With our first semester being online, most students have decided to take a chance on in-person learning. With this being said, some students have expressed both concerns and excitement for in-person learning beginning on March 1st.

When interviewing students, most of the freshmen have shared the same fear of getting lost.

“Honestly, I’m kind of scared of getting lost, but I’m excited to see my friends,” freshman Anna Lusson said. 

“I’m very excited to finally meet some of my teachers and classmates in person and be able to communicate with each other differently than we have been the past months, but I’m also scared of adapting to a huge change and also finding my way around the school,” stated Jeslyn Varghese.

“I want to go to school because I struggle to learn over a screen, and I feel like I can focus better in person. But I’m terrified of getting lost and not knowing anyone in my classes,” 9th grader Mariella Khoshaba explains.

Aside from getting lost, lots of freshmen are anxious about the lesson plan/curriculum for in-person learning. Furthermore, they fear that they will be lost in what’s happening in class.

“I feel like it might be very restricted, and I fear that it might not even be that different from online school because the lessons are tailored for online students, so they don’t miss out. I also fear that there’s not a benefit to going to in-person school if the same assignments and nothing will be changed other than being familiar with the school. As a freshman, I’ve never tested out my schedule in-person or walked to my classes in a new school, so being able to do that this year is great. I hope group work will work out better since it’s in person, and I hope that eventually, classes can head back to normal,” Verina Stasinopoulos expressed.

Joslin Zakharia elucidates, “My hope for in-person learning is that I get more of a sense of the school and that I get back on top of my grades in class because I don’t feel like I’ve been doing my best online. It’s just a lot more difficult and harder to understand. My fear for in-person learning is the amount of time we have with one another since it’s very low. Also, I’m not sure everybody will be at their full learning potential since it was very hard to even learn anything online. When we go back, I hope our teachers are more lenient with us, and won’t be expecting us to know everything. I also hope they reteach some of the material in more detail now that we are in school.”

Freshman Afra Abdul talked about how she’s afraid if hybrid fails, then we will have to go back to learning online.“I hope that it will be a little easier with in-person learning, and I hope that we can eventually go back full time,” Abdul stated. “I’m kind of afraid that things will get worse, and we will have to do online school full time again.” 

Overall, the majority are excited to see their friends in person, but they are scared of getting lost both on their way to class and having altered lesson plans. Lastly, good luck to all the students who are attending school for hybrid learning. Have fun and stay safe.