By Gabby Villarreal

Each day of school, sophomore Selena Shiflet gets on her laptop and logs in for class. Due to Covid-19, schools had to shut down in-person learning. It is a new learning curve for students and teachers.

“Remote learning was hard at first, but then I got the hang of it,” Shiflet said. “The hardest thing about remote learning was keeping my grades up. The easiest thing about remote learning was I could feel what it was like to be homeschooled.”

Brett Anderson, a history teacher of the Sedro-Woolley High school, also had trouble with the new changes.

“Remote learning at the start of the year was difficult. I had never used Canvas or Zoom or any other internet based learning platform. It took many hours to create a curriculum that would work and be effective,” Anderson said.

According to Anderson, “The hardest thing about remote learning is that nobody turns on their camera, so you don’t know who anybody is. There is no interaction. The easiest part of remote learning is that when students don’t show up to class, they can just do the assignments and turn it in and the computer does a lot of the grading. Otherwise, accepting late work would not be possible.”

When the CDC announced that we were going back to full time in-person learning, Anderson was excited. “I love full time learning. The pace is faster, people speak up, you get out of your house, I have energy.”

Zoe Brunson, a Learning Strategies teacher, was recently hired by the Sedro-Woolley High School. She was new to remote teaching as well, but had a different outlook on this new learning experience.

“I thought remote learning was fun,” said Brunson. “I got to stay home with my cats and my commute was much shorter. I thought it was so fun to get to know my students before we were in the building. Remote learning had its challenges, but overall it was a great experience. I felt like remote learning was much more flexible and relaxed.”

Although Covid many have stop us from going back to school normally, the CDC and the school decided that we can go back to school.

“I feel excited to have all of my favorite students together, and in one place. This last year has been lonely and it’s great to see my people again,” Zoe Brunson said.

But we still aren’t in the clear as students and teachers still need to follow the 6-feet apart rule while in school though that depends because some class can be different in the 6ft apart rule like band and choir.

Band students have to stay 3 feet apart while Choir students have to stay 9 feet apart, resulting intwo groups or go back to remote learning.
Speaking of being remote, Selena Shiflet is still continuing to be remote.

“When I found out about going back full time, I was bummed because I couldn’t see my friends or teachers.”