As some Wisconsin communities grow closer to resembling pre-COVID, virtual learners of Homestead adapt and endure through the recent changes made to everyday school life.

For the third and final trimester of the 2020-2021 school year, Homestead has entered Instructional Scenario B. Students who have chosen to become or remain distance learners this trimester shared updates on their latest experiences with virtual learning.

Due to the health concerns brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, some students have chosen to continue to work virtually out of caution.

Alice Johnston, junior, said, “I would like to not get sick so long as there are still cases being reported.”

Others are worried about bringing the virus home from school. “We could go to school and bring something back and then somebody in our family could get it,” Brandon Ruppel, sophomore, said.

As of April 9, Wisconsin has reported 1,000-plus new coronavirus cases on back-to-back days; an occurrence that has not taken place since more than a month prior on February 4-5. Additionally, 63 Wisconsin counties have identified new cases.

According to Wisconsin health officials, the surge in cases was fueled by more contagious variants of the virus and prominence in children.

In the Wisconsin State Journal, Dr. Ryan Westergaard, a chief medical officer at the state Department of Health Services, wrote, “We are in a new phase of the epidemic that is clearly worse than we were before and its transmission among young people who are driving the change in the curve.”

Along with the number of COVID cases recently picking up again, there has also been a change to Homestead’s schedules to more closely resemble previous school years.

Instructional Scenario B means that students and staff have the same five classes every day for each day of the school week. In addition to this, the first period now starts at 8:01 a.m. instead of 8:25 a.m.

“Scenario B resembles before because we have five hours and normal lunch, and we don’t have breaks,” Ruppel said. As a consequence of the changes to the schedule, virtual learning has become radically different compared to the previous trimesters taking place during COVID. “It used to be a lot slower at school, but now it goes quicker.”

Johnston said, “You flip from one class to the next with barely any time to process what the lesson was about. I prefer neither (virtual or on campus-learning) as both are very stressful.”

“I obviously would prefer being on campus, because we get to see people and actually live instead of being inside,” Ruppel said. With distance learning, it is often harder for some virtual students to connect with the class to the extent they would be able to in-person. “Not being able to see people, and being away from the world, it feels like we’re just in one big never ending loop of school. But, working at home, I guess we get to eat more food.”