By Yana Sergiyenko Eagle Eye Staff Writer and Mia Randall Eagle Eye News Editor
Following the recent drop of cases in Sacramento County and the new school attendance format, the students were divided into three cohorts. Cohort A and B students have returned back to campus, while cohort C students are staying at home, continuing to learn via online Zoom meetings.
Due to the changes in the attendance schedule, new adjustments to the learning and teaching experience are being made to keep it equal for everyone.
Leaving the old morning schedule behind, the new schedule for cohort C is from around 12:30 pm until three in the afternoon.
Student at EC, Lisa Lee (‘23), talks about cohort C and how mentally draining it can be.
“It’s just assignment after assignment and there’s really no break in between work… it just burns us out mentally,” Lee said.
Lee mentions that she doesn’t feel like she’s missing out on the social aspect of in-person school because there are no fun events or many interactions with friends. But on the other hand, she believes that she’s missing out academically because of the learning gap between the in-person cohorts and cohort C.
Another EC student, Giovani Ferrari (‘23), cited that he enjoys the current schedule and being in cohort C because of the ability to do homework in the morning and not having to wake up very early. Although some students are struggling with the amount of work they’re assigned, Ferrari says that he has not experienced any change in the workload.
“I feel like the amount of work is the same, even though we have a shorter schedule than we used to have for most of the school year,” Ferrari said.
Both students and teachers have mixed feelings about the new schedule and the combination of the A and B cohorts.
Dr. Angel Contreras Cardenas, Physiology teacher has had to come up with different ways to build the same environment for the two in-person cohorts all while coming up with lesson plans to fit all students.
“The way that I’m planning things is having everything recorded to give [the students] an opportunity to do labs virtually through different resources—I use myself, my TA’s and other examples,” Contreras said.
Contreras has also stated that although the students from the full distance learning cohort have been succeeding in their homework and classwork activities, the content and materials students go through are not a substitute for in-person learning.
Due to the divided schedule, teaching the three cohorts has been overwhelming for the teachers while explaining the same information twice a day to the in-person cohorts and distance learning groups. The amount of work done by the teachers has not yet changed with the combination of the A and B cohorts, since more students are coming into class and more resources are required to supply them at school.
In fact, The Drama and Expository Reading/Writing Teacher Christopher Travlos says he would rather end the year with a full distance learning format because of the hardships brought by the division of the learning groups. However, he enjoys the current hybrid schedule because students get to interact with each other in person.
“I almost wish in a lot of ways we could just finish the year out as full distance learning, but now that we’re back, I see the impact it’s having on my students, the social-emotional things that they’re getting and I do see the positives now,” Travlos said.
Despite the struggles of teaching cohort C over online Zoom meetings, teachers understand and accept the students who are choosing to study online.
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