First grader Brinley Ganey learned last week she wouldn’t return to school for the rest of the year. She said she misses her friends and her teacher.
After hearing last week that distance learning will continue through the end of the school year, many Haines students said they miss their friends, but enjoy the freedom to work at their own pace, set their own schedules and enjoy more extracurriculars.
“It’s kind of sad, but it’s not the worst thing,” junior Mark Davis said when he learned that he and his friends would be staying home the rest of the school year. “I kind of like the more whatever-pace-I-want kind of schedule. I can wake up whenever and do the classes in any order. I also get to spend a lot more time with family. That’s fun.”
Last week the Davis family erected their trampoline. “We’ve been bouncing on that the last few days,” Davis said.
Senior Joseph Rossman said he’s able to accomplish the bulk of his school work by Wednesday, which leaves more time than usual to pursue his passion of learning about and flying homemade airplanes.
Fifth grader Wade Lloyd said he spends a few hours in the morning working on school assignments and the rest of the day playing with his siblings, going outside or playing videogames like Fortnite or Minecraft. He said he was sad when he learned he wouldn’t go back to his classroom because he won’t see his friends, but happy because there’s fewer distractions at home than at school.
“It’s a lot quieter and it’s easier to get things done,” Lloyd said.
Fourth grader CC Elliott said she appreciates the ability to learn and do her schoolwork at her own pace. “I don’t have to go bam, bam, bam,” Elliott said. “I can go bam, and then take a little break and then do more stuff and then take a little break.”
She said she misses seeing her friends and being challenged by her teacher Fran Daly. “It’s harder to get challenged if I’m not at school,” Elliott said of Mrs. Daly, who typically gave Elliott additional math work when she finished early at school.
On her breaks, Elliott plays outside with her sister Ivy and rides her bike. She said adjusting to life in the face of COVID-19 precautions isn’t much different than normal. “My mom is kind of a little bit of a germaphobe. We’ve always been good about washing our hands and sanitizing counters and that kind of stuff. This isn’t really new for us.”
Third grader Spencer Baumgartener enjoys playing with his brother Parker when he’s not doing school work. “We just did a water gun war with bottles of water,” Spencer told the CVN Friday afternoon.
He said he thought he’d be back in school by May, but he’s making the best of it. “I was pretty surprised because I thought it would be over by that time,” Spencer said. “It’s sort of fun because now we get a lot more time with our parents instead of at the school. I get to play with my dog.”
Spencer said he doesn’t like being “stuck inside.” When asked what the first thing he would do when social-distancing mandates ended, he said he wants to travel to regions he’s learning about in his social studies class, like Spain, Portugal or places “that are nowhere near Alaska or the U.S.”
First grader Brinley Ganey said while she likes having her mom as her teacher and that she gets extra time to paint rocks, go to the beach at low tide and play on Facebook’s Kid Messenger, she still misses school and her teacher, Mrs. Armstrong.
“I can’t see my friends,” Ganey said when asked what life was like these days. “I can’t see my teacher.”
School staff distributed more than 100 laptops and iPads and cleared out lockers last month.
Some teachers are hosting optional, online “Google Meet” chats where students can meet with their classmates to check in with each other and say hello.
The school district will not be issuing report cards for the school year’s final quarter for students in kindergarten through third grade. Students in sixth through twelfth grade will have no cumulative final exams and will have flexible due dates on assignments.