Text by SASHA POOR Additional reporting by NAOMI BONEH and ANTONIA MOU
Art by SAMANTHA HO
Distance learning CONTINUED EDUCATION DURING A PANDEMIC
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S WE JOIN a Zoom meeting, we can see our classmates who have logged in, only about half of the actual class. Instead of using projectors and whiteboards, teachers share their screens or post scanned images of problem solutions. This is the new learning style that students in the Palo Alto Unified School District, and around the world, have had to adjust to due to the COVID-19 pandemic. With the year coming to an end, students are finishing coursework online, meeting with teachers through Zoom and potentially missing out on some of the content from their classes because of rearranged Advance Placement tests or issues with technology. Student opinions Teachers have arranged optional synchronous learning through Zoom lessons, office hours and Schoology discussion boards. However, some teachers are providing minimal support for students, causing
increased stress during this uncertain time. Since this occurrence, PAUSD has Palo Alto High School senior Ashley changed security measures on Zoom calls, Xu said that she is no longer in contact recommending waiting rooms and passwith about half of her words, and restrictteachers. She said many ing calls to PAUSD are not giving feedback I hope students realize members. on submitted assignSome of Paly’s they’re fully capable ments, while the more classes that involve engaged teachers are as- of at least getting some hands-on learning, signing overwhelming like visual and perinformation on their amounts of work. forming arts courses The Palo Alto Uni- own.” and Early Child— DANIEL NGUYEN, Paly math teacher fied School District has hood Development, also had to adapt to have been hit particnew technology with improved online se- ularly hard by the switch to distance learncurity measures. Junior Hyunah Roh’s U.S. ing. Sophie Pardehpoosh, a sophomore in History class was Zoom-bombed, a trend Early Childhood Development, has found where an outsider inputs a random Zoom that the style of the class has changed sigMeeting ID and enters the meeting. nificantly. They are no longer able to inter“I felt insecure about joining Zooms act with preschoolers, which had previousafterward because I realized that anyone ly been a major part of the class. can join and see me and other students on Zander Leong, a junior taking Adtheir screens if there is no entrance pass- vanced Painting and Drawing at Paly, said word to the meeting,” Roh said. that the class had to switch units to make sure students could complete the assignments from home. “We were in the middle of oil painting and we had to stop that,” Leong said. “Now we’re doing [Adobe] Photoshop stuff. It’s like a different experience, but it’s still just as valuable.” Although many students have not had the same positive experiences with their online classes, they understand that this is a difficult time for everyone. “I think my teachers are great and they try so hard to maintain the level of education during the school year despite not being able to congregate,” Xu said.
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Teacher approaches Teachers who instruct AP classes have had to rearrange their curricula, while others are taking advantage of this time to assign special projects or to allow students to have more choice over how they learn.
14 JUNE 2020
