As the new year is underway, some students have made resolutions to either bring their grades up or to keep them up. However, some students have expressed struggles of doing so. 

Ever since COVID-19 hit, some agree grades have slipped due to the break and being virtual. On the other hand, some took it as an opportunity to improve their grades.

“Getting used to the normal school schedule has been hard for a lot of students.  They were used to being home with much more freedom than when at school.  A lot of students said they just used apps like photomath last year to do all their work while they were online.  Now they can’t use those apps for work done in the classroom and that’s why some are failing,” algebra teacher Beth Brunnhuber said. 

“Yes, COVID-19 definitely put a lot of people back, but in a way it helped me out. I was super sick and got COVID-19, but grades were about to be due so I stayed up to finish all my missing assignments. It was hard because I was sick and had a high temp, but if I didn’t get quarantined I probably wouldn’t have done my missing work. Now, I’m passing every class except math,” sophomore Taryn Rowles said. 

Students express many reasons for failing including not caring for a class, not doing the work, not being fond of the teacher/class/classwork and not being able to complete the work during after school hours. Because of not having the ability to do much, if not, any work after school students have some time crunches. When students feel pressured to finish their work during class, they feel as if they don’t have much time to finish work in class. 

“School is decent right now but it gets stressful when teachers pile up work and tests all on the same week or day. It depends on the class. For certain classes, like my core ones, I feel like I have no time to complete anything,” sophomore Mackenzie Musser said.

“We don’t get enough time during classes to finish work. With eight periods, it’s hard with all of the homework and extracurriculars that are recommended by the school. How are we supposed to focus on school work and being able to take time for our mental health?” sophomore Mykynzee Milchak said.

Teachers struggle alike with dealing with missing work.

“I think that COVID-19 and quarantining certainly affects student grades. Students getting COVID-19 may feel too sick to work on school work when at home and this could set them back, but also students who are quarantined because of exposure miss school and can sometimes find it difficult to get caught up,” English teacher Cailtin McGeary said. 

Some ways to help keep grades up could be small things like a planner or using an online planner like trello. When using a planner, students can write down when an assignment is due and when it was given, spread out how many minutes a day they could work on it, what they’ve completed for the day and what they might have missed. Trello has an unlimited number of spots accessible and has more space to note what you have than a paper planner. 

Teachers ponder about the students who are failing. They try to be empathetic and understand why and how they might be failing. 

“I constantly wonder why they are failing and what I can do to help them. I was once a student myself, and I didn’t always receive passing grades. I was too busy having fun in school with my friends, and I wish that I had tried harder and made more of an effort because my attitude in high school made college very difficult for me. If I can understand why a student isn’t completing the work that they’re assigned, then perhaps I can help them be better able to complete it,” McGeary said. 

“I look at them on an individual basis.  Are they not doing their work?  Do they have outside influences which makes them more likely to fail?  My goal is for every student to pass my class, and I try to give them every opportunity to pass.  I can’t do it alone, though.  The student has to put effort into passing,” Brunnhuber said.