Everyone knows covid19 affects school districts across the globe in a different way, but here at Rocky Mountain High School, they’ve started hybrid learning. Hybrid learning means that the school is split into two teams, team one consists of students with the last name that starts with a-k, and team two is l-z. The students go to school every other day with their team, and on then do school online the days they aren’t physically at school. 

As with everything, people have mixed opinions on this course of action. Paige Daniels, a senior at Rocky, said “I don’t think it would have hurt to spend more time completely online”. With the state of covid19, social distancing and reducing the spread of the disease is difficult to do at school where so many kids attend, so online is the safer option. However, Sarah Shepherd, a junior at Rocky, disagrees and says “If I am being honest, going home for one day, and then going to school the next is not all that bad.”  

Even though students are back to school, separating students into teams affects several different aspects of a student’s life, like how often they see their friends. Daniels, on team one, says “The biggest disadvantage of having the teams is that friends got split up because of the last name split.” This is the general feeling for a lot of students who lost a lot time with good friends because of the team split. Shepherd, who’s on team two, says “Since we [friends] are in the same after school sport, it’s not as bad as it could be.” Teams can make a social life at school trickier, but it seems making the call to continue sports (in the high school level) has more benefits than just a season of training.  

The team split/half the school going every other day does have its positives, though, according to some students. Elsie D., a fifth grader at River Valley Elementary, says “My class is so quiet… they pay attention… I feel like if they had everyone and it was just normal…it would be much harder to learn.” Anyone who’s been to an elementary school knows how crazy it can get, so half the students there tones down the noise and creates less distractions. Shepherd and Daniels both offered their high school perspective when they mentioned that the Rocky parking lot became much more time efficient with only half the students parking there. Shepherd says “I can finally make it home in decent time without having to wait in crazy lines after sprinting to my car.” Daniels also noted “One of the biggest advantages of having two teams is that it helps make social distancing easier and more possible, due to the reduced number of kids at school.”  

Obviously, everyone’s school year looks different compared to those of the past, and it looks different for everyone even this year because different districts have different setups. This is just a glimpse into what it looks like for students in Meridian, Idaho.