With school being in session for almost a month and a half, we decided to check in with students to see how their first quarter has fared for them. Check out what students from each grade have said about what they missed about being in school, and what they’ve learned over the past few months.
Alanah, Satori, Isis: 6th Grade
What’s your favorite thing about being back?
Satori – “I love seeing people because I was lonely in quarantine. I really missed seeing people.”
Alanah – “I really like being around people and it is easier for me to learn when I’m actually in school.”
Isis – “I like learning about different things and meeting new people.”
What is something you’ve learned this year?
Satori – “We learned about helicopters and airplanes.”
Alanah – “I learned about ancient Sumer in Ms. P’s class.”
Isis – “I learned about Egyptian Pharaohs in Ms. P’s class.”
Yared: 7th Grade, Matt: 8th Grade
What’s your favorite thing about being back?
Yared – “For me, it is personally the sports. I really enjoyed soccer at the beginning of the year and being able to hang out with my friends without restrictions, if that makes sense. Also school, but being able to do sports outside, sit at lunch together, and work on projects together in class.”
Matt – “I missed my friends, because in quarantine you have nothing to do, but when you’re texting your friends, you go back with old memories, and you wish you could replay that year cause you’re all quarantined and there’s nothing you can do now.”
What is something you’ve learned this year?
Yared – “One of the things we learned in social studies is to keep all your memories and hold them tight, because they won’t always be there and all of the happy memories will not always stay so you need to enjoy them while they happen and cherish them while they’re not.”
Matt – “[I learned] how strict they are, because you know how we’re in a pandemic right now? We all just want this to go away but we have to be so patient with it, like I never thought I would ever have to experience this in my life where I would have to keep a mask on and stay away from everyone. That’s something I’ve learned this year; how I took advantage of things last year when I could’ve went there, but now I can’t go.”
Theo, Jocelyn, Mariaelena: 9th Grade
What’s your favorite thing about being back?
Theo – “Being physically at the school. Being around people who are learning the same things as me is much easier for me to learn than being on zoom, alone in my room, on my bed eating chips and not paying attention to anything.”
Jocelyn – “Everything is hands on here. All of the teachers are here. Going on zoom isn’t really beneficial for some people and for me I need to be in school, so I am happy about that. I am also happy to play sports cause that’s my favorite thing ever.”
Mariaelena – “Being able to get the help that I need in a certain class from that teacher.”
What is something you’ve learned this year?
Theo – “I’ve learned how not to fall asleep in math class and I’ve learned that Jesus was born in Bethlehem.”
Jocelyn – “For me, this is an all new school. I’ve gone to schools where kids aren’t this nice. Everyone here is so nice. I’ve learned to give people a chance even before you’ve met them because here I was like, ‘okay if anyone comes up to me and says this, I am just not going to talk to them’ but everyone’s nice and I have learned to give them a chance.”
Mariaelena – “It is different. I was used to ‘oh, I just have my camera off’ and I didn’t really do a whole lot…”
Paco, Oliver, Javier: 10th Grade
What’s your favorite thing about being back?
Paco – “Seeing the boys.”
Javier – “Menaul is such a community, it’s like being away from home for a long time, you kind of miss it.”
Oliver – “Not being trapped in my house anymore, and of course, seeing the boys.”
What is something you’ve learned this year?
Paco – “I missed my friends. You take seeing your friends and being at school where your friends are for granted. Then when you don’t see them you think ‘wow I should’ve treasured that moment,’.”
Javier – “Don’t take things for granted. Before this whole pandemic, everyday I would come to school and I sometimes would be like ‘I don’t want to come today’, but now I haven’t even missed a single day at school. I’m more grateful for what we have.”
Oliver – “I realized that everything is going to be really different. We don’t know what it is going to be like at the end of this. It is just going to be really different from what we remember before.”
Cora, Chrystal: 11th Grade
What’s your favorite thing about being back?
Cora – “To play volleyball. Well, I was doing that anyways, but to play more volleyball.”
Chrystal – “Volleyball.”
What is something you’ve learned this year?
Cora – “I learned the first declension in Latin.”
Chrystal – “I’ve learned that PVC can be in water bottles and that it can cause infertility.”
Mia: 12th Grade
What’s your favorite thing about being back?
Mia – “I really liked seeing all my teachers again and being in person. It is just so much better being in person than online because online is, you know, online.”
What is something you’ve learned this year?
Mia – “The quarantine really kind of reminded and helped me with my study habits. It reminded me: not having anything to do for so long made me want so badly to have something to do. I was craving having homework again, so it helped me with my study habits. It also gave me a moment to step back and look at my life and the way I was doing things. I feel like it was a good growth time.”
Nizhoni: 12th Grade
What’s your favorite thing about being back?
Nizhoni – “I don’t have to be at a computer for 8 hours at a time sitting down.”
What is something you’ve learned this year?
Nizhoni – “Quarantine was really good to just be by yourself. A lot of people tend to ignore their issues whenever they’re going through the motions every single day but when you have to stay home and think about everything, it just was really good for me.”