Reflecting on the lessons learned after a year into the COVID-19 pandemic
La Quinta High School in 2017.
It was arguably one of the most memorable rainy days in the Coachella Valley, the last Friday of the school year: March 13, 2020.
It was the start of an unexpected pandemic that the entire world had to adapt to.
As schools were forced to close, the experience of high school sports and spending time with friends all came to an end. For many, adjusting to a new life while being sheltered in place was difficult.
On the one-year anniversary of that unusual day, it’s a moment to take a pause and reflect on the experiences and lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic.
A lot can change within a year, and there have been experiences that students and teachers never thought they would go through.
Teachers like Ronald Dohrman, who teaches English at La Quinta High School, never came across a year like this one in his 32 years of being an educator.
“The challenge for me was getting over the camera shyness,” he said. “Being [on camera] was weird for me. I was starting to feel like a radio broadcaster, where I’m just going out there and people are picking up on what I’m saying.”
Jennah Lopez ‘23 is a new student at the high school and has spent it behind a computer screen.
“Learning behind a screen was very hard and stressful at times. It was so new, especially being in a new school. I felt isolated from everything,” she said. “I’ve learned how to work my best through it. Being a new student hasn’t been scary because we aren’t in school, but I have made a few new friends online.”
As a student-athlete, Laila Magnetti ‘23, who was on the junior varsity girls’ basketball team during the 2019 winter season, plans to try out for the new season.
She has come across challenges of trying to come up with new ways to practice basketball with her teammates while staying safe from COVID.
“Practicing through a screen is weird because you have to find spots in your house to workout and set up the camera in weird ways,” she explained.
A Teacher’s Perspective
While they have all dealt with different experiences, they have learned a valuable lesson throughout this time: to appreciate the in-person teaching experiences, memories, and circumstances that were taken for granted.
“Just being able to build relationships where I can see everybody’s faces and their reactions to things,” said Dohrman. “There’s a lot more interaction in the classroom.”
He added that the challenge of communicating with students online makes it more difficult to create a bond.
“I’m having to build relationships through a screen, but it’s only one-sided,” said Dohrman. “It’s hard to develop a relationship and that’s a big part of teaching. — Ronald Dohrman
And there are some treasured lesson plans, such as creative assignments that he has enjoyed in the past that he finds difficult to replicate online.
Although there were tough challenges, Dohrman learned how to make it through distance teaching—and learned about himself in the process.
“I did a lot of self-reflection, making adjustments as I go. I told myself at the beginning of the year, ‘It’s going to be hard, but I’m going to stay positive,” he said. “I have this newfound appreciation of what I’ve had for so many years in the classroom because you don’t know what you have until it’s gone.”
A New Student’s Perspective
When Lopez transferred to La Quinta High from Palm Desert High this school year, it was because she really missed her old friends from middle school.
“Not seeing my friends was very hard because I was switching to LQ. I was really excited to see all my friends from [John Glenn] middle school,” she said. “When I was little, I always wanted to be the new person at school because it always seemed really fun.”
Lopez made a lot of time for herself during her time at home and started noticing her personal growth.
“Physically and mentally, [the] things I changed were how I dressed and the people around me,” she said. “I was making new friends and talking to my middle school friends again more.”
She began to realize what she didn’t see before the pandemic: that she was able to find a more comfortable way to express herself, and, like Dohrman, realized a lesson she will carry with her.
“I’ll try my best to live my life to the fullest and to not take anything for granted and appreciate the small things,” said Lopez.” To just to keep a positive mindset.”
A Student-Athlete’s Perspective
As a former JV player for the girls’ basketball team, Magnetti recalls being able to travel on the school bus to different schools for games and hanging out with friends. It’s an experience that she feels she took for granted as a student-athlete.
“Losing some basketball skill because I didn’t get to practice as much kind of sucks, so that was definitely a challenge,” she said. “We started conditioning at school while staying six feet apart, [but] wearing masks during conditioning and running gets a bit annoying.”
Despite not being able to condition regularly, she and her teammates came up with new ways to practice their basketball skills through a computer screen. Adapting to change, she said, was integral.
“Sometimes my teammates and I would practice on Zoom calls or FaceTime games,” she said. “It was just finding different loopholes to still be able to connect and have fun. — Laila Magnetti
Throughout all these bumps, the main lesson she feels she learned would be knowing that there’s always a way to get through challenges.
“Just knowing there’s a way for you to still get stuff done and just being able to push forward, said Magnetti, “even if things seem hard or confusing.”
If there’s one thing that they all share after a year into the pandemic, it’s appreciating the present, finding strength, and reflecting on self-growth.
“Don’t be scared to ask for support, keep a positive mindset,” Magnetti said. “It’s okay to not feel good all the time. You just have to tell yourself that you can push through it.”
