{"id":323,"date":"2020-09-25T13:09:41","date_gmt":"2020-09-25T17:09:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2020-2021\/?p=323"},"modified":"2020-10-14T13:28:23","modified_gmt":"2020-10-14T17:28:23","slug":"being-the-new-kid-in-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2020-2021\/2020\/09\/25\/being-the-new-kid-in-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"Being The “New Kid” In 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Moving Schools During a Pandemic<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Nora Malone<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Being a new student is always difficult whether you\u2019re only moving over a district, or to a whole new state or country. Showing up that first day somewhere you\u2019ve never been, seeing people you\u2019ve never seen. Feeling lost in a crowd without a single familiar face or landmark to guide you. It’s something that society openly recognizes as difficult. But what do you do when you can\u2019t even see your classmates’ faces?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Picture this: it’s the first day of school. You are a new student at TC Williams; you click on the ZOOM link for your first class and you are met with nothing but black squares with names over them. You wouldn\u2019t even know if the Kate in your Chemistry class is the same as the Kate in your English Class. This is the reality for new students at TC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Making friends is difficult in any situation. Plucking up the courage to say hi, figuring out how to keep the conversation going without seeming needy, or picking up on social cues and seeing if you are compatible. When you only see black squares or tiny blank faces, there is no way to connect on a normal human level.. You might exchange a word or two, a couple opinions in breakout rooms, but that’s it. No \u201chey do you want to pair up for this project?\u2019 or \u2018what color football field did you vote for?\u2019 All of the natural parts of teenage socialization have been taken away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By not being in the building new students are also missing out on all the time between classes where they can interact with their peers. There’s no more walking to class together or sitting together at lunch. New students have lost all the small bits of social interaction everyone takes for granted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet, despite all these challenges, there is an expectation that you are making friends. There is a belief that \u2018oh it\u2019s not too hard, just smile and say hello\u2019. But even that simple greeting is nearly impossible in a virtual environment. No one wants to be that person who shows up to the zoom meeting and says a loud \u201cHello!\u201d completely unprompted, although in the real world, greeting your teacher and classmates is expected. But on zoom that\u2019s seen as obnoxious, but at least it’s some small bit of social interaction. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now it\u2019s only the beginning of the year, and I\u2019m sure it\u2019ll get easier for new students as time goes on. But it\u2019s hard now, and that\u2019s what\u2019s on our minds. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This isn\u2019t a plea for you to greet everyone, or even try to interact with new students unless you want to. It\u2019s simply a truth and something that every TC student should consider. Don\u2019t forget about us. Don\u2019t brush us off, or get annoyed when we are confused. We have lost all the natural things that are supposed to happen to new students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Without properly seeing our classmates and teachers it often feels like we aren\u2019t even true TC students. We can\u2019t picture anything when we think about TC, we don\u2019t even know what colors the floors are. It makes it feel less like a community working together through something hard, and more like we\u2019re just passing through. Watching a group of people deal with something difficult, but not really taking part in it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are a lot of things that new students are missing out on, some that we haven\u2019t even realized yet. Once we are back in the building these things will hit us hard, so don\u2019t leave us in the dust. Don\u2019t feel obligated to engage with us but keep in mind that we don\u2019t feel like true members of TC. Give us time to assimilate and maybe give us a helping hand. We don\u2019t want your pity, we just want your patience.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Being a new student is always difficult whether you\u2019re only moving over a district, or to a whole new state or country. Showing up that first day somewhere you\u2019ve never been, seeing people you\u2019ve never seen. Feeling lost in a crowd without a single familiar face or landmark to guide you. It’s something that society openly recognizes as difficult. But what do you do when you can\u2019t even see your classmates’ faces?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":335,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-opinion"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2020-2021\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/TCWilliams-2.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2020-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2020-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2020-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2020-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2020-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=323"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2020-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":522,"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2020-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323\/revisions\/522"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2020-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2020-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2020-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2020-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}