The Online learning option creates a new unique challenge that many students are facing to attend and even to some, finish school during Covid-19. With feelings of uncertainty and excitement, students all across the district are pushing to adapt and perform in new ways.

“This is something new I never thought I would experience,” junior Johana Lopez said. “It was always a thought in the back of my head wondering how it would be like to do online learning, however, I never thought I’d be doing it in my years of public schooling. I guess now that it’s a thing I’ll be able to cross it off my bucket list.”

As the school year came was rushing back into their lives, anticipations of all sorts came soon after.

“I had such extreme and pessimistic expectations for this school year, but it’s actually not been that bad at all,” senior Noah Henriquez said. “I was expecting there to be little to no communication between students and teachers, for facilities resources to be out of reach, and for the work to be boring and busy. Thankfully, none of that happened. School is now definitely different from the past few years, but I can and will adjust over time.”

 The school has modified online techniques from earlier this year and put in place applications like Zoom and Schoology to reshape the education system into something that students are able to use online.

“I feel like they have developed better ways to make it easier for us,” sophomore Adriana Oberto said. “In the beginning, I didn’t know how to use zoom, but I figured it out. I feel like it’s going to be harder to learn some stuff and easier to learn other things.”

Some experienced more trials and tribulations than others.

“I feel like you have to be focused more,” sophomore Emma Ramirez said. “Sometimes it doesn’t fully say the instructions on the site, so the teacher has to tell you. I feel like it’s harder because it gets confusing sometimes when you can’t click on assignments.”

Not only has the style of learning changed, but it has also taken a toll on students at-home environment when spending more time learning in it that relaxing in it.

 “In school, I’d be in a classroom and would have the teacher right there to keep me paying attention,” Lopez said. “Now online, I have to make sure I keep myself focused, which can be difficult.  Another thing I will have to adjust to is not being able to socialize with my peers in person. I’d usually be able to interact and make friends with different people but now with online we are all muted and can’t interact.”

  For a portion of students, staying home is a choice, but for many, it is a decision made for themselves or someone in their lives with underlying conditions that could be affected by Covid-19.

“I decided to stay home because my parents are in the at-risk category and I don’t want to get them infected,” Henriquez said. “To be in a building for 8 hours daily, in contact with hundreds of people a day, and riding a public school bus twice a day, I take this pandemic very seriously and I don’t want to spread this virus at all.”

While all are going through separate trials during this pandemic, all share in this bizarre year and its many challenges and changes.

“It is now going to be the new normal for me,” Lopez said. “I am very excited for the new experiences and stories that will come from this very weird year.”