Despite school being back to normal in terms of a regular school schedule, no mask mandate and full student attendance, there’s only one abnormality: quarantine.

Quarantine causes shifts in students’ academic performance in school due to absences resulting in a lack of motivation. Teachers should have leniency on those quarantined. After all, it is a struggle tackling all assignments from home where it is easy to get distracted, making it only fair that the homework for the amount of school days students missed is to be made up the same amount when a student arrives back to school. Sure, access to Schoology is now available leaving students updated on what is going on, but for some classes, students must discuss with their teachers what they missed as the class may be more of an in-person type of learning environment. Despite all the resources available now, an absence is still an absence nonetheless.

Not only that, students are sent home for a reason: being exposed or in near-contact to someone with COVID. It is not known for sure whether students quarantined are positive for the virus, but they may encounter symptoms which is why teachers should not jump to conclusions thinking every student quarantined is fully and well-abled to complete the responsibilities in front of their computer screens.

With that being said, for students in quarantine but without symptoms, it is best to catch up with homework while still at home. When arriving at school without any knowledge of the curriculum going on in the classroom for the past ten days, it can be very frustrating. At that point, there is all the quarantine homework that needs to be done plus the current assignments creating a blender for both the teacher and student. So to the best of one’s ability, if  quarantined, please try to catch up with the work. This comes from personal experience. It will make school life much easier when arriving back.

Students– be alert of this: tips to stay organized. For those quarantines try to attend the Team’s meetings teachers post, if they have one. It will be so relieving, as one is aware of what is being talked about in the class. Second, check daily for any upcoming assignments and past assignments that can be completed through Schoology. Be sure to check every class hours assignments as they may not have a date assigned to it. If one feels a loss of motivation, which is totally understandable, go for a walk, read a book or take a nap. Quarantine means to stay at home after all. Take time to relax, but just make sure to get the work done. If feeling unable to or having difficulty understanding, do not fret. Teachers, well most of them, understand that students have trouble catching up cause, duh, quarantine life. Save those difficult questions for when going back to school, but just make an effort to get everything done even if it seems hard.

All in all, quarantine life is the best, and the worst. However, with student’s persistence in catching up and teachers’ understanding of the situation, students should be successful and go back to school feeling relieved and rejuvenated.