FEATURE
Changes this Year | Bella Sletteland and Margaret Kathol
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020, the curveball we didn’t see coming. This year has sprung many surprises on the world, both good and bad. More often than not, bad tends to choke out the good. Even if you hone in on negative things that happen, remember,
“If God sends you many sufferings, it is a sign that has great plans for you and certainly wants to make you a saint.” -Saint Ignatius of Loyola At Saint Mary’s this year, we’ve been extraordinarily lucky. So far we’ve been able to stay in school every day for nearly 3 months, have multiple large school activities, games, concerts, etc. There are many students from other schools who haven’t been attending classes in person since March because of school shutdowns. Even if this year ends up being one of the most unique school years, I hope we can all say it was memorable in a positive way.
The Start to a New School Year Starting from the first day. We hadn’t seen our classmates, teachers, or friends in person for probably months. It was clear from the beginning that things were going to be different, with masks, social distancing, and even split lunch periods. With these changes adding up, it was a good thing we had gotten lots of practice to get used to a more online approach to learning in the classroom. Online school hasn’t gone away completely just yet. In order to slow the spread, and to protect our friends and family, we have Distance Learning mode. We are very lucky to have such technological advancements that enable us to do this. There are some downsides to learning from home for extended periods that we are all familiar with. When you’re distance learning, you are sitting in the same chair all day. You don’t get to get up and walk to your next class which is in a different room with a different atmosphere, but it just makes us even more grateful for normal school. During the Spring of 2020, everything for school was online (Tests, notes, and worksheets). Daily activities in the classroom don’t feel as alien compared to distance learning. Even if we are spread out and Google Classroom is prioritized, I, for one, am happy to take a test on paper. It’s the strange little things that can make the year just as great as grand events. 3
At the start of the year, students were able to eat lunch on the patio where they could social distance
