While there are a lot of long-term COVID-19 issues, how has the school been affected? Well, there happens to be quite a few things that have changed. Learning has changed a lot because of the pandemic. However, not just the school has changed, so has the world.

Some things that have changed are the way that classrooms are set up. Kids have said that classes have been doing virtual assignments and have done more virtual programs since returning from virtual learning.

“The pandemic brought about more use of technology in the classroom and different ways of learning online through Google Meets,” Mrs. Tina Strati, sixth grade English teacher, said.

 Most people think that this is a good thing. Students say that it is an easier way to keep track of everything while saving paper. Teachers also said that they like online programs not only to learn in the classroom, but it sets them up for a flexible instruction day.

A lot of kids struggled to learn virtually. Therefore the consequences are that students have a hard time learning about the current things when they have missed some of the basic skills because of virtual learning. 

“It is hard to understand things when the teacher talks about things that we were supposed to learn about in 5-6 grade that I don’t remember or don’t understand,” Hailey Findley, an eighth-grade student, said. 

Most people do believe that there is a learning gap. Most people say that it will slowly close over time. However, you could be left with a lifelong deficiency. This is not an easy thing to fix. That is because in every grade you have to learn certain things to be ready for the following year. So even if you close it little by little it may still be there. Just because you still have to learn what you need to learn in that grade you are in. However, most teachers say that kids could try to study more and work on their own time to close their learning gap. 

Some other things that have changed are kids’ mental health. A lot of people including students and teachers say that anxiety is very high after the pandemic. Some kids said that interaction between students has changed because there was so much distance between people for such a long time. This could be a bigger problem than just talking to friends and the way that that has changed. Not only does your mental health affect the way you feel, but it also affects what people do and how they do it. 

Students have started to need more support throughout assessments. This also has made it hard for teachers to get help to everyone that needs it. However, the middle school has hired a math and reading interventionists to help the students who may need more help in that subject area. The hope is that with an interventionist the learning gap will start to close. While there is still a lot of work to do the middle school is trying their best to support students in all that they may need. The middle school has also started a new program called afternoon tutoring. This program allows students to stay after school and receive more help from teachers. Morning tutoring is also available daily in Mrs. Perry, Mrs. Nicely, and Mrs. Timko’s rooms and on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings in the library. These are all attempts to help students that happen to be more affected than others by COVID-19. 

While there are still a lot of things that are still affected by COVID-19, there is a lot that is somewhat back to normal. Everything that we knew changed and was affected. This put a lot of strain on learning and mental health. Freedom Middle School is doing their best to help students that need it. There is a lot of bad that came from COVID-19. However, there are a lot of good things like learning about new technology and the middle school getting interventionists.