{"id":6280,"date":"2023-02-09T12:38:44","date_gmt":"2023-02-09T17:38:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gracegazette.org\/wordpress1\/?p=6280"},"modified":"2024-06-07T19:25:54","modified_gmt":"2024-06-08T00:25:54","slug":"connections-before-corona-what-was-lost-at-grace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gracegazette.org\/wordpress1\/connections-before-corona-what-was-lost-at-grace\/","title":{"rendered":"Connections Before Corona: What was Lost at Grace?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Media taken from the Grace Gazette Image Archives<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grace included a high school division since long before the COVID-19 pandemic. Things before and after the pandemic seem to have changed around the school. For seniors who experienced Grace both ways, there are some clear differences between their experience and that of the ninth graders who are new to the Grace community — this is all they have ever known.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both upper and lower grades seem to agree that COVID changed things around Grace. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

James S. \u201823 notices how connections across grades differ greatly when comparing pre versus post-pandemic: \u201cWe had two years where we didn\u2019t have a normal school year and that kind of destroyed it.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

James\u2019s point is further emphasized by the disappearance of Cross-Grade Connection or CGC advisories from 2020 to 2023. Pre-pandemic, students would meet with a group that included students in grades 9-12 as a way to connect people who did not have classes together. This practice was eliminated when school went remote and never made a reappearance during the hybrid year. Connections across grades were eliminated during the pandemic to further prevent the spread, and CGC spaces disappeared. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This connection was not only lost in official academic spaces though. James pointed out how \u201cwhen we were freshman, we knew who the seniors were.\u201d This no longer seems to be the case, with ninth and 12th graders having little reason or opportunity to come together.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another senior echoed James\u2019s thoughts about connecting in-person after the remote year. Paul C. \u201823 said that he thinks freshmen have an advantage since they \u201cget the full four years to meet and build connections and get comfortable with how things work\u201d as opposed to \u201cgetting adjusted to everything and having it all change.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This post-COVID class will have the opportunity to build deeper relationships within their grade without the separation of computer screens and masks. This is an advantage that the ninth graders themselves seem to appreciate. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sami D. \u201826 feels like she \u201cwould not have been able to form bonds as closely. It would\u2019ve been more isolating\u201d as a freshman at a new school not getting to be in-person. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Learning within the classroom has changed too. Paul mentioned that it was hard \u201cto remember stuff from sophomore year\u201d when school was hybrid. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ami K. \u201826 described the improvement, saying that \u201cnow that we\u2019re in-person, we can do more.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, James seemed to think that academic rigor was not the problem with remote learning: \u201cI don\u2019t think I learned less online. I really liked remote learning. It was almost as if I suddenly had an extra hour in the day to do work, so I had more time to focus on my assignments. I think that allowed me to progress at a similar rate as if I was in class.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The academics were not the problem in James\u2019 hybrid experience. The culture of the school still changed for him though, right down to the bonding experience that is eating together with friends. During hybrid learning, students ate lunch as an advisory instead of altogether in the cafeteria. James mentioned missing this opportunity to connect with staff and students that he didn\u2019t always get to see. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI love the lunch staff and I love lunch,\u201d he admitted. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mia K. \u201824 agreed with these thoughts about connection, both within and across grades: \u201cCOVID stunted all grades from bonding, but really impacted incoming freshmen the most. Incoming freshmen are able to create stronger bonds as a grade not only with themselves, but with students in other grades.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Things have definitely changed at school since the pandemic. Connecting with peers both in and out of the classroom, across and within grades, was an important aspect of school that students missed in the last few years. The connections made outside of the classroom are being built in ways that they could not during the remote and hybrid years, but building those relationships still doesn\u2019t seem as easy as it was in 2019 — the days before the COVID age. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Media taken from the Grace Gazette Image Archives. Grace included a high school division since long before the COVID-19 pandemic. Things before and after the pandemic seem to have changed… Continue reading “Connections Before Corona: What was Lost at Grace?”<\/span> <\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":93,"featured_media":6282,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[8,200,7],"tags":[649,180,410,653,873],"appful":[],"class_list":["post-6280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-recent","category-school","tag-covid-19","tag-featured","tag-high-school","tag-pandemic","tag-recentarticles"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9uEnr-1Di","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/gracegazette.org\/wordpress1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/unnamed-2.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gracegazette.org\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gracegazette.org\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gracegazette.org\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gracegazette.org\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/93"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gracegazette.org\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6280"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/gracegazette.org\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6280\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6299,"href":"https:\/\/gracegazette.org\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6280\/revisions\/6299"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gracegazette.org\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gracegazette.org\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gracegazette.org\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gracegazette.org\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6280"},{"taxonomy":"appful","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gracegazette.org\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/appful?post=6280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}