black screens and boredom: teens ache to put pandemic-era zoom high school behind them. but what comes next?
"It felt a bit dead. I soon realized that was normal."
By Kimmy Li
None of it was like it is in the movies. They got none of it, the lunchroom pressures and chaos, fraught hallway exchanges, daring hairstyles, stolen kisses under the stairwell. Last year they got Zoom. They got high school interrupted.
And this year they’re getting what, exactly?
“There is a lot of uncertainty, not just with COVID-19 regulations,” said Angielena Luong, now an incoming freshman at the University of Washington. “COVID just introduced more uncertainty than there would be in a normal year because schools don’t even know what they’re going to do.”
Last year’s high school freshman never even walked the hallways, never even entered the buildings. This year’s incoming freshmen aren’t sure what’s in store for them. Luong says the classes are basically scrambled, that traditional, even iconic highschool hierarchies no longer apply.
“There’s going to be two freshmen classes next year,” she says.
If schools really do fully open up, the halls are going to be full of wandering kids looking like they’ve stepped through the looking glass —or the Zoom screen into a new world.
“The first day of high school was very nerve wracking,” said rising high school senior Haylie Li, who attends Ed W. Clark High School in Las Vegas “I was unfamiliar with where all the classrooms were, and my fear of getting lost was real.”
Li recalls that taking in all the unfamiliar faces was “kind of overwhelming.”
It’s not going to be a cakewalk for seniors like Li, either, as they begin to navigate the college-search process.
In a typical year, rising high school seniors prep for the increasingly high-stakes college search process the summer before their senior year. But they’ve been on Zoom for a year and a half. Luong says the school plans to offer formal college application counseling for the class of 2022.
Indeed, counselors and teachers are sure to be more busy than ever this coming school year. They are faced with the task of helping students adjust back to the in-person routine. An entire year of independent web surfing, lack of social interaction, and isolation have created a sort of mystery cohort. How are they going to adjust to life outside the Zoom cave?
“The transition to online classes was difficult at first,” Li said. “But it became easier after a while."
Students were not ready to tackle the initial challenge at first. Nobody was prepared for the sudden transition — not even the school.
“I learned how to navigate online websites like Google Meet and Canvas with ease after using it for the whole year,” Li said. “I wouldn’t have learned it otherwise if not for online school.”
Those web technical skills may well help her in her college-search process. But in-person classes are what many students are missing the most.
“High school is all about making memories and getting to interact with my friends during class was very enjoyable,” Li said. One of Li’s most fond memories is her participating in a kite building project with her friends during freshman year geometry class.
High school is a time where students can just be kids. They find joy in the simplest of things- ditching classes with their friends, staying after school to chat, and experiencing four- hour long hard- lockdowns.
“In person, it was more fun to be able to bring snacks to the schools as incentives to get students to come to the mentor sessions,” said Rhiannon Rasaretnam, a high school lead with the Dream Project, a University of Washington outreach program that counsels 11th and 12th grade students on life after high school.
Snacks wouldn’t work online during the pandemic, obviously. Drawing students to Zoom meetings got a lot more expensive.
“Online we had a raffle for AirPods as an incentive," said Rhiannon. She says funds for the AirPods is coming out of her own pocket.
Another high school lead, Sophie, shared similar nostalgia for in-person work with the students.
“After giving a presentation, we would do activities such as icebreakers and games to get to know the students,” Sophie said. Icebreakers are meant to get students talking, but ironically, there is even more silence online.
Seeing the students’ flesh and blood faces instead of the black rectangles on Zoom screens at the very least made it easier to determine whether they were paying attention.
“It was a bit weird to stare at a device for hours on end and see a black screen with only the teacher talking, so it was hard to get used to,” Li said. “There was no participation, so it felt a bit dead, but I soon realized that it was normal.”
And this year they’re getting what, exactly?
“There is a lot of uncertainty, not just with COVID-19 regulations,” said Angielena Luong, now an incoming freshman at the University of Washington. “COVID just introduced more uncertainty than there would be in a normal year because schools don’t even know what they’re going to do.”
Last year’s high school freshman never even walked the hallways, never even entered the buildings. This year’s incoming freshmen aren’t sure what’s in store for them. Luong says the classes are basically scrambled, that traditional, even iconic highschool hierarchies no longer apply.
“There’s going to be two freshmen classes next year,” she says.
If schools really do fully open up, the halls are going to be full of wandering kids looking like they’ve stepped through the looking glass —or the Zoom screen into a new world.
“The first day of high school was very nerve wracking,” said rising high school senior Haylie Li, who attends Ed W. Clark High School in Las Vegas “I was unfamiliar with where all the classrooms were, and my fear of getting lost was real.”
Li recalls that taking in all the unfamiliar faces was “kind of overwhelming.”
It’s not going to be a cakewalk for seniors like Li, either, as they begin to navigate the college-search process.
In a typical year, rising high school seniors prep for the increasingly high-stakes college search process the summer before their senior year. But they’ve been on Zoom for a year and a half. Luong says the school plans to offer formal college application counseling for the class of 2022.
Indeed, counselors and teachers are sure to be more busy than ever this coming school year. They are faced with the task of helping students adjust back to the in-person routine. An entire year of independent web surfing, lack of social interaction, and isolation have created a sort of mystery cohort. How are they going to adjust to life outside the Zoom cave?
“The transition to online classes was difficult at first,” Li said. “But it became easier after a while."
Students were not ready to tackle the initial challenge at first. Nobody was prepared for the sudden transition — not even the school.
“I learned how to navigate online websites like Google Meet and Canvas with ease after using it for the whole year,” Li said. “I wouldn’t have learned it otherwise if not for online school.”
Those web technical skills may well help her in her college-search process. But in-person classes are what many students are missing the most.
“High school is all about making memories and getting to interact with my friends during class was very enjoyable,” Li said. One of Li’s most fond memories is her participating in a kite building project with her friends during freshman year geometry class.
High school is a time where students can just be kids. They find joy in the simplest of things- ditching classes with their friends, staying after school to chat, and experiencing four- hour long hard- lockdowns.
“In person, it was more fun to be able to bring snacks to the schools as incentives to get students to come to the mentor sessions,” said Rhiannon Rasaretnam, a high school lead with the Dream Project, a University of Washington outreach program that counsels 11th and 12th grade students on life after high school.
Snacks wouldn’t work online during the pandemic, obviously. Drawing students to Zoom meetings got a lot more expensive.
“Online we had a raffle for AirPods as an incentive," said Rhiannon. She says funds for the AirPods is coming out of her own pocket.
Another high school lead, Sophie, shared similar nostalgia for in-person work with the students.
“After giving a presentation, we would do activities such as icebreakers and games to get to know the students,” Sophie said. Icebreakers are meant to get students talking, but ironically, there is even more silence online.
Seeing the students’ flesh and blood faces instead of the black rectangles on Zoom screens at the very least made it easier to determine whether they were paying attention.
“It was a bit weird to stare at a device for hours on end and see a black screen with only the teacher talking, so it was hard to get used to,” Li said. “There was no participation, so it felt a bit dead, but I soon realized that it was normal.”