Conant High School principal Brett Blanchard was transparent in his statement that “in my 35 years of education, I have never experienced any issue as disruptive and complicated as the impact of COVID-19.”
With the coronavirus pandemic increasingly spreading and affecting local communities, Jaffrey-Rindge schools and schools statewide are shut down until at least May 4 and are transitioning to “remote learning,” where students will use Google Classroom and video calls as the basis of their learning.
“I could not be more proud of all how all CHS/JRMS have handled the need to move from a traditional classroom setup to complete remote learning,” Blanchard wrote in an email to the Jaffrey-Rindge community.
These remote learning setups are quite different from a conventional classroom. Standing in front of a student-filled room is exchanged with a video feed of a teacher and a microphone. Whiteboards are swapped with virtual drawing pads. The cement-brick backdrop of classrooms is substituted with the home decor of teachers’ living rooms, kitchens, or other parts of their homes.
“I think it was a good choice to switch to remote learning, but it’s a lot harder,” said Anthony Gauthier, a Conant High School senior. “I don’t feel as strongly attached… if I have a question, I have to ask it through an app.” The app, called Remind, allows students to text teachers directly through their phones.
Assigning classwork is also adjusted, as students receive all their work via “Google Classroom,” where teachers post assignments for students to do at home on their own time.
“It requires a certain self-discipline [to complete assignments],” said Sam Weinmann, a fellow Conant senior, who spoke to how classwork is different with Remote Learning. “It’s hard to adjust to, but it is an essential skill.”
Weinmann, who is set to attend the University of New Haven in Connecticut this fall, commented on how Remote Learning encourages students to create their own schedule in order to complete their own work.
“There are a few classes I’ve had in which… it was all on your own,” Weinmann noted.
This seems to be the biggest challenge set unto students, is the ability to do work on their own time, in the comfort of their houses, and in the company of all their leisurely temptations. With no set schedule in place, students are expected to dedicate time to the work they’re assigned, despite having nobody save for anyone else in the home to enforce it.
Online classes do have a structured schedule, however. Bed-headed and sweatpant-clad students join a “Google Hangout” – a group video call service where each member of the call can see and hear one another through their screen – at 8:30 in the morning, and begin class.
In these classes, teachers give lectures and overviews of past and future work. They are aided by digital whiteboards, presentations, and photocopied textbook pages, which act as substitutes for conventional classroom resources. For the most part, all tools are available for students to learn as they would in a traditional class; just with the additive of a screen and a microphone.
The energy of these virtual classrooms don’t match the somewhat grim situation of being restricted to interacting through a screen and kept at home. Students give updates on their days and share quarantine stories — how they’ve stayed busy, what other work they have, how much Netflix they’ve binged, and things of the like. Peers and faculty laugh and talk with one another as they would on any regular school day.
There is an unwavering optimism and positivity in these classrooms that brings some much-needed warmth and intimacy to the days of everyone in the school-community.
“I just think it’s funny,” joked Gauthier. “It’s not everyday I see all my teachers’ faces on with the whole class.”
Gauthier, who was a member of Conant’s 2019 New Hampshire state title-winning boys’ basketball team, said that being a senior means leaving a legacy that everyone will remember you by as you close out your high school year.
“We want to go out with a bang,” he said when discussing the end of his senior year. “The end of the year is when it gets the best. This whole thing just puts a damper on the year.”
This is especially true for high school seniors, whose graduation ceremony, prom, spring sports seasons, clubs, senior class trip, college tours and acceptance letters, and what’s left of their curtain year as a high-schooler are all uncertain. With the NHIAA’s cancellation of all remaining winter sports tournaments and suspension of all spring seasons until at least May 4, as well as the recent transition of the College Board to make all AP Exams online tests, seniors are preparing themselves to miss out on those once-in-a-lifetime experiences.
For them, this means no senior nights to be appreciated for the commitment they had to the sports they’re most passionate about. No embarrassing prom pictures to dredge up in the future. No throwing of the caps at graduation, and no valedictorian speech to remember for the rest of their lives.
To the class of 2020, this positivity and community shared in those classrooms is in spite of everything they’ll most likely never get to experience as Seniors.
“I feel like all of these activities… it’s gonna be really hard to lose them, but overall it could be so much worse,” said Weinmann. “We’re trying to make the most out of it, even though we probably won’t get all the stuff other seniors got.”
Weinmann took time to applaud the work of the faculty during the transition.
“The teachers are doing a good job,¨ he said. “They’re working hard to try and let us know that they’re a resource.”
Seniors now are forced to navigate the uncharted waters of potentially graduating during a modern pandemic.
“It’s nerve-wracking not knowing what’s going to happen,” said Gauthier, who spoke to how he’s unsure of what the remaining months of his high school career will look like.
Even still, he, like many seniors, is determined to make the most of the experience, and to enjoy their time in classes – online or otherwise.
With confidence, and a hint of pride, Gauthier summed it up.
“It just shows that in tough situations, we’re able to adapt.”
Trevor Pierce is a senior at Conant High School doing an internship at the Monadnock Ledger-Transcript.