Online Learning Returns for 2024 School Year

Samuel Lam Staff writEr

The year 2019 was an auspicious year. It was one that brought about many events. Not only did it bring us the wonders of COVID-19, but also brought us an arguably vital tool to our education system. Throughout late 2019 and 2020, in order to properly follow quarantine procedures, most schools, if not all, switched to Zoom. Zoom is an online tool/platform that allows for a virtual meeting to be held in which a teacher or even students can collaborate and talk together as if they were in person. This tool is what carried current students throughout quarantine and allowed them to learn to the same extent if not better than they would have in person. Considering this, various world-renowned researchers coming from Sitford, UC New York & UC Cows have come together to do a study. It was found that students actually do better quarantined in their room, isolated from all civilization and staring at a screen for hours on end trying to absorb information. For this very reason, we are happy to announce that after two years of in-person learning, Mills is planning to bring back Zoom and online learning as a mandatory addition to our school’s curriculum.

Among the topics of research was the comparison of grades between the COVID year and now. According to this recent study, brain scans were taken through the projector lenses in each classroom throughout this school year. Comparing these to the brain scans stored on everyone’s Zoom clients, it was found that students over Zoom were able to focus to a greater degree than they were able to in classrooms. This correlates with the differences in grades between these two years. In the junior class alone, average class scores were about 13% higher, or about 1 to 2 letter grades during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, there are some doubts caused by many claims that there were intricate cheating networks created by students to bypass the school’s integrity. This, however, was further investigated, and through footage and data also stored in the Zoom client, it shows that no other applications besides Zoom and Google apps were ever open during classes. This completely debunks this baseless speculation of cheating and proves that students were indeed focusing leagues better on Zoom than in person. sAmuel lAm / the thunDerDolt

Another topic that was researched was the student’s sleep patterns. Through various surveys conducted by Sitford and their colleagues, people were actually able to sleep a lot better and more soundly.

Stress levels were greatly reduced as less time was spent panicking about tests and assignments and spent focusing. Surveys also showed that on average, students actually got an astounding average of 3- 4 hours of sleep per night and only seven out of four students slept through their first period of the day. This is greatly attributed to students spending more time playing games such as Valorant, Minecraft, Fall Guys, and League of Legends. Upon interviewing parents of several alumni and current SMUHSD students, it was discovered that our student population actually spent a lot of time playing video games until the wee hours of dawn. This greatly improved their sleep schedules and kept their circadian rhythm consistent, promoting greater moods and focus in zoom school. However, when compared to the sleep many students are currently experiencing, it has been found that they’re actually getting about 7- 9 hours of sleep on average. This is greatly detrimental to the growing mind and body of an everyday high schooler.

Not only was Zoom and online school found to be beneficial to students, but to teachers as well. Upon interviewing various middle and high school teachers, UC Cows has gathered enough data to say that teachers actually don’t like the school environment. They say that it is a toxic and harmful environment for their mental health and that interacting with students face-to-face is not the way to go. Instead, they greatly enjoyed having to sit for hours in front of their screen during their designated office hours talking to no one. “It was very peaceful and enjoyable actually”, one teacher said. “Instead of doing the various tasks around my house that needed attention, I was able to help a total of zero students that came into my office hours”.

Taking all of the data from this groundbreaking study and after no debate at all, Mills alongside other SMUHSD schools has decided that they will be moving back to Zoom for the following academic year and for the foreseeable future.*