Face-to-face learning
Northview students and staff reflect on the first step in returning to normalcy.Click over the points above to see how Northview High School has changed.
Graphic by Grace Peng, Managing Online Editor
Photos by Brandon Tung, Staff Writer
Brandon Tung, Staff Writer, and Grace Peng, Managing Online Editor
Most Northview families chose to stay at home when the form for face-to-face return rolled around. COVID-19 cases were still peaking in Georgia, scarcely going down, the risk of infection had not decreased any since March, and the possibility of a proven vaccine drew further and further away. As such, most parents opted to stay in Universal Remote Learning, or URL.
For a few, however, the best option, both academically and logistically, was to return to school when the option first opened. But these students faced a transformed Northview that was unlike anything they had seen before. For one, the building was eerily quiet, a stark contrast from the bustling hallways most students knew. For another, it was the change in student-faculty interaction.
“I forget what it's like to chat with kids,” Brian Downey, principal of Northview, said. “I kind of forgot the small chatter, the banter that we [the faculty] always have with the kids. With masks on, that human interaction of that smile or that frown or whatever - that stressor is still hard to read.”
As of Phase Three, only 311 families had opted for the face-to-face option, out of the 1,808 total families of Northview. And that is not including the division of this number of students into four different days of the week depending on their last name, meaning that for each day of this phase, less than 100 kids were in the building.
School hallways have seen a few new changes as students begin to return.
Photo by Brandon Tung, Staff Writer
“It’s just not many kids,” Downey said. “But we're all human, you know, within this pandemic, we're all a little bit uncomfortable around a crowd.”
Despite the low numbers - approximately zero to five students on average for each period - there has been another surprising trend: the number of underclassmen compared to the number of upperclassmen. On average, attendance for freshmen and sophomores was much greater than that of juniors and seniors.
“I have like two classes with kids on Thursday, three on Monday, and I think three on Friday,” Chloe Grimes, language arts teacher, said. “More of my freshmen and sophomores are coming than my juniors. It does seem like the teachers who have freshmen have more students.”
The classroom setting has also seen a few changes to enforce COVID-19 guidelines.
Photo by Brandon Tung, Staff Writer
As for the students who have returned, they now know a Northview that is unlike anything they have ever known. Random temperature checks, for one, was a new rule that was implemented.
“I wanted to get like the face to face, so I could really just like, learn more with my teachers, and my parents were kind of like pushing it also. So it was kind of mutual,” sophomore Sarah Rosen said. “I thought there would be more people than there were.”
Rosen’s decision was not made lightly, but she and her younger sister, a River Trail Middle School student, have both returned to face-to-face learning. For both morning and afternoon transportation, she travels via carpool instead of the bus. During lunch, she brings food instead of buying it.
“There was really nobody there [in the cafeteria], and it's only three seats, so you're really spread out,” Rosen said. “If I could change anything, probably just the seating, maybe. If we did diagonal seating in like lunch areas, but you could like have sat with more people, but I guess that's not really six feet.”
Rosen is not the only one who has felt the change in the social setting. Michelle Su, a freshman at Northview, was another student who returned to school. She explains her decision as one that was made with her brother, and their mutual desire to have an opportunity to learn in a place other than their house.
“From the perspective of someone who has no idea what going to school is like, the most interesting aspect would be sitting in an empty cafeteria and having it be quiet,” Su said. “I still have a friend, and a few others, too. So it's not that bad.”
Su, too, carpools, but she also buys school lunches. She enjoys the stimulation found by face-to-face learning. As a newcomer to Northview, this is her first time being thrust into this kind of school’s intense learning environment.
”I didn't necessarily think ninth grade is as different as eighth grade. But still, the teachers can't teach as much, so you kind of have to learn a little on your own,” Su said.
Rosen echoes Su’s sentiments and applauds the teachers’ efforts in trying to overcome technological and logistical struggles to prioritize both student health and education.
“It's definitely strange that there are not that many people there, but it was definitely welcoming and all the teachers were very helpful in all the hallways and everything,” Rosen said.
Su also emphasizes the work ethic that the presence of the school brings which is one of the only solutions to student accountability
“I think it just makes me more accountable because in between classes for all my classes online, you might get an assignment and just don't choose to do it because, you know, no one's holding you accountable, unlike in real school where you have to do it,” Su said.
Chandler Stevenson (12) and Jatong Su (11) sit at lunch socially distanced.
Photo by Brandon Tung, Staff Writer
As of now, the school has just wrapped up its completion of Phase Three, which is the allowance of a fourth of the student body per day, based on surname. Phase Four will mark another stage in the path to full return, allowing the student body the option of two days a week at school. Phase Five will hopefully allow the entire week for an at-school presence, but will still retain the option of URL. But as of now, with still so much uncertainty surrounding the pandemic on local and national levels, the only thing to be done is to sit, watch, and wait.
