This semester, students had the opportunity to switch to in-person learning with the implementation of District 128’s hybrid learning model. LHS is now more than one month into the new learning model, and students have mostly positive opinions about hybrid learning.

For senior Mallory Carney, she said hybrid learning has been a huge benefit to her education and social life. 

“I love getting to see friends and teachers in the hallways who I haven’t seen for almost a year,” said Carney. “Getting to come to school for even just one or two periods is always a bright spot in my day, so I’ve really enjoyed that. In terms of school work, it has helped a lot too because I can focus so much better at school.” 

In the remote learning environment, many students have struggled to stay focused due to the number of distractions at home. However, in-person learning has helped some students stay more focused on their learning.  

“This is mainly because I can’t be on my phone during class when I’m in-person, but at home, it is easy to get distracted by it when I’m being taught over Zoom,” Carney explained. “Just being in a school setting has helped me to focus more on my work and be more productive overall.”

For students participating in in-person learning, half of their days are spent at home, while the other half are in school. The constant switch from in-person to remote learning can cause some disorder for students. 

“The only difficulty that I know a lot of kids are experiencing with hybrid is getting to and from school in time for classes,” Carney said. “I’ve talked to some kids that have a teacher teaching remotely, so they take that class at home, and then they have to get to school in 10 minutes for their next in-person class.”

Similar to Carney, senior Brenna Farrell has also benefited from hybrid classes. Farrell indicated that one of the main positive aspects of hybrid learning is that it has boosted her productivity. 

“I definitely feel more productive working at school than at home. Working in a remote setting becomes very difficult because every piece of work is homework,” Farrell said. “When I log off of Zoom after my last classes, the absolute last thing I want to do is more work. This year I have struggled to stay focused and motivated on classwork and outside homework when working at home.”

One of the main concerns that held some people back from participating in hybrid learning was the risk of getting infected with the Covid-19 virus. 

“I was really on the fence about returning back to school this semester when it was first offered, but when the school said they were offering weekly testing, I felt a lot more comfortable,” Farrell said.

Farrell said she has felt safe at school, but “[the only place that worries me] is the hallways because everyone is changing classes at the same time,” she said.

Similar to other in-person hybrid students, senior Jake Humbert has greatly benefited from hybrid learning, and he agreed that it has helped him become more productive.

Humbert indicated that one change he would like to see in the schedule is to “revert Wednesdays back to fully asynchronous [days].” 

With some students having a much busier schedule with hybrid learning, some feel as if fully asynchronous Wednesdays may be a benefit to them.

“Now that periods are longer during a regular block day, I don’t feel the extra synchronous time on Wednesdays is necessary anymore,” Humbert said. “I feel like the asynchronous time presents a needed break from what can seem like a long school week.”