Since the start of the second semester, more than 700 students and about 100 staff members have had to quarantine at home for 10 days which means missing class time and making up missed work.

Even though some students had a little bit of experience working from home due to the fact they spent the last year and a half learning from home, students such as freshman Reeyana Rahman still found it difficult to keep up with school work.

“It was definitely harder to learn from home. I haven’t really learned anything because a lot of the teachers didn’t upload information on Canvas or through email,” Rahman said. “Mostly I have been watching YouTube videos to try and understand but it is still hard to totally comprehend what we’re learning at school.”

But with the random nature of COVID-19 absences, teachers are doing what they can to help students keep pace. 

“We are releasing videos of our lectures online on Canvas,” humanities teacher Elizabeth Evans said. “For instance, we have an oral presentation that is coming up and we so if they are absent, they can video their presentation if they’re feeling better at home.”

However, for some students enduring COVID-19 symptoms, being able to do work can be delayed.

“The first few days, personally, I had a really bad throat, and I couldn’t talk,” freshman Riya Sharma said. “It was hard in the beginning because I was tired and slept the whole day, but after that, I was pretty much fine and could start doing school work.”

Not only is being home with COVID-19 challenging for students, but it’s similar for teachers as well.

“For African American studies, I’m the only teacher and they don’t have a textbook,” African American Studies teacher Sarah Wiseman said. “So while I was feeling my very sickest at home writing lesson plans, it took me about four and a half hours to get everything put on while I was actively sick.”

Being at home for 10 days led Sharma to rely on methods learned from online learning last year.

“Just try to keep your phone away or put your electronics to Do Not Disturb so you’re not too distracted and you actually get your work done,” Sharma said. “I have an agenda, too, I used to write in school work and when I had to complete it which kept me very organized.”