OPINION Masks muffle class communication Ariel Hunter staff writer Wearing a mask can make it hard for students and teachers to communicate with each other — whether it be, talking, teaching, or helping a student out. Social distancing can be hard especially if a student wants to talk to their friend, but they cannot because they have to socially distance if they do not wear a mask. Some people talk quietly in general, and with a mask on, it makes it more difficult to understand and hear them. During class when students can talk quietly, it is really hard to hear others. Friends and classmates cannot hear each other, which makes it really hard to communicate, especially during group activities. Wearing a mask can be distracting when a student’s mask does not fit properly or if the student has asthma or any other health problems. Many students in classes sit six feet apart at one table, so students have to project their voices when working together in groups. Then, when every student projects, it makes the classroom noisy, making hearing one another more difficult than before without the masks.
guest writer
Photo by: Isabela Diaz
Can you hear me now?: Students, like Kaidan Whittaker (11) and David Gaffney (11) pictured above, must wear masks as they walk the halls and sit in classes, if they cannot be socially and physically distanced at least six feet. When wearing masks, communication becomes muffled, making classes, such as Spanish and French, harder to hear and understand and group or partner projects difficult as every student tries to raise their volume to be heard through their mask.
Hailey Christoff staff writer
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Opinion
Tests should move to open book option Rachael Mount
Sports should halt until approved vaccine released With sports occurring this fall, many students and parents speculate on whether they should permit athletes to participate in seasonal sports. As of Sept. 14, the state of Indiana has reached more than 109,000 cases, with only 736 deaths confirmed. In most sports, a remarkable amount of physical contact occurs. For example, the amount of physical contact in football or the
THE WAY WE SEE IT
bursts of contact in soccer as players brush up against the other when there is a skirmish for the ball. As for tennis, the home and visiting teams will have to manually touch the scorecards, and they also distribute a pair of tennis balls that will be touched when serving. Cross-country has a large number of athletes packed together before they take off. Volleyball players can barely socially distance each other, only allow-
Sept. 2020, Issue 1
ing a couple of feet apart while on the court. The best solution is to only allow non-contact sports, such as golf, to continue with their season. This will decrease the likelihood of a large outbreak within the school, allowing the school to continue in class. As a whole, however, schools should postpone all sports until a vaccine has been tested and approved by the Centers for Disease Control.
Online learning has made the ability to cheat greater than ever because they do not have any proctors or guidance on exams; therefore, all tests should be made open book to make the situation fair across all students. In class, teachers can walk around and monitor student activity during important exams; however, when students perform online exams, that ability is no longer present. Although teachers should be able to trust their students, cheating is nearly inevitable because they have much more freedom than students in the classroom. School officials should allow standard classroom students to utilize open book resources on exams. This will allow the system to be equal and fair for both online and in-class students. Teachers should put guidelines on this allowance, such as limiting the time available and making the questions harder for all students: online and in-person. Guided open book exams will teach students to collaborate and learn to access the right resources. Teachers could make more application questions, so students simply do not restate memorized facts that they see in their notes. For science and math classes, students would receive the formulas needed to answer the question and they would have to apply that and show their work. Students, in-class and online, would learn more from this method of testing than how it works currently. Universities around the country realize this same issue as institutions cannot obliterate cheating for this year with students attending online and in-person, so they have authorized open book tests for their students. Many schools have tried online software systems to monitor activity on exams but none have proven adequate and students are creating an uprising due to testing anxieties. We should seek to level the playing field for in-person students. School administrators should consider making the change to open book exams to prepare our students for higher levels of schooling and equip them with testing skills that will last.
