With all the changes that COVID-19 has brought, such as the new setup of the lunchroom and the hybrid schedule, many students have taken notice.

For sophomore Sarah Johnston learning completely remotely has been a challenge, but has also been a good lesson in personal responsibility.

“Learning over Zoom has been a very interesting experience for me. I enjoy still receiving face-to-face instruction time from my teachers, but it has also allowed me to become more of a self-driven learner,” Johnston said. “It is more challenging to get in touch with teachers and keep track of all your assignments in the optional remote model, but it is also teaching students valuable lessons about responsibility.”

Junior Noah Reed feels the biggest change this school year has brought is the new setup of the lunchroom, which now has students sitting at individual desks while social distancing. 

“It’s so different,” Reed said. “We sit down and stare at a wall collectively for 30 minutes. Lunch used to be the place where we all gathered and talked, but now it’s kind of at the point where we don’t really talk as much.”

While Reed has had the most trouble with the changes to lunch, senior Abi Peters has had the most problems with the learning over Zoom.

“Not being in person all the time is kind of a shock,” Peters said. “There’s no actual person-to-person interaction so a lot of people are really quiet.

Between all the learning over zoom and canvas Johnston feels “the biggest challenge of online learning has been technical difficulties.”

“Several of my classmates and teachers have had times where their audio cuts out really bad or they are randomly kicked out of Zoom meetings,” Johnston said.

In addition to technical difficulties, Reed feels the mask requirement has made communication in class difficult.

“The masks are really annoying,” Reed said. “It’s hard to talk, hard to listen to people and hard to hear them”

Another thing that senior Cory Schiffman has seen as different is the lack of students in the halls.

“With the hybrid scheduling halls tend to be very empty,”  Schiffman said. “It just seems so different.”

Even though remote learning is challenging at times, senior Ashleen Toor likes being able to complete tasks on her own schedule.

“My favorite part of online school so far has been being able to work at my own pace,” Toor said.

Despite all the changes, Johnston feels “the teachers are doing an excellent job given the circumstances they are being put under.”

“Some teachers are really using the optional remote model to their advantage, and others are trying to make the optional remote experience as similar to the in-person model as possible,” Johnston said.