Throughout all these changes, teachers have been putting a lot of effort to help students readjust as much as possible. In the article “Modeling the Possibilities: Building the Caring, Reciprocal Relationships Needed to Nurture Powerful Learning” it states that “teachers have heroically been working to support children’s development—not just academically, but socially and emotionally too.” Even though teachers may look put together they were struggling if not just then more than students. Teachers wanted to school students that school could be entertaining as well as educational. By engaging a lot with students, teachers and students can form relationships that are “essential for children’s healthy brain and overall development—physically and socially/emotionally as well” (Falk Par. 3). These relationships could be hard to form but by just letting the children be comfortable can do a lot. When dealing with young kids in their out of place settings, you’ll have to know how to deal with them, including talking, playing, teaching, observing, or even just listening to them. When listening to students, teachers have found that some will speak “of illness, loss, sadness, fear, anxieties, and their pain about injustice; while it also expressed hope, gratitude for loved ones, longing for connection and community, and the opportunities that the pandemic has provided for personal learning and growth” (Falk par.6). With just enough effort teachers can and have made a positive change during this negative time.

In the early stages of covid, students were learning online, and teachers were teaching online. They haven’t ever had to adjust to school changes this quickly. Katie Mercadante Erdely, a teacher at a school said, “We are learning as we go, which is frustrating for both students and advisers” (Patterson par.3). She and other teachers want students to stay safe but also be able to connect with each other and form relationships (Erdely, Patterson par. 7). Students seem to have lost motivation to do their work virtually. The move to online has shaken everyone up. Another teacher, Terry D’Imperio has worked with her students to create a series of weekly activities for the whole school. They offered a virtual art gallery where students could submit their work, a virtual spirit week, and “wellness bingo” games. As well as teacher appreciation event with students contributing videos was particularly popular to show the connections made between students and teachers. These events the teachers arranged “reminded us all that we are human, and that school is about social-emotional learning as well as academic. I think even those who didn’t participate still watched the weekly videos and were satisfied knowing that at least there was an opportunity to get involved” (Paterson). From not being in school physically, these students couldn’t see their friends and were lacking these connections.

Another flaw of not being in in-person school is that not all children around the world have access to remote learning. About, “a third of the world’s schoolchildren were unable to access remote learning when COVID-19 shuttered their schools” (Fore, UNICEF). Meaning for about 463 million children online learning was not a thing. There was data to see who had access to at home technology for remote learning. Some children did have technology to do online school but “due to competing factors in the home including pressure to do chores, being forced to work, a poor environment for learning, and lack of support in using the online or broadcast curriculum” (Fore), they could not attend. Technology is a big part of Generation Zs life because they grew up with many new possibilities. Text messaging is common and is known when texting friends, they feel better connections (Valkenburg & Peter, 2007, 2009, Juvonen et al. 2022).

With less social time, children made use of other activities. Things like going on screen more. Since after school activities like going to the playground to play with other children or going on bikes or walks. There has been a study that proves that covid has caused children to be less physical and have higher screen time. Parents with children ages 10-12, that lived in Ontario, Canada, were surveyed and asked about their child’s physical activity, screen time, and demographics. The constant factor in all the scenarios is that the screen time went up while physical activity went down. Not being outdoors prevented children from talking to others. At playgrounds there are other children for kids to be active with (Ostermeier et al.). Noted that “physical activity in outdoor spaces has also been associated with various health benefits for children, such as improved social competence” (Ostermeier et al.). The data found showed that the daily goal of 60 minutes of physical activity was not achieved by 61% of children. Not only was the physical goal not met, but the max limit of 2-hour screentime was gone over by 72% of children (Ostermeier et al.).

Not only just younger children but teens have had their friendships affected by school not taking its place. In high school and right after graduation is the hardest time for teens to “fit in” with themselves and others. They are going through many changes dealing with going to college but when the pandemic hit, they had to take a pause on going to a new school. This made young adults restricted on going to make new friends as well. Baumeister & Leary in 1995 said, “Social contact is fundamental to wellbeing and particularly critical during times of stress” (Juvonen et al.). The pandemic was peak amounts of stress for many people including teens and young adults thinking about how to keep their current friendships or even how will they make more. There of expectations and social norms that should be met of forming new friendships, but it was hard to form new relationships. Time spent face-to-face started to not matter as much later into the pandemic because everyone was now connection through their phones and other technology.

The pandemic overall has caused lots of problems all around the word but more specifically problems in learning and what now are social norms. Including that some online learning is still going to stick around, that some teachers are finding more creative ways to keep students engaged in classes, and how harder it has been for children through young adults to make and keep friendships. Throughout all of the changes from schedule changes, types of school learning, including, hybrid, virtual, or in-person, to bad Wi-Fi (Dorn et al.). The 20-21 school year was challenging for students and teachers because it was fully online (for most places). From all these changes “it is important…to understand the changing needs of parents and students as we emerge from the pandemic, and to engage with them to support students to learn and to thrive” (Dorn et al.).