munster high school issue one volume 55 Sept. 4, 2020
8808 Columbia Ave. Munster, IN 46321
photo by Anthony Young
LOGGING ON TO LEARN Setting up Blackboard Collaborate for his English 10 class, Mr. Benjamin Boruff, English teacher,manages his laptop, “I’ve been exceptionally impressed with the students and how they’ve abided by everything,” Mr. Boruff said. “I will say it’s definitely weird to look in the hallways and see how empty they look, just day-by-day.” photo by Gia Cvitkovich
LEARNING REIMAGINED Navigating her laptop in Geometry class, Kylie Madura, freshman, completes her school work. Classes have taken on a new look this school year, with plastic dividers, masks and new furniture in general.
Divided, yet united
photo by Madi Green
A NEW TERRAIN Logging onto her Powerschool, Kate Krawczyk, junior, checks her grades, ”I feel very safe at home,” Kate said. “I know if I were at school I’d be super nervous the whole time. At home I feel free to just go to the bathroom when I need to and not worry about whether or not someone with COVID was in there.”
Students and staff reflect on adjustments made for the current school year Atarah Israel Managing Editor
When school started for Zach Lenaburg, junior, learning as he knew it had been dismantled, rearranged and reshaped to fit the confines of a 13 inch Dell laptop. For students like Kenna Teske, junior, learning took a step closer toward normality, yet was far from what it used to be. For Mr. Benjamin Boruff, English teacher, an entirely new terrain waited before him, one that, in like manner, required an entirely new approach. For all three parties, one truth has become clear— school no longer meant school, but a new dimension of adversity faced in the midst of a pandemic.
Zach Lenaburg, eLearning
A typical day for Zach entails waking up, logging on to Blackboard for school for about seven hours,
heading off to football practice, returning home to complete any homework and hauling off to bed to repeat the next morning. Throughout his schedule, however, he has discovered deviations from a traditional in-school schedule, largely made possible by eLearning. “During my extended MRT, if I’m just exhausted that day, I just nap,” Zach said. “I’m not productive if I don’t have sleep in me.” Like most, the choice to return to school as an eLearner stems from multiple reasons for Zach. His most prominent reason is a concern for safety, but not solely for himself. “My sister went in-school at first, but I was just always nervous,” Zach said. “I just didn’t want to catch [something] and then be the reason it spread to my mom or dad. I 100 percent think I made the right choice. I do better here. My sister, actually, just switched to eLearning.” Despite his confidence in his decision, a troubling challenge he has faced as an eLearner is managing classes from home, especially more rigorous classes. “I know multiple people who are having trouble dropping down to regular classes because they originally thought they could do the AP, but can’t handle it now with eLearning,” Zach said. “The school is not being very lenient on people dropping
classes [and] it’s just hard. [With] eLearning, you don’t want to go to school and expose yourself but at the same time you also want to pass classes and some AP classes are hard to pass at home.”
Kenna Teske, in-person Fueled by a desire for teacher interaction, the choice to return to school physically was straightforward for Kenna. “I chose in-person because I figured that getting to know my teachers would be more beneficial,” Kenna said. “They would actually be able to see my face, and actually help me out more than just at home. [In-person learning] is probably more efficient because you can actually go to your teachers whenever you want to get help.” Along with the benefits of in-person learning, concerns for safety are also prevalent among school-goers. “I know people are starting to get concerned and get tested here,” Kenna said. “I know LC [Lake Central] just got their first confirmed case, so that kind of scares me.”*
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