AMERICUS, Ga. ā At first, many schools announced it would last only a couple weeks. A year later, the unplanned experiment with distance learning continues for thousands of students who have yet to set foot back in classrooms.
Comfortable homes and private tutors have made it easier for those with access. Expectations are higher at some schools than others. And growing numbers of students are being offered in-person instruction at least part time.
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But students of all backgrounds have faced struggles with technology, the distractions of home life, and social isolation. The Associated Press followed four students on a typical day to find out how theyāre coping a year into the coronavirus pandemic.
Itās not quite 9 a.m. and Kristen King is on her living room couch, a Chromebook propped on a TV tray.
āItās been challenging,ā says the 17-year-old junior at Americus-Sumter High School in Georgia. āI like hands-on help from my teachers. We canāt really see our friends, like our school friends. We canāt really socialize with them. We canāt really do anything.ā
Her Advanced Placement English instructor puts on a recording of a speech President George W. Bush gave on Sept. 11 ā part of a discussion about tone in writing and speaking.
Kristen, who is not a morning person, fights off yawns, plays music to help her focus and messages with friends.
āThe first 30 minutes of class, I wonāt really be there,ā she says.
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In EspaƱola, New Mexico, Javin Lujan Lopez joins a video chat with his football teammates for study hall. Itās a way for the Pojoaque Elks football players to spend time alone, together.
His first class is finance. When the teacher asks how the owner of a lemonade stand might increase their profits, Javin types his answer in the chat: āRaise the price of the lemonade.ā
He moves on to his only other class of the day, physical education. The 17-year-old senior has a camera set up to show him on the porch, where he has a bench press and weights. But when the teacher announces the students donāt have to log their workouts, Javin says heās not even going to go for a run.
Heāll be exercising at football practice, and besides, his friends are online now, playing Call of Duty.
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Barefoot and eating a bagel, 13-year-old Graciela Leahy settles in front of her iMac for a stretch of nearly six straight hours at her bedroom desk.
Her parents invested their first pandemic money from the government to create separate rooms for Graciela, an eighth grader at Ohioās Columbus Gifted Academy, and her younger sister.
Gracielaās mom, Elisa Leahy, is quick to point out the privilege of having such flexibility, noting friends in Columbusā immigrant community who have more challenging circumstances or primarily speak Spanish had a harder time navigating the transition.
Still, there are hiccups. In Gracielaās band class ā now mainly music theory ā the instructor yells at his cat and takes attendance, wondering aloud why a quarter of the class is absent.
Her English teacher is out with COVID-19, so another oversees the reading of āRomeo and Juliet.ā A classmate holds a baby brother during history class, where the teacherās efforts to keep studentsā attention include a video that imagines Napoleon Bonaparte playing āLetās Make a Dealā over the Louisiana Purchase.
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At 11 a.m. Angelina Mistretta spins fidget toys as lessons stream through headphones, keeping her hands busy in hopes her mind will engage, too.
When in-person school stopped, the expectations that come with attending City Honors High School in Buffalo, New York, did not. On the 16-year-old juniorās schedule this year are International Baccalaureate literature, AP history, Algebra 2, an IB French class and an IB biology class.
The trouble is, her focus has been affected by anxiety and āa severe case of I donāt want to,ā she says. A $25-a-session tutor helps with algebra, but sheās also behind in two other classes.
These days, her mother, Wendy, works beside Angelina on the living room couch. Each day Angelina must complete that dayās assignments plus one makeup task.
āThereās definitely a fatigue thatās setting in for all of us,ā Wendy Mistretta said. āItās exhausting doing this work day in and day out. And thereās a mental exhaustion when you donāt know how or when itās going to end.ā
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Around noon, Javin begins a marathon video game session. As he talks with his fellow players, his mother works nearby, each wearing earbuds and engrossed in their own conversations.
Itās her first day back as a payment processor for the state game and fish agency since getting COVID-19 in October. She still has lingering lung problems.
Javin isnāt sure what will happen after graduation. He's considering a welding certificate program at the local community college. He applied to universities in New Mexico and Colorado but feels like the pandemic year didnāt allow him to put his best foot forward.
āYes, itās hard to apply because weāve been doing everything remotely and like theyāre just going off of, off of, that and theyāre not going off of, like, actually what you learn because like during remotely, you got some teachers that, like, theyāre older and they just know like, the teaching, they donāt know all the new technology and stuff because it is new to them,ā he says.
On Monday, the state announced schools could reopen. Javin, who had spent the day snowboarding, made it to practice for the good news.
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At 12:48 p.m., Kristen begins her fourth and final class, business communication. Like her other classes, it will end before its allotted 90 minutes are up.
The teacher announces a quiz. Students who were watching on their phones scramble to boot up their computers.
Kristen races through the quiz, then gets ready for a skit that is supposed to illustrate a form of distraction and how to control it. Students haven't rehearsed the script they wrote, partly because they canāt hold an online meeting on their own using the schoolās software.
Kristen says she has kept earning As and Bs this year, but itās been harder.
āI feel like Iāve learned less than what Iāve learned in school,ā Kristen said. āThe work is more independent. We really have to learn on our own.ā
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When Gracielaās science teacher divides students into virtual breakout rooms to help one another finish a worksheet around 1:10 p.m., no one says much.
Graciela uses some of that time to submit late math homework. Teachers are being lenient and thereās no consequences as long as the work gets done before the grading period ends.
āI procrastinated a lot last year, but I didnāt turn anything in late. I just waited until the very last minute to do it,ā she said. āBut now, there isnāt really the last minute. You can just do it whenever.ā
A new type of extracurricular activity wraps up her school day. She has a videoconference with classmates who are compiling quotes into a āDear 2020ā video.
Theyāve picked an optimistic submission as a potential ending: āYou didnāt defeat me. You helped me grow.ā
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Franko reported from Columbus, Ohio, Attanasio from EspaƱola, New Mexico, and Thompson from Buffalo, New York. Derek Karikari in New York and Michael Melia in Hartford, Connecticut, also contributed.
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More AP coverage of the pandemicās first year: Pandemic: One Year