STE Students Reflect on Returning to School

On Nov. 9, high school students at Saint Thomas' Episcopal started their third month of hybrid learning. Since the start of in-person learning at STE in September, many students have still been learning from home. The struggle of incorporating the online students into in-person classes has separated classrooms and made it difficult for classes to feel like a full class. Besides this, students have been learning to adapt to the safety procedures and precautions taken during this time.

Students playing sports and in the performing arts have acknowledged the difficulties of doing what they love right now, but they are doing all they can with these measures in place.

Pearl Zhang (class of 2022), an online student, returned to the campus on Nov. 9. She preferred online school before the start of hybrid learning, but once she returned to in-person learning, she was a bit surprised at how much better her classes were. 

“Just because it’s so much easier to be here. Also being with your classmates is so much better than just being by yourself,” she said.

Christine Saa, the head of STE's math department and a Calculus teacher, agreed that having a split class was difficult. She found it hard to really see what her online students understood when she was trying to teach kids in front of her at the same time. Communication was probably the biggest problem to her. 

“When I teach, I look at the kids in person. I don’t really see the online kids, and when they ask a question, it’s hard to see them,” she said. In-person students could easily approach their teachers with questions outside of class as well, but online students had to email their teacher and find a time to meet with them online. 

Alex Kurie (class of 2021), is a part of the swim team at school. “We only need to wear our masks on deck.” she said. They haven’t had to cancel any meets yet, and they still had practice the way they used to, so she was grateful for the lack of change.

Students in choir have found it difficult to sing together, and their annual Christmas Concert is still up in the air. All members are in-person, but they all have to practice in masks and standing 6 feet from each other. “Sometimes I breathe in during a song, and I just get a mouthful of mask,” Sara Demeian (class of 2022) said laughing.

Despite the challenges that a virus brought to in-person and online students, STE students have continued to learn and do what they love outside of class.