Life at Roosevelt after Covid-19 restrictions

Covid-19 has brought upon a lot of unfortunate circumstances, a big one is school. When covid first hit, no one looked at it as a big threat and everyone thought it was going to be something that would be quickly handled. Students, teachers, and athletes are still feeling this effect by having no PARCC, no sports, and an entire year of staying home. 

This led to the virtual school year of 2020, an awfully hard year for a lot of staff and students. In Roosevelt, the biggest loss that came out of virtual learning for student athletes was having no sports. covid stopped student athletes from getting recognition and the coaching staff from getting good recruitments. Covid made recruiting a lot harder. 

“We could not get out there into schools and actually scout and recruit kids. We had to do everything by social media, and that was hard. If you are not in person recruiting it is hard for kids to get the bond and feel loved and feel like their future will be safe with you, so it kind of hurt,” said head football coach Christopher Harden when asked about recruitment of student-athletes during the covid year. 

Student-athletes were also heavily affected by the covid-19 restrictions, not having an entire year of sports. This negatively affected players mentally, but for some players it was a time of rehabilitation and preparation for the upcoming season. 

“Not having a year of sports was bad. I wanted to cry. It also helped me though because I was injured,” said senior Phillip Flegler, shooting guard for the varsity basketball team. Flegler wished to have that year back because he believed it negatively affected his recruitment of colleges, agreeing with Harden. 

Teachers had mixed perspectives on virtual learning. Some teachers believed it was a good thing because they were able to work from home, but other teachers said it made communication and working with students hard.  

“Given this this year in particular, now that we are back in person has presented a lot of challenges that we have not had in the past. But in general, I am a much better teacher in person, and my students learned a lot more in person. So, the virtual experience did not work for me.” Said testing coordinator Joshua Hurley-Bruno.  

Students were also impacted by virtual learning. A lot of the students’ grades were impacted by this as well, since students were so distracted their grades were heavily affected. Some students believe that virtual learning negatively impacted their performance and would not want to take virtual ever again. 

“I did not like virtual. I did badly. I did not do any of my assignments or homework or do-now. I had an F in four classes. Over time, I pulled them up,” said freshman Daniel Paire.  

The distractions led to a lack of motivation. Virtual learning left students alone with their distractions. “I was on my phone. I used to play the Xbox for hours in virtual. I’d sleep, eat, sleep again, then play the game,” Paire said. 

On mckinsey.com, it says that the pandemic widened the opportunities and achievement gaps and that students in the majority of Black schools ended the year with 6 months of unfinished learning.  

We will soon see how behind we are or are not once the PARCC tests are taken and scored this spring. 

Having no PARCC was also a massive thing during virtual. Students either did not care or were happy about having no PARCC, the teachers on the other hand were affected by it. 

They were affected because it made it harder to provide proof that the students had improved. “It did not provide us with the data that the state seeks in order to ensure that all students are taking the state mandated exams,” said science teacher and instructional coach Joshua Hurley-Bruno. 

Covid affected a lot of people and got in the way of plenty of opportunities. “Let us all stay safe and make sure we can prevent this from ever happening again,” said Hurley-Bruno.