The Ripple Effects of the Coronavirus

A young girl sitting at a desk with a laptop. Remote learning changed the learning structure for teachers and students. “Students are more technologically savvy and are familiar with remote learning because of their experiences with remote learning,” Olivia Tarnowski, Business and Marketing teacher, said. (Photo Credits: Thomas Park on Unsplash)

By Jax Marsh, Staff Writer for the Powderhorn

In late 2019, news began to spread about a new virus called Coronavirus that was breaking out in China. Soon this outbreak became an epidemic. After a few more months, the Coronavirus pandemic took the world by storm. The virus was highly deadly and contagious, so a quarantine was necessary to ensure society’s safety. The world first began to experience this over 6 years ago, but its ripple effects are still felt today. COVID-19 was life changing for everybody. Specifically, in education, the pandemic and quarantine period brought students and teachers into a new setting where both parties are still feeling the effects.

This was not the first time in history that a pandemic had occurred, but as students and teachers were told to take the week off, nobody expected that week to turn into years of remote and hybrid learning for some students. Olivia Tarnowski, a business & marketing teacher at Watauga High School who is also the advisor of Watauga DECA, experienced a similar thought.

“Our NC DECA State Competition is always the last weekend in February so I was definitely learning more about COVID becoming a growing concern a few weeks before everything shut down in March,” Tarnowski said. “I was concerned, but I didn't actually think it was going to become such a serious issue.”

Shortly after schools were shut down, remote learning began in Watauga County Schools. It was new to teachers and students, so while it seemed like a simple task on paper, in practice the remote learning technique proved to be much more difficult. The AP Literature teacher at Watauga High School, Blakely Lord, was one of the educators who had to figure out how to conduct the new remote learning experience for students.

“At first, remote learning seemed like a good thing. We were able to continue school, despite the disruptions of quarantine. As the pandemic continued, though, it became clear how much we did not yet know about creating an effective remote learning environment,” Lord explained. “We had to make things up as we went, and our understanding of what constituted ‘best practices’ for online learning shifted over and over again.”

Teachers and students alike experienced difficulties with remote learning. Being at home was a place full of distractions. Students had free access to phones, gaming consoles, books, and many other sources of entertainment. At first, students were interested in learning remotely- the idea of doing school from home was exciting. But soon, some students lost focus and figured out that they didn’t necessarily need to be mentally present for class to be counted as present. Lord realized this truth as time went on and made content more simple so that students could easily understand the curriculum. 

“I tried to simplify things and focus on the basics. Students were not very engaged and it was hard to correct misunderstandings or fill in the gaps when students were confused,” Lord said. “I ended up making a lot of videos and hyper-linked documents. I also relied heavily on audio-visual materials rather than more traditional texts.”

However, these experiences with remote learning varied between classrooms. For Tarnowski, it was business as usual for her elective marketing class.

“My students worked really hard during COVID and continued learning at high levels,” Tarnowski said. “The majority of students who end up taking a marketing class sign up to take one because they are personally interested in the content, so I think that really helped.”

COVID was a deadly virus that wreaked havoc on the world. Many students, regardless of whether they contracted COVID or not, still feel the life-changing effects from the outbreak.

“Students have had a hard time returning to the level of rigor and focus they had prior to Covid. Attendance issues are still very common (a lot more tardies and absences). Students also continue to express elevated levels of anxiety, and many seem reluctant to try new things academically or to take risks,” Lord said. “I think this will improve, but it definitely requires us to hold students to a high standard and to provide the structure they need to rise to the challenge of interacting with teachers and peers, meeting deadlines, showing up consistently, and staying engaged.”

COVID was a scary time for the world. To some, it felt like the quarantine was never going to go away. While schools are not technically in quarantine anymore, the presence of quarantine is still felt daily in the school system. This will likely be the case for the entire generation of students that experienced the pandemic, all the way from kindergarteners to college students. Due to remote learning, educators still see major gaps in lower grade levels where young students learn foundational skills.

“The reality is that the kids did not magically go ‘back to normal.' Teachers are still dealing with a lot of fallout from the pandemic, on top of the usual demands of the profession,” Lord said. “Overall, I think the pandemic made the job harder in ways that are still reverberating through the profession today.”