The very foundation of our day to day lives at school has been rattled by the variety of unprecedented changes being made in response to the new found lack of internet connectivity. Returning to school without a reliable source of internet access, has created much difficulty for the students, teachers, and administrators of our community. Many mundane and simple tasks have been changed in many significant ways, resulting in the slowing down of many essential services our building relies upon to function.
Much of our student population take part in blended learning courses. These courses grant the opportunity for students to spend time outside of their classrooms, presenting an opportunity to engage with college-like flexibility in their learning. Without the ability to sign in and out digitally, Senior Macy Perks has had to alter her daily routine in order to accommodate this.
“We can’t scan the QR codes on the back of the passes. So we have to paper sign in and out. And it takes a longer process. And in the mornings, I have to get here a couple more minutes early than I usually do. So I can wait in the line to sign the paper,” Perks said.
After a long morning of growing accustomed to an internet free school day, many students were shocked to see the impact this had on our very own lunchroom. Senior Faith Green grabbed her food, making her way to the lunch line, only to discover yet another change to her daily student experience.
“For the normal lunch process you just get food, get in line and punch in your lunch number and then you’re on your way. But with no internet, everything had to be done on paper, so it took a lot longer to get food and back to your table, which took away from how much time you actually had to eat,” Green said.
Over in the attendance office, the wifi connectivity issues generated an irksome amount of problems due to them being unable to access schedules, students signing in or out, and had to transfer nearly everything to paper. Mrs. [Suzanne] Channell has worked in the attendance office for the past 14 years and expresses her frustration with the newfound problems they have to face.
“We’re moving everything to paper, we’re collecting everything by paper and we can’t enter it because there’s nowhere to even enter anything yet. And that’s only the attendance half, that doesn’t even include field trips or Lewis and Clark. Basically we have everything written down on a paper somewhere, but we don’t have anywhere to put it,” Channell said. “When a parent comes to pick up a student, we have to check a paper to see if they’re on the list and then have to go to a seperate paper for their schedules, then a separate place to sign them out. It’s all just annoying.”
All of these little adjustments made to students’ regular day to day lives affected each and every one of us in a different way. Even though internet connectivity has returned as of February 29th, this entire experience has challenged our community in ways never seen before. In our slow yet steady return to normalcy, the resolve of us students, our talented educators, and our determined administrators, has proven effective. Although our future challenges remain uncertain, the grit of our community will continue to prevail.
