Students Coping with COVID-19 Crisis
The Superintendent’s Student Advisory Council is an association comprised of 2 student representatives from each of our high schools and middle schools. Our high school Student Advisory Council members answered a few of our questions about how life is going for them amidst the changes caused by precautionary measures to help keep them safe from the novel coronavirus.
We are grateful to our students who participated for their candor and excellent advice:
Isaiah Fontan (pictured above,) Grace Hill, and Reanna O’Bryan from Capital Preparatory Magnet School
Nayeli Vazquez of Classical Magnet School
Afrin Tarafder, Damian Cruz, Syana Malaykhan of Hartford Magnet Trinity College Academy
Paris Samuel from Hartford Public High School
Janae Registe of Kinsella Magnet School of Performing Arts
Adriana Etienne of Pathways Academy of Technology and Design
Tylis Broaden and Chrishawna Jerrick of Sport and Medical Sciences Academy
Lloydia Anderson of University High School of Science and Engineering
| How was your transition to Distance Learning? | Most students agreed that the transition has been “pretty smooth.”
Other comments include: It hasn’t been too hard, most of my teachers have made it easy for us to do the work. It was a little rocky at first, but once I worked out all the issues I was having, I’ve started to get used to it. It was a pretty smooth transition. Some classes felt a little weirder then usual; a couple of road bumps. My transition was fine since some of my classes had us doing most of the work online anyway. My transition was very poor due to the fact that this is a new experience and I still don’t fully know how to do everything online. It’s been ok, however it does get boring. It was okay, I did online classes before. |
| Do you have tips or advice for others about Distance Learning? | My tip is to just take it a day at a time and ask questions because were all going through this together and the way we’ll overcome this is if we push through together.
Take your time go back, and pay attention to due dates and how much work you can actually get done without help. Get rid of distractions or anything that could pull you away from Google Classroom while working. Get the work done and stay on schedule before it becomes too much. Make sure you do all your work and treat distance learning like regular school. My number one tip would be to maintain a schedule of some sort, because it will make you feel more productive. A tip, could be, for those who might find it helpful, to complete all their schoolwork on Mondays. That way nothing is left until the last minute or is forgotten. Stay positive and don’t let assignments pile up complete them so they won’t be on your mind. It’s worth it, just always get your work done. |
| How is this affecting you emotionally? | I’m feeling a little overwhelmed.
I think I shut off my emotions or bottled them up more than I already do so we’ll see what happens in the next few weeks. I think it’s more stressful then regular school. At first, it didn’t affect me a lot, but now some of my family members are in high risk areas with infected COVID patients, so I worry about them a lot. This is causing me some stress because I have deadlines or work that I can’t even get done on time or get the chance to do. It hasn’t been as exciting as learning in a real classroom, but what else can we do? Feeling depressed. I can’t go outside. |
| How have the COVID-19 life changes affected your near future as far as graduation, college choice, college acceptance, plans for future employment or military assignment? | I’m in an internship readiness program at my school and we were getting ready to have jobs during the summer but now we don’t know for sure if we will be doing for sure.
I applied for a job and I don’t think that’s happening. COVID-19 has definitely affected my life in all sorts of ways. It has definitely pushed me to want to be a NICU nurse more when I get older. Just seeing how strong nurses and doctors are, I really would like to be like that when I grow up. Also for my high school graduation it’s going to feel so different, since my grandma passed away due to complications. It will feel extremely different graduating without her. Since she always told me she would be there for me on my special day. I wanted to volunteer at the hospital because for the college I wanted to go to I needed hours spent in a hospital. Since I can’t do that i’m not sure if I’m going into that college anymore because I don’t meet the program’s requirements. I’m only in 10th grade so this didn’t really affect me like how it would affect other grades. It hasn’t really affected my college choices or any near future plans. It really hasn’t affected those decision for me. It affected EVERYTHING! |
| What ideas, tools, or tips are helping you to be successful during this time? | Some students list their equipment as being helpful: headphones, laptops and cell phones.
I make sure to work in a clean, comfy work-space and focus on what I’m doing. Using notes from regular class to help with work. I picked up a new hobby and have invested my time into that. Not only does it help me keep my mind off things, but I am also learning how to cook, which will be extremely useful for me in the future. The best tip I have for this time is not to slip into bad habits. It’s best to have a schedule or routine and instead of indulging in things like Netflix and social media; use them as motivators to complete any schoolwork. Nothing |
| What tools do you use to stay in touch with your friends? | Students name texting, cell phones, FaceTime, Zoom, Instagram, SnapChat, iMessage
Other ideas include: I will also send them online content that I enjoy so we can discuss it together I use my video games to stay in contact with my friends. |
| What are you and your friends or family doing to help those in your community? | Many students cite staying inside and staying home.
Other comments include: Only go outside to the grocery store when needed. My family has been donating money to help with funeral costs, and my dad and his friends are helping to deliver groceries to those who are unable to get groceries for themselves. Social distancing to slow down the spread of the virus. |