A virtual meeting. Photo Credits: Chris Montgomery on Unsplash
Rebecca Billette, News Desk Lead
Watauga High School students returned from their much-needed winter break, ready to jump into exams and the second semester, only to find themselves reopening their chromebooks and sitting at home in their pajamas. Watauga County Schools began January with over a week of remote days, and students and teachers alike had to virtually review for exams that seemed to be constantly delayed.
While remote days can be an inconvenience for everyone, some students and faculty face additional challenges beyond the typical frustration.
Rachel Willingham has been teaching math for 27 years, and typically instructs a Math III or AP Calculus class. This winter’s remote days held a unique problem for her, as she doesn’t have wi-fi.
“We don’t have internet at home,” said Willingham. “I know you’re probably thinking ‘My gosh, how can you not have internet at home in this day and age?’, but we just have a hotspot, and just use it to watch TV, and if the weather’s bad it doesn’t work.”
Despite the poor weather, Willingham went the extra mile for her students and drove to school during the consecutive remote days.
“If I want to be able to be effective as a teacher and guarantee that I reach more students, I have to come to school to be able to have reliable wi-fi,” said Willingham.
Even though Addison Kidwell, sophomore, has internet at home, she still faces a challenge: sharing a space with three other people, all in virtual meetings.
“Everyone’s talking or doing their own thing,” Kidwell explained. “And then my mom’s also in school too. She’s getting her doctorate, so she’s also in meetings, and it can be kind of loud sometimes.”
Kidwell lives with her sister and brother, both high schoolers, and between them, her mom’s studies and their two dogs, remote days can make their household very hectic.
“A normal remote day, I’m downstairs in my shared room, so my sister and I are both on meetings down there, and then my brother and my mom are upstairs on their meetings,” said Kidwell. “So just everyone’s in meetings and you can’t really do anything because people are talking, so it’s kind of hard to do stuff around the house without making a lot of noise.”
Kidwell, like many students with a large family, is not a fan of remote days, and oftentimes winds up muting herself in meetings in case there is background noise or she needs to tend to her dogs. She adds that it would be more convenient if she could do her assignments strictly on Canvas, and not have to join a meeting for every class.
While remote days are a challenge, it is hard to imagine an alternative with weather conditions often limiting safe travel.
“I don’t know how we would change it,” Willingham admitted. “But sometimes having too many just gets really hard, especially at the end of the semester. It’s just really hard with the high school situation because you can’t move on, you can’t progress the class, you can’t get new kids and you're stuck in limbo for a really long time.”
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