
alarms to make sure he makes it to class on time, to him relying on his ambition for playing soccer while at the same needing to keep up his grades. “An adaptation I had to personally make because of online school was that I had to put ten alarms in a row on my phone to make sure I wake up every day,” Vohra said. “Some ways I stay active and productive in the confines of my home is worrying about my grades and sports. Worrying about these things gets me to work on them and practice them even when I don’t have anyone to tell me to do these things.” These high school students experienced changes not only in the academic aspects of their lives, but also in the social ones. Vohra says that COVID-19 made it hard for him to find ways to interact with his peers both in and outside of the virtual classroom.
“My social life was affected in a pretty negative way” Vohra said. “I text a lot of my friends now, and because of covid, I can’t hang out with them
with peers online and in real life despite public restrictions and regulations. “I play games with my friends a lot every weekend because some of my friends can’t play games during the weekdays,” Yilan said. “And I did use to hang out with my friend Isabella a bunch, but she got grounded and we haven’t been able to hang out since. But I do play games with my friends a lot.” Yilan has become less active in not only her social life, but also her physical one. She’s lost her drive for a lot of the physical activities she used to take part in when she spent more time outside and surrounded by the things that motivated her to participate in these activities.
in person.” But even in an online school environment, Vohra was able to find a way to interact with other students by using the tools and features he was provided within his zoom meetings. “In zoom calls, I use the chat a lot and talk a lot in breakout rooms,” Vohra said. Yilan also expressed her own difficulties when it came to social interaction. Yilan says that being in her house for the “I’m definitely a lot less active” majority of the time without Yilan said. “I used to go outside having to converse with others with my friends all the time in the outside world has made her lose a lot of her social skills and qualities. She explains her yearning for not only the person she used to be before COVID-19, but also the state of mind she used to have. “I’ve definitely become a lot more antisocial,” Yilan said. “I don’t really answer people that much anymore. I kind of have two, maybe three in real life friends and the rest of them are all online and I don’t hang out with anyone, so whenever I go out, I get overwhelmed really easily. I definitely do just miss how I used Selin Yilan before the to be, because I was a lot more pandemic entered her social and a happier person.” life Photo by Leyla Yilan To keep in touch with current friends, Yilan has found a multitude of new ways to connect
to play games. And I could also do sports, but since my mother doesn’t want me doing sports at school, even though it’s technically safe, I’ve been a lot less physically active, and therefore I have gotten tired whenever I do physical activity quicker than I would have before.” These two students then compared how different this academic school was from the previous ones, by going over differences, similarities, pros, and cons. Vohra expressed that although he had many limitations during these times, he was also given more opportunities for things and more free time than he had been given before. “Some differences are that I don’t interact with physical things, mostly only virtual assignments,” Vohra said. “Some pros are that I relax a lot more during school and some cons are the fact that I don’t get to interact with my teachers and friends.” Yilan has also received some new setbacks, specifically when it came to having too much
independence and free time on her hands that she didn’t struggle with previously. These types of scenarios are easy to come by when there’s no one there to hold you accountable aside from your own integrity, and when you don’t have a set schedule in place to support you, which Yilan said she plans to work on. Along with that, Yilan has found new positives when it comes to her mental state. Yilan has experienced “One of the major pros is that both positive and negative
“I don’t have to sit in
changes over quarantine Photo by Leyla Yilan
a really loud environment all day”
Freshman student Ayaaz Vohra on his way to soccer practice Photo by Mohamed Vohrah
because one effect of my PTSD is loud noises trigger me sometimes if I’m too overwhelmed with them,” Yilan said. “So I don’t really have breakdowns due to that. But one of the biggest cons is that it’s so easy for me to not do school that I end up sleeping through class on accident a couple of times, and my grades have suffered because of it.” Overall, this school year entailed needing to be more independent and self-sufficient than both students ever had been before. Yilan claims that having complete dominance over her schedule and organization of school work with no outside guidance has helped and hurt her in a lot of ways this school year. “I think definitely having more freedom and independence is a big pro, but it can also be
negative because you have to learn time management at some point in your life, and doing online school definitely has impacted my perception of my time management,” Yilan said. “I realized that I actually don’t have as much time management and I save a lot of work for the side. So, it’s helped me realize what I need to work on in the future, especially when I go to college and will be on my own.” This next coming school year brings with it a large possibility of another virtual school environment, for which students and teachers hopefully won’t be as unprepared for as the previous one. So something to take away from this peculiar year is that it made us and future generations better prepared for any changes or adversity upcoming years might present us with if dealing with physical limitations and restrictions within our communities.
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HOW TO STAY PRODUCTIV Being trapped in quarantine has been hard on everone, and has presented all of us with many struggles when it comes to productivty. So here are some helpful tips to keep yourslef on track during these tough times.
Mantain an everyday schedule A good daily schedule is is said to be a “blueprint for a successful life .” Starting off the day doing simple everyday tasks gives you a sense of purpose, meaning, and focus. It helps to motivate you to continue on a path of being productive throughout the day.
Focus on One Goal at a Time
Don’t look at a mulitude of projects and large assignments as a whole that needs to be completed.Determine what your priorities are, and spend a large portion of the beginning of the day commiting to some of each task 1 at a time.
Set Personal Goals For Yourself Take Time to stay active Being on lockdown has come with a lot of downsides, but at the same time, a lot of pros. We all have much more free time on our hands, and oppurnuties to do the things we didnt have time for before. Something we need to use that time for, is satying active!
Take Time to Declutter Your physical environment has a major impact on how productive and active you are. So take the extra time quarantine has given us, and declutter your habitat, and with it, your state of mind.
Look For Quarantine Opportunities
Have an accoumtability Partner
This information is p
VE DURING A PANDEMIC
By Nifemi Soyemi
Ask for Help When You Need it!
Have Self Care Days Participating in self-care has been clinically proven to eliminate and reduce anxiety and stress, improve concentration, minimize frustration, increase happiness, improve energy, and so much more.
Don’t Be so Hard on Yourself Give yourself a break Taking a break is about making a ‘window’ in your day where you can stop, reload, reflect, and regenerate.
Why You Should Have a Break 1. to rest your body 2. to rest your mind 3. to improve your practice 4. to allow for reflection time
Create time frames for your work Sometimes when you’re staring at a list of all the work you have to do for the week, it can seem like a mountain load that might crush you, so take your workload and break it down for what days you plan to contribute to each assignment and give yourself a refrence of how much time you’re going to designate to everything each day. This way Your boatload doesn’t seem so overwhelming anymore.
Utilize Check lists and Agendas
provided by Workzone
It can be really helpful to have all the important dates and assignmnments that you need to complete for the week in one place so that nothing is easily forgotten. You might also want a checklist so that you can set aside the daily work you want to do for the day.
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Cooking Over Quarantine
How the COVID-19 has Affected Businesses and Cooks around Austin By Wyatt Saydah
I
t is March of 2020, you pull out a pan and crack an egg. As the egg sizzles in the pan you turn on a radio. The first thing you hear is that the first case of the Coronavirus has been reported in America. The next thing you know, businesses are shut down and nobody goes outside in fear of being infected. Meanwhile, businesses don’t know what to do as people are losing their jobs because of the lack of customers. To get through the madness of this pandemic, you decide to start cooking. Cooking brings joy like almost nothing else. Having the ability to express yourself through the making of delicious food and then being able to eat and share your creation, and really enjoy what you have just done is unlike anything else. Since the start of COVID-19, sharing your creations with other people to taste has been nearly impossible. Judge Baskin is a sophomore at LASA Highschool. He was working, cooking at restaurants before the pandemic started. He also cooks extravagant meals on
his own. Baskin said that what he likes about cooking is that he can have a vision and then within two hours, he can put that vision on a plate and find out what he can change next time to make the dish even better. Baskin has a business called Biome Restaurant. They make a variety of ever changing meals for people to enjoy. Unfortunately, the pandemic has stopped them from being able to continue for the moment. Baskin said that the way he got interested in cooking is that his friend introduced him to Gordon Ramsay’s show, Hell’s Kitchen. After that Baskin said that he got interested in cooking and discovered many different recipes and tutorials on YouTube. Finally, he started testing recipes on his own and discovered his passion for cooking,
“But when you get a chance to cook, everything is in that moment. Everything is in the kitchen. You can forget about the world for an hour and a half.” - Judge Baskin “I think now, it’s just kind of
an escape. Because I mean, everything’s pretty messed up, you can tell. But when you get a chance to cook, everything is in that moment. Everything is in the kitchen. You can forget about the world for a solid hour and a half.” Baskin said. According to Baskin, there were different phases of cooking during quarantine. “Remember, in the first month, wherever people were saying, guys, I’m starting a sourdough starter, I’m gonna make bread, and I did the same thing. I had had a starter for a while, but I never really started making bread.” Baskin said. “People just kind of were saying, alright, I have all this time, and then they just kind of stopped. And I think that’s what I found, too, school has run through a lot of my time, you know? So I’ve cooked very little over the past few months. But over the summer, I tried really hard and made a bunch of new dishes.” “I think that because people had more time at the beginning.” Baskin said. “They didn’t know how to spend their time being
bored. For two months, no one knew what to do, but then people started getting good at being bored.”
Carrot Sorbet made by Judge Baskin Photo By Judge Baskin
Masa dredged chicken wings made by Judge Baskin Photo by Judge Baskin
Baskin mentioned that since the start of the Coronavirus, he has a running list of all the many recipes and ideas he has had so that once the world goes back to some sort of normal, he can make all of his recipes for people to enjoy. Chris Cunningham is the owner of a bagel shop called Nervous Charlie’s. He is a native of New York and wanted to bring the experience of New York bagels to Austin. Nervous Charlie’s has been in business for two and a half years and sells everything from bagels to sandwiches. According to Cunningham, the most popular items are the classic sandwich which is your choice of meat with egg and cheese. In terms of bagels, Cunningham says that the everything bagels are the most popular on the menu. On the subject of how business has changed since the start of the pandemic, Cunningham said, “We switched our model. Almost coming up on a year now we’ve closed down the dining room. People haven’t even been able to come in and order Nervous Charlie’s, everything’s done online. So I think we’re a little bit more aggressive from that standpoint. And like most places usually come in, order, we’re strictly just online right now. And we’ve been doing it for about a year. It’s a good model for things like bagels where it’s a quick grab and go you can take it. Cinammon roll made by Judge Baskin Photo by Judge Baskin
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Store tore front of Nervous Charlie’s
That operationally, that was probably the biggest change, just to go only model. Cunningham added that making the switch to the new model when the pandemic started was like starting a whole new business. You had to train all of the employees and make sure everything was within the CDC guidelines.
He added that after the first three months of brutal nonstop working, business slowly started coming back from then on. Most restaurants and businesses around the world have fared much worse than Nervous Charlie’s. Cunningham and many other employees have done a tremendous job keeping Nervous Charlie’s a float.
This new model was much more efficient according to Cunningham. “We’re actually considering, in the future, on the weekend, Saturday and Sunday, it’s just an online only model.” Cunningham said. “It’s more efficient, it’s easier for us, because we can see our orders out for, an hour, hour and a half, two hours, we can prepare for them.”
Although the pandemic has devastated the restaurant industry and has changed the way chefs and businesses function in the future, business is starting to come back. As people start getting the vaccine and things start to go back to how they were, Nervous Charlie’s and many other businesses and restaurants will get back to what they were doing before the pandemic.
Thanks to this very efficient system, Cunningham said that they are almost back to where they had been before the pandemic.
Cooks and chefs will go back to restaurants and do what they love and the home chefs who discovered their new hobby will continue cooking even after the pandemic is over.
Nervous Charlie’s logo Courtesy of Nervous Charlie’s
Nervous Charlie’s bagels and sandwiches Courtesy of Nervous Charlie’s
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Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies How to make my favorite quarantine recipe
1 1/2 1
1/4 1/2 1/2 1/4
1
1/2
1 1/2
Ingredients Flour
Cups of all purpose flour Teaspoon of baking soda Teaspoon of salt Cup of unsalted butter Cup of light brown sugar Cup of granulated sugar
Brown Sugar
Sugar
Egg Teaspoon of peppermint extract Cups of mint chips and chocolate chips
Peppermint Extract
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Instructions Preheat oven to 350 degrees In a small bowl, mix flour, baking soda, and salt In a large bowl, mix the butter and both sugars In the large bowl, add the egg and peppermint extract Slowly add the flour mixture and mix until combined
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LASA During Covid How Quarantine has Impacted LASA Students' Mental Health By Sparrow Marks
The Coronavirus Pandemic started just over a year ago, originating in Wuhan City, China. It spread like wildfire and reached Austin, Texas in the March of 2020. This plague swept the world by storm and it affected each and every corner, spreading like wildfire. Everything shut down, from small town shops to big business
corporations and with an average of around 70,000 positive Corona cases daily, AISD shut down their schools and taught class remotely. But what does that mean for the students? Olga Alvarado has been working with LASA for two years after graduating from The University of
D
ays pass by in a blur
You don't know how many deadlines you've missed, and you know that you need to fix it but as every second passes the load feels heavier and heavier. Yet as the clock ticks by you feel no motivation to do anything at all, and your eyes feel permanently glazed, glued to the screen of your dimly lit computer. You don't know how you can ever keep up with the pace, and right now everything seems so far away. Does it even matter, whether or not it gets done? At this point, you don't know if this is even a possible feat, or if you can manage to take the first step. Do you even want to?
Texas. Alicia Salinas has been with LASA for three years now and graduated from UT as well, previously working for three years as a social worker in the child welfare area. You can reach them at the LASA School’s Homepage in the Counselor Corner.
“When I speak with students about motivation, I try to define it more as a feeling,” Ms. Alvarado said. “If you are having a wonderful day and things are going great, your motivation level is high, however, if you are having a not-so-great day, your motivation level is low. I try to help students understand feeling motivated is just a feeling and if they want to get over the hump of low motivation to try and do something that makes them happy because then they will
that is due on this date. This causes all sorts of problems, like having too many things to do in one night, and bad grades.
“What may be harmful for one student another
be more motivated to do other things and overall improve their wellbeing.”
When doing school from home it can be hard to feel motivated, especially considering that students don't have the option to move around much or talk to other students. The simple fact is that students have no outlet, they are confined to a chair staring at a screen in a dark room for most of their time. In order to stay safe people self isolate, but while that may keep their physical health intact this can do some serious damage to one's mental health. Friends are important. Having someone to vent to or someone to laugh with relieves stress by a huge degree. Online learning is not good for the students, yes, but there is not much else to do when it comes to learning at home. When students can't focus, they are more likely to miss things in class like how to do an assignment, or a new assignment
one thrives from. Generally speaking about LASA students, I would have to
say [it] would be the grades,” Ms. Salinas said. “So many students get hung up on getting
straight A's, and most do but are extremely unhappy. Some students appear to not know who they are outside of their grades and if they do not score high enough, then [they] feel Stasis | 31
Olga Alvarado
it is a reflection on their selfworth and who they are as an individual. So not true! Your grade does not define you and you are so much more than your grade. I do understand that some of the pressure comes from the home and that is a whole other level to work on.” LASA students tend to lean on the overachieving side of things, and while that is a good thing in most cases it can affect their state of mind when they do not
reach a goal they have set for themselves. This further derails them, and affects their approach to school in feeling like they cannot achieve the goal they set before they even begin on said goal. And besides all that, it’s hard to know when to begin and when to stop when there is no schedule. There is no separation between school and home life, so when not working students can feel like they are just wasting their time and they need to get started on school. This leads to some serious burnout that doesn’t help anyone.
“Plan accordingly!” Ms. Alvardo said. “When students seek assistance because of high levels of stress I
often talk to them about how they go about planning their day, week, month, etc. I assist students in planning out their time, by the hour, day, week, weekends... many students don’t realize how much time they really have to do all the things they want to do and include time with friends, playing video games, etc. Once they master their calendar, their level of stress is reduced because they are able to do fun things that improve their well-being. So, often remind students, plan accordingly.”
Using a calendar doesn’t seem all that necessary at first glance, but you would be surprised at the amount of extra time it creates. When planning how to spend one’s time not only do you know when and where you are going to get anything done, but you also can stop thinking about what you have to do in the future and be in the moment. Because you have your plans written down you can’t forget what you need to do and that alleviates a lot of extra stress.
“What motivates one student may not work for another,” Ms. Salinas said.
“If I remember correctly from our meeting this was specific to grades. It is easy to be motivated to complete assignments when things are going right in our lives or we have something to lose
Alicia Salineas
other than just failing, like a UIL sport eligibility or something being taken away from us. It is not so easy to find motivation when we feel as if we have nothing to lose. At that point we need to change the word from motivation to discipline. We must start getting really calculated on how we spend our time. For
example, 'I’m going to work on my math homework from four to five today, then move on to English from six to seven' and so on. Everyone should have a planner and use it every day!” In short, using an agenda does wonders. While we can’t promise that it will solve all of your problems, it will let students relax a bit... without running a list of things they haven’t done yet through their mind every five seconds. Another thing that may help is talking to one of LASAs amazing counselors, Ms. Alvarado and Ms. Salinas.
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Mental Health Quiz By Sparrow Marks
Please rank how strongly you can relate to the presented statements on a scale of one to ten.
Photo taken by j e s s i c a
.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... I feel motivated on a day to day basis.
I feel interested on various things outside of electronics.
I can concentrate on things and work efficiently.
When you are done tally your points. 70 is a perfect score. If you get 55 or below, you should probably reach out to get some help.
I go outside at least once a day.
I have a lot of energy.
I get eight to ten hours of sleep a night.
It is easy to collect my thoughts and stay focused.
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A HOW TO ON HEALTHY EYE During this pandemic most forms of work have gone online. It is important to practice safe habits for your eyes, so hopfully you will learn something from reading this.
Image of an eyeball holding a carrot, image provided by Harcourt Health.
ES
By Conner Beam
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T
he time is 10:43, you can feel your eyes fighting to stay open. You finally decide that it’s time to get some shut. After putting all of your stuff away and turning off your computer, you lie down in bed. There is only one problem, you can’t fall asleep. I suggest adding a paragraph about tossing/ turning, staring at the ceiling, something along those lines. After what feels like an eternity you finally drift off. Has this ever happened to you? The feeling of being tired but not being able to fall asleep. The problem might be right in front of you. Bluelight from the computer that most people use almost every day might be contributing to the reason you can’t go to sleep. Dr. Shusmita H. Rahman has been practicing optometry for over 20 years. She was an Optometrist in the US Navy for Four years while she was based in San Diego, CA, and now
works at South Park Meadows Optometry. “Bluelight is part of a spectrum of light that’s kind of close to the ultraviolet range, but it’s visible,” Says Rahman. “The reason that blue lights are kind of a popular thing to talk about, because a lot of our devices like computers, cell phones, they all have a blue light that emits
“Well, there are many things you can do,” Rahman says. “More important than anything is using the common sense rules when using computers.” “You want to have a good, six to sixteen inches away from you.” That isn’t the only thing that you can do to protect yourself. According to Rahman there are other ways to keep your eyes
Image of blue light wavelengths, image provided by Cultural Health Solutions. that.”
and mind safer.
The fact that something we use every day might be hurting us is kind of a scary thing to think about. What’s not so scary is that there is a way to protect your eyes from blue light.
“You also want to have this thing called [the] 20 20 20 rule, which is for every 20 minutes of looking at a computer screen or device, look away for about 20 seconds at [something] about 20 feet or further,” says Rahman. “That resets the body a little bit and makes sure you get a full reset.” Another good way to keep your eyes healthy is to practice good computer hygiene. This is important because blue light isn’t the only thing that can harm your eyes.
Image of Dr.Rahman with a child, image from the south park meadows optometry website.
“So we don’t often blink enough,” says Rahman. “that robs the moisture of the front surface of the eye.” “When I say blinking, I’m talking about
just a general blink. It’s not like forceful blinks. But often you want to kind of be really cognizant that we don’t blink enough.” Trying to force yourself to blink more can be a difficult task, but it can really help your eyes out a lot. It keeps your eyes moisturized which is really important to their health. Another thing to do on top of that is to wear your glasses if you have them.
you aren’t getting the sleep you need. “Well, first of all, if you don’t get enough sleep and your entire body is affected, right?” says Rahman. “[When you sleep] your cells inside your body are very active, they’re restoring, they’re cleaning, they’re
It’s obvious that you need sleep, and if you can’t fall asleep then that is dangerous to your well being. Some people find that if they put up the electronics how long? Suggest a timeframe- 30 minutes, an hour before they go to bed, then it is easier for them to fall asleep.
“I think the most important thing is having the correct prescription when you’re looking at a device for a long time,” Rahman said. When talking about blue light the circadian rhythm usually comes up. This is the body’s natural clock. It lets you know when to sleep and wake up. When blue light interferes with your circadian rhythm it is bad for your eyes and body because
Image of a person sleeping, image provided by Kathi MacNaughton. repairing their building for the next day.
Image of the circadian rythem, image provided by Liveli.
“So if you take a break from [electronics] an hour before you go to sleep, a couple of things are happening,” says Rahman. “You’re taking a break from all the information that you’re getting right? Before you go to sleep it’s a good idea to really just give yourself that time to rest and say okay, I’ve had a great day.” The thing to keep in mind during these trying times is to stay healthy. Whether that is picking up a hobby to stay sane or to start working out to work your muscles you need to remember to take care of yourself.
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Easy Eye Exercises 20 20 20 Rule Eye strain is a real problem for a lot of people. Human eyes are not supposed to be glued to a single object for extended periods of time. If you work at a computer all day, the 20-20-20 rule may help prevent digital eye strain. To implement this rule, every 20 minutes, look at something 20 feet away for 20 seconds.
Focus Change -Hold your pointer finger a few inches away from your eye. -Focus on your finger. -Slowly move your finger away from your face, holding your focus. -Look away for a moment, into the distance. -Focus on your outstretched finger and slowly bring it back toward your eye. -Look away and focus on something in the distance. -Repeat three times.
Near and Far Focus -Hold your thumb about 10 inches from your face and focus on it for 15 seconds. -Find an object roughly 10 to 20 feet away, and focus on it for 15 seconds. -Return your focus to your thumb. -Repeat five times.
Figure Eight -Pick a point on the floor about 10 feet in front of your and focus on it -Trace an imaginary figure eight wtih your eyes. -Keep tracing for 30 seconds, then switch directions.
For centuries, people have promoted eye exercises as a “natural” cure for vision problems, including eyesight. There’s very little credible scientific evidence suggesting that eye exercises can improve vision. However, exercises can help with eyestrain and may help your eyes feel better. Stasis | 41
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nk Tha you for rea ding
