Five years ago, COVID-19 upended education. Schools shuttered and classes moved online. WNIJ education reporter Peter Medlin asked a group of students from DeKalb and Earlville to reflect on what they remember about that strange time and how much the pandemic still impacts their education...
When did you realize COVID would be a big deal?
Maddux Fitch, a DeKalb 5th grader, says he was too young to understand what exactly was happening when his school first shut down. In the spring of 2020, he was in kindergarten: “I was kind of confused when we were [first] on computers," he said, "but I realized, like, a week into the pandemic that people started getting severely sick and dying. So, I knew it was serious.”
Grady Fowler, a DeKalb High School sophomore, was in 5th grade when the pandemic started. At first, he thought it would only last a few days: “[But then] we had to go to the school and pick up our stuff, like our folders or whatever we left at the school," Fowler said, "so we could bring it back home, because now we're doing some e-learning thing.”
Annabelle Mainhart, a DeKalb 5th grader, also assumed she’d be back to school soon, but, eventually, had to ask her parents: “A week later, I noticed that I wasn't going to school at all," she said. "So, I was asking my parents, ‘Why aren’t we going to school?’ and they were like, ‘Oh, well, everybody's getting sick right now, so we can't risk you getting sick as well.’”
What was the transition to e-learning like?
Aubrey Brown is a 5th grade student at Earlville Elementary in LaSalle County. She says the move to remote kindergarten was as messy as you’d expect: “I remember being very confused and overwhelmed about what was going on," Brown said, "because me being like a 5- or 6-year-old trying to learn how to work a computer was very stressful.”
Jayla Walker, a DeKalb High School freshman, said it was also frustrating for her in 4th grade: “It was definitely kind of a weird transition," she said, "not really knowing what to do, kind of on my own. I couldn't really ask for help, because it’s not like anyone there understood how to help me with certain stuff, any technical issues that I had.”
Abraham Munoz, another Earlville 5th grader, had a very different experience. He was living in Mexico when the pandemic started and said there was no transition to e-learning: “We didn't have any computers," he said, "so we just skipped school.”
Was e-learning hard, easy, or just boring?
DeKalb 5th grader Emma Waterman emphasized how boring it could feel: “I feel like I wasn't really paying attention, because, at my house, I just played with my dog while my teachers were trying to explain, like, shapes to us,” she said. But, for a while, she thought she had it easier than other kids, “I have always been really shy and when I was in kindergarten and in 1st grade, I didn't talk to anybody," she explained, "so being on the computer was kind of fun for me, but, at points, it'd be boring, because at school I didn't have any friends, but outside of school, I had friends and I couldn't talk to [them].”
Naomi Hernandez, a fellow DeKalb 5th grade student, says it was almost impossible to get the sort of support she needed: “It was kind of hard, because I didn't really have a bond with my teacher, since it was online all the time. You didn't really get one-to-one instruction. She would always be teaching the whole class instead of just one person.”
Once Earlville 5th grader Abraham moved from Mexico to the U.S. in 2021, he faced another layer of challenges: “It was very hard for me, he said, "because I couldn't understand the homework or anything, because I didn't know English.”
DeKalb High School sophomore Grady was attending a small, private school at the time: “We didn't really have that many kids. There were nine kids in my class," he said. "So, Zoom calls were pretty boring.”
DeKalb 5th grader Maddux sums it up: “It was a really boring time," he said. "Adults don't understand how boring it was.”
Are there any odd e-learning stories that stick out to you?
Jayla, a DeKalb High School freshman, had a unique remote learning set-up: “I had to stay with my mom," she said. "She works at the courthouse, and so I had my own room in the courthouse where I would sit and do my meetings.”
DeKalb 5th grader Maddux says there were bizarre moments happening all the time: "Every single day when the class started, we would have to sing the calendar, like March 1, March 2, [and on and on]," he said. "I would just sit there watching everyone do it. I was like, ‘Why are we doing this?’ It was kind of weird.” He says virtual P.E. could also be very silly: “We had to do 45 push-ups and I tried to prove it to the P.E. teachers by doing push-ups on the bed right next to my computer.”
Fellow DeKalb 5th grader Annabelle says her classmates would try to prank teachers too: “A few kids in my class would literally be dancing on camera, and then turn their cameras off, turn their mic off," she said, "and then my teacher would be like, ‘Hey everybody, turn your mics back on! Turn your cameras back on! I need to be able to see you!’ And nobody would turn it back on.”
Emma, DeKalb 5th grader, says her teachers had to get creative coming up with activities and they had to get creative to complete them: “I remember one time they were trying to teach us how to juggle," she said, "and I grabbed cupcakes, and I started throwing them.”
Did you have your Zoom camera on or off during class?
Grady says his camera was always on during the spring of 2020, but the loneliness of the pandemic really wore on him as the months dragged on: “I went through that whole summer break [in 2020] without hanging out with any friends," he said. "I sat inside every day, all day. I just kind of went like quiet for a while. And when I started my new year at Huntley Middle School, I was more of a 'camera off' kind of person.”
Jayla says that’s about the same story for her too: “I was a 'camera on' person, but I soon became a 'camera off' person," she said. "It felt kind of awkward to have your camera on, having all these kids just look at you. It felt kind of weird.”
Maddux says his camera was always on, but some students only had there’s on with a digital background: “One kid was pretending to flex his ginormous house," he remembered.
Annabelle says people got very creative with backgrounds, although some teachers eventually banned them: “I remember this one kid was in freaking space," she said. "This other kid was in the ocean!”
Naomi says her online classes were always a mixture of cameras on and off: “[I was] 'camera on,': she said, "but they couldn't make you do it, so you didn't have to do it. A lot of people never had their cameras on, and they were never participating.”
Emma says you also could be strategic about how you used your camera: “'On,' but I would have to put it up at an angle so they couldn't see my mouth while I ate.”
How did it affect your friendships? Does it still impact your social life?
Maddux says it’s taken him years to rebuild friendships: “It took me to 4th grade to start talking with my friends again," he said, "because it was normal to me that I was just on the computer all day and I didn't talk to anyone. So, it took a while for me to realize that, like, ‘Oh, they're here right now. I can talk to them now!’”
Emma remembers trying to stay in touch with her friends at the beginning of the pandemic: “[In 2020], My friends, we'd play over the fence in my backyard, we would toss a ball over the fence and just try to play catch, but we weren't really allowed to physically play together.” She said it also took her a few school years to open up: “Third grade," she said, "because in second grade, I still didn't talk to anybody. I only had like two friends.”
Aubrey says the pandemic strained her ability to make friends, even after they were back in-person: “All of the masks and stuff made it hard to become close with your friends you had in previous years.”
Abraham had a unique challenge between COVID and learning a new language in a new place: “It was hard for me because, at first, [because] they didn't have a teacher who helped me. But the school hired a teacher to help my brothers and I learn English and make friends.”
Jayla says she’s also still feeling the social fallout of the pandemic: “I think this year I've kind of learned to get out more, because I didn't like going out anymore since COVID.” She says the stress of that time did reinforce some of her relationships though: “I don't think I would still be friends with some people if COVID didn't happen" she explained. "It was kind of a way to bond with someone, connecting with stories, saying this is what happened with me, and if you had a similar story, we were friends off of that.”
Annabelle says she was always outgoing, so to be disconnected from them was weird and scary: “I think that it was really hard for me because I didn't get to talk with any of my friends," she said. "The only way I could see them was on my computer. The only person I had to really play with was my younger brother, and usually he was just on his tablet.”
How did it affect your learning? Do you think it’s still impacting you academically?
Aubrey says the pandemic still impacts her learning: “In my opinion, it affected some of my math skills," she said. "I still have trouble with multiplying and stuff. Some of the students in my class, I think the pandemic might have affected them too, like the way they read.”
Jayla says she feels a little behind. She was in 4th grade in 2020 and knows that transition from elementary to middle school can be really important, particularly for math and reading: “That time kind of affects me now, because I struggle most in those subjects now," she said. "So, I do believe that we struggled more. It kind of hurts when you're just like, ‘These are low grades because I don't know how to do this, and I don't know how to do this because I when I was supposed to learn it, I didn't learn it.’”
Naomi says it’s hard to quantify just how much they lost: “It kind of sucks," she said, "because we missed out on a lot of field trips and a lot of learning. I think it affected our learning.”
Abraham was struggling with the pandemic like everyone else, while also trying to learn a new language and adapt to a new home and culture: “I was in 1st grade, and I didn't know how to subtract or anything like that or read," he said. "It was just hard because I tried to do my best.”
Grady says remote learning in particular was easier: “But I feel like I learned less, in all," he said. "I really struggled in 7th grade, but after that, I kind of bounced back, and I was good."
How were your teachers? Did you have enough support?
Aubrey says she really empathized with her teachers, even when she was having a tough time in class: “It was very stressful for me, because I felt how my teacher was feeling at that time. Sometimes I would just turn off my screen, and I would just think, ‘What do I do?!’ Because nobody listened.”
Annabelle says she could see how drained her teachers were after the pandemic learning experience: “Especially right after the pandemic when we went back to school, you could tell that [my teacher] was really affected by the pandemic," she said. "She talked slowly and quietly sometimes. So, yeah, I'm pretty sure everyone in the classroom was affected by the pandemic.”
Grady says teachers really did try: “I mean, teachers would reach out," he said, "but it wasn't enough.”
Jayla echoed those same feelings: “I know they tried their best with what they were given," she said, "but, at that age, it just wasn't enough and what we needed.”
How has the pandemic changed your relationship with technology?
Cortland 5th grader Annabelle says adults may assume kids their age crave screens, but after a few years learning in front of laptops, they’ve had enough. Some actually much prefer paper and pen now! “I feel like if I use electronics too long, I literally feel my brain rotting."
Maddux says he can’t handle spending hours and hours online anymore: “After just like 10 minutes, I'm so sick of being on the computer.”
Grady says, before the pandemic, he loved spending a lot of time on computers, but “Ever since I spent that much time just looking at a screen, I just lost my love for it," he said. "I try to stay off screens as much as possible. Like, nowadays, I prefer papers over an online assignment or over a Google Doc. I prefer papers or packets.”
Jayla agrees that students like her got burnt out with screens: “Looking at a computer all day, it just gives you like a headache, and it's just not as fun anymore," she said. "It used to be kind of something exciting to do, but now it's just like, ‘Get me away from it!’”
