“It’s a big jump from Elementary school to Middle school,” voiced 7th grader Eva B. Covid has only made this transition more complicated.

8th graders are noticing a few gaps in their education due to the slow pace of online learning last year.          

“[There was] a lot of stuff in science that we were supposed to apparently learn that we did not learn in seventh grade and even sixth grade,” noted 8th grader Katelyn G.

Katelyn is a student who had her 7th grade experience over a laptop from her home during Covid. She explained that that virtual year had an effect on a lot of what she was supposed to learn. 

“No one wanted to actually pay attention and do the work,” said Katelyn.  

Besides pacing and engagement, some of the work was difficult to complete in an online environment.

 “A lot of science is a lot more interactive,” said Eva B. 

She feels that it would be very difficult to do many of the science activities online, which may explain why Katelyn feels she missed out in that class and others. She’s happy to be back in the building this year.

“It is a lot more engaging and a lot easier to pay attention because there’s not as many distractions as there would be at home,” Eva disclosed. 

Being engaged in school is an important aspect.   Teachers are doing their best to get students up to speed but moving from virtual to in-person has been a big change for the teachers, too.

“We’re trying to pick up where we left off, but there’s a lot of gaps,” said History teacher James Bermudez. “[At least] I can see the students when before they weren’t even turning on their cameras, I couldn’t tell if they were listening or chasing after their cat,” he added. 

One of the biggest problems last year, as Bermudez pointed out, was “ghosting,” “Ghosting” was a term used last year for students who logged into their online classes but then left the computer and did not participate. Many of those present were also reluctant to turn on microphones and participate.

 Katelyn and Eva agreed that the current 8th graders had a more difficult experience with seventh grade. While current 7th graders are dealing with the change from elementary to middle school in the school environment, and that can be overwhelming. 

Whether you missed out on the full middle school experience or missed saying goodbye to the elementary school that had been your home for so long, it has been a difficult transition.