By SAMMY KRIMSTEIN
Journalism B Student
After 15 long months, many Quince Orchard students are more than ready to leave virtual learning behind.
Since the spring of 2020, students have been going to school on their computers, via Zoom, due to the spread of the coronavirus. In late April, MCPS schools started allowing some students back in school buildings, but they would only be back in-person every other week, to limit the amount of people in the school.
As vaccines are administered nationwide, and community spread significantly decreases, The Maryland State Department of Education has voted to require school systems to hold in-person school next year, according to the Baltimore Sun. Now, QO students are reflecting on their time with virtual learning, and looking forward to next year.
During the pandemic, feelings about virtual school have been different from student to student, and students themselves have had mixed feelings about their experience.
“It was kind of a mixed bag,” said sophomore Fiona Bradford, “I liked it because I got to stay at home and do most of my classes from my bed, but then on the other hand I got so much work.”
Throughout the year, others have also noted a heavy workload, especially considering the stress of being virtual. Junior Dean Arnold felt that the virtual setting added pressure on students.
“In some subjects… I was teaching myself the whole content,” he recalled, “but there was also some teachers who did really well and were able to teach the content pretty well.”
In a typical year, for many students success in the classroom is based on the relationships they build with their teachers. In this year’s mostly-virtual setting, however, it was significantly harder for students to communicate with their teachers, so building those all-important relationships was more difficult.
“I’ve missed being able to communicate easier with my teachers,” said sophomore Jack Husted. “I used to like to stay after, and…build a good relationship with teachers. I couldn’t do that at all this year.”
During this year of virtual school, students weren’t just isolated from teachers, but from each other. Usually, students can see their friends a number of times throughout each day, whether walking through the halls, in classes, or at lunch. Social life is a major part of many students’ high school experience, but for the past year and a half, the social aspect of high school has come to a near standstill.
Freshman Catherine Brady was in eighth grade when schools first shut down in March of 2020, but now with her first year of high school almost over, she feels deprived of the social aspect of high school.
“I didn’t get to go to football games, homecoming, or participate in any kind of spirit or pep activities for the school,” she said. “Most importantly, I missed out on the friendships that I would’ve made if we were in person.”
Isolated from their peers, students were also robbed of opportunities to participate in extracurricular activities in-person for much of the pandemic. Sophomore Ananya Chandramouli, a saxophone player in the QO band and theater’s pit orchestra, had to play her saxophone alone during virtual school.
“Playing alone was not only harder, but it was also really sad to not play as a group or with anyone else. That was just really sad for me,” she said.
Music wasn’t the only extracurricular affected. Dean Arnold, the president of Comfort Cases, a club that packs backpacks for foster children, described how their club couldn’t hold as many fundraisers this year.
Students missed out on a lot during virtual school, but many found benefits from their experience. From being able to self-reflect, to having more down time, students were able to take advantage of some of the opportunities that came with virtual school.
With Zoom calls, muted microphones, and the world of virtual school coming to an end, students are eager to get back to school as it was before the pandemic. At the conclusion of an unprecedented school year, students are full of hope, ready to make the best of the time they have left in high school.
“I’m excited to see people again,” Bradford said. “I think a lot of it will be exciting.”
This is part of a series of articles by Journalism B students, who wrote these for their final article assignment in the class.
The Prowler 