Glenforest

Student Voice

Photo: Varun Dhanam

1) How do you feel about returning to the traditional semester format this semester?

2) Has there been any sort of silver lining to the pandemic for you?

"I personally like the switch in the schedule. I think it was really hard to stay on top of everything when you had to switch courses every week, especially considering that you’re not supposed to be working on the previous week’s work. You would be missing out on a week of review, which meant you would often forget everything you learned on the previous friday."

"There's pros and cons. I think I get to meet a lot more new people. So that's something that's pretty good. But I think having four courses a day is pretty bad for me, especially because I don't like to deal with four courses every single day. I'd rather just spend two hours on something and get stuff done, versus spending 75 minutes and not getting that much done and just having to move on to different courses."

Photo: Varun Dhanam

Teacher Response: "I like the one hour classes. And not from a teaching perspective — I get a lot more done with two and a half hours — but from a learning perspective. It's easier for students to walk away, try to comprehend, and digest the material when it's in small chunks. So in the end, it makes my job easier, and it's beneficial to students. Even though I can do a lot more with two and a half hours, it’s not very effective. I could talk for hours. So it's all good, but I just don't think it's effective. I don't think it works."

"Generally speaking, no. It was fun at first because I didn't have to wake up absurdly early in the morning. Afterwards, it sort of became a struggle to see how long we could stay online while keeping our sanity intact. After that, it turned into a living nightmare where all we could do was stay at home — no social interactions whatsoever."

"I would say getting a lot of free time to myself. I'm naturally an introvert. So that means I sort of do well in situations by myself. I can just spend that time growing versus other extroverts that need more time being social. So yeah, I guess the main silver lining is just having more time to myself and being able to grow and thrive."

"I got to spend more time with my family. So I got to play with my dog a lot more and form a closer bond with him. I also got to spend time for myself and work on myself a lot, like fixing my sleep schedule. Being online, it gave me more time to work on assignments from school without extra pressure. I can be at home and in the silence, chilling and listening to music and doing whatever I want to. I started to do some DIY projects like glitter paintings with my brother’s girlfriend. I also started to be more active since I have more time to work on myself with the help of my brother's girlfriend."

Photo: Varun Dhanam

"To be honest, I enjoy staying at home. So, that little part where we had online school, I liked it. I also pretty much like online school just because I didn't have to interact with other people when I didn't want to. I feel like socializing online, it just requires less effort than, you know, coming to school every day and having to wake up earlier. Because I did wake up maybe like, half an hour before class or like two minutes before. I love the part of not having to wake up and get ready and stuff. If I missed my friends at times, we’d make days to hang out."

Teacher Response: "At first, more family time. Now, not so much. I'm ready to move on with life. I want to see kids be active and I want to be in the classroom. I learned to make Italian style pizzas. And I taught myself some circuitry with Arduinos and different microcontrollers."