Students and staff at Woodbridge High School have struggled with the transition from online learning to in person this school year.

Teachers reported a difficulty in keeping students engaged through online learning, and had to change their approach to teaching.

Ms. Pannullo, an English teacher at Woodbridge High School, said, “COVID forced me to reevaluate everything I knew about teaching. Learning to engage students when I wasn’t even sure if they were ‘present’ was a new challenge for me.” 

Even though students and teachers are back from COVID distancing, they are still heavily using electronic tools like Google Classroom. “Although I was still able to teach the English curriculum, I had to find new delivery methods and resources.”

During COVID, students felt as if they lost some of their social life and were overwhelmed with the workload that teachers were assigning them. They struggled academically because of the adaptation to online learning as compared to normal years.

They also struggled to be self motivated during COVID, so to come back after almost two year was a major change for them. 

Angelina Xicali Sophomore at Woodbridge High School that has recently transferred from Midwood High school in Brooklyn, New York said

“At the start of COVID I was doing really bad academically. Like my grades dropped a lot and it was hard to catch up. During COVID and even now my social skills went down a lot. I became more anxious to talk to new people and barely met any friends. Now my social life has improved because I go out more and get the chance to meet new people.”

Sophomore Justine MontLouis, a cheerleader at WHS, agrees with Xicali that it has been hard to come back to school and get into the groove of things. She thinks that joining cheer has helped with making friends and “lets me interact with other people rather than being awkward on zoom”. 

Overall, students and teachers prefer in person learning even though it is going to be a rough journey. Combining new technology and using old methods, keeping students engaged and eager to learn.