With rising numbers in cases of COVID-19 within Summit County, Tallmadge City Schools has gone fully remote through winter break. Summit County has reached purple level in cases. This ranking is based off of new cases per capita, sustained increase in new cases, proportion of cases not in a congregate setting, sustained increase in emergency department visits for COVID-like illness, sustained increase in outpatient visits for COVID-like illness, sustained increase in new COVID hospital admissions and regional intensive care unit bed occupancy.

“I have mixed emotions about [being remote]. I like that I don’t have to get up and go to school early in the morning, but I miss having social interactions with my friends,” senior Chloie Brown said.

Going remote brings worries and anxiety along with it, seeing as many people struggled last spring with keeping up their grades. A lot of students had trouble with internet problems, motivation, and not being able to see their friends.

“I’m worried about the workload because in the spring we had a lot. [Last semester] I struggled a lot with time management and spent too much time on my phone rather than my schoolwork,” Brown said. 

While Brown feels as though she may still struggle a little with the problems she had last year, some freshmen are uncertain of what to expect going remote this year. 

“During the spring, I struggled with time management. I spent way too much time doing schoolwork. Now, I feel like it will definitely be harder than middle school especially because the administration is more prepared. I also feel like the work is going to be a lot heavier and more difficult,” freshman Becca Riter said.

Even though the workload is stressful, Riter and other students may be reluctant to ask a teacher for help. What they do not  realize is that many of the teachers are struggling just as much as they are. 

“Last year, I had to figure out a lot of technology. When I’m teaching face to face, I like to assign a lot of partner and group work, so figuring out how to translate that to online learning was difficult. This year, I haven’t struggled as much because our administration has done a great job organizing meetings to teach us new programs and features of things we can do for remote learning,” Social Studies teacher Misty Craig said. 

Craig is proud of everyone at THS. She has noticed a lot more effort and motivation this year. She believes that everyone is working their best, students and teachers alike.

Craig said, “I would tell [struggling students] that we understand how you feel. We are in the same boat. This is not the ideal situation, even if it’s better than in the spring. At least we’re able to have more of a sense of normalcy this year, as long as we keep pushing through classes and keep working hard.”