No one knows if students will continue online schooling next year, so as this year comes to a close, teachers and students are thinking about what worked and what didn’t in preparation for next year. The students and teachers can prepare by keeping the mindset that they will not be going back to school, and will continue learning online. Things that students can take with them are things like getting used to the Zoom calls, no after-school activities, and getting used to staying at home and doing school work on computers rather than waking up and going to school.

Some students have come up with ideas about how to prepare and also what they have learned throughout this time of having to do online school. Alex Mikielski, a sophomore at McDowell Intermediate, says that it’s harder to do work for her Honors English class than it is to do work in her Popular Literature and Film class.

Another student, freshman Jenna Wiltse, says she feels like she is in a good routine with certain classes. “Every week I have to do a Zoom call with my one teacher, so if this continues that will be simple for me to continue doing next year,” Wiltse said.

If McDowell continues schooling online, students will have very different classes from this year, and Mikielski knows things will change.

Mikielski says that some of her classes that she may take next year seem doable, but some don’t. She says she picked a cooking class for next year, she isn’t sure how that will go, but she says that the core classes will probably be simple to get used to again.

Wiltse participates in activities outside of McDowell that have also been cancelled since the pandemic. She hopes that this aspect will change in the fall. 

Wiltse says that if she wasn’t able to do dance next year, she wouldn’t be mad but she wouldn’t exactly be glad either. She says that “people should be able to do after-school activities even without school running.”