After returning to in-person school due to COVID-19 shut downs, students returned back to their virtual learning, while other students remained in-person. 

During the time of a COVID-19 outbreak, students left to return home one by one, expected to be picked up by a guardian and continue school at home. Slowly those numbers dwindled for who went home, but it   didn’t drop to zero.

I was one of the students who was pulled into quarantine for two weeks; unfortunately not for COVID-19 tracing but because I had COVID-19 myself. Most  experience different symptoms based on the immune system or genetics; from my own experience, sinuses presented lots of pain and it was hard to hear. Even sick,homework still managed to pile up.   .

Teachers are required to maintain contact with students for those at home regardless if most are in-person; but due to the students who abuse the meetings to take an extra nap, the teachers can be careless and assume those students are slackers rather than actually ill. Due to this assumption, I often found myself waiting in a Teams waiting rooms for direction that I never received, left to fend for myself to keep my work under control while away.

The option to take time off and recover back to health was available, but students like myself often feel anxious knowing their work continues to grow. Sometimes after a teacher finishes thoroughly explaining the lesson to the class, they give a brief explanation to the virtual students, which many couldn’t hear due to class chatter. I had to make due, using Youtube or Google for an explanation for my work where the teacher’s fell short. 

After a long period of two weeks staying home, students are allowed to return and rejoin the rest of their classmates. The feeling of being lost doesn’t leave just yet; I found that classes changed seats or took tests, which hadn’t even been communicated to me. In order to get back on track, it takes time and responsibility. Still, the threat of being quarantined once again lurks around the corner.