The Real Return to School

Students of Cohort A returned in-person to school on this past Monday, January 19th. The return is only for the morning classes, which leaves the afternoon classes remaining online.

Jennifer Rahn, Assistant Principal, said, “So far, it seems like everything has gone smoothly as far as kids coming in the building and getting to class. I think it’s still a learning curve for teachers, trying to understand how to teach kids that are on a computer and that are online and still interact, but stay safe.”

To comply with social distancing, students have to go in the door that they were told (through the invitations online); the entrance is near the class they are going to. 

Staff members greet students at the door and ask for their name — if the name isn’t on their list, the kid can’t enter and are redirected to the specific entrance for their class.

There is a free breakfast cart where students can grab food as they enter the building. Lunch is also available on the way out.

Kids are mostly required to stay in classrooms, but hall passes can be written if needed. There are arrows on the ground directing students to flow one way down the halls. Each class gets an “outside time” during the three hour block.

Rahn said, “I personally think three hours is a long time for class and it’s really hard with highschool because there aren’t a lot of teachers that teach the same thing at the same time. It’d be really cool if you could have a teacher that was only teaching in person kids and a teacher that was only teaching remote kids.”

Senior, Wendy Avelar, explained that her first week back has gone pretty well. “It’s really weird being in a classroom with not that many students and everyone doing their own thing in a way… I like it because it’s my senior year so I wanted to be in the building a little bit before I graduate.”

In the classroom setting, seating charts are set in order for students to be approximately six feet apart. It’s required that students stay in their seats and if they are working together, the “grace period” is about 15 minutes for trace contact. 

“The only hard part is staying in the same classroom for three hours and not having the same freedom I had when I would be at home, I got really used to that,” Avelar said. 

Rahn brings up the idea of having three shorter classes for a longer period of time vs having two long classes in a shorter amount of time. It takes awhile to comprehend content and then suddenly the teacher is already moving on, thus making it more difficult for students to learn. She loves the asynchronous Fridays for students in order for them to get caught up, ask questions, etc.; she hopes these days will continue to stay asynchronous. 

She said, “As long as the numbers stay good [of Covid cases] I believe the next step would be to add the PM in-person class for the next sessions.” 

It can be hard for students to get involved with school (in any way), but there are still clubs, sports, and other activities going on. 

“It’s hard when you don’t see people everyday and are trying to get a hold of them. It’s difficult, but we have a whole team continuing to reach out, trying to engage kids. We adults miss [students] so much,” Rahn said. 

This upcoming week, on January 25th, students of Cohort B will be returning to the school for in person learning. Precautions are being taken in order for students to remain safe and healthy. Make sure to keep wearing your masks and stay home if you’re sick!

Welcome back posters flood the walls of Rangeview with kind notes from staff members.