By Vishnu Emani III
As we’ve all been getting acclimated to the new school environment, we have been trying to make the virtual school experience as similar as possible to what school was like before. Other than the nauseating clanging of the rolly-bags in the hallways and the experience of standing right next to the monstrous bells in the Classics wing, most of the physical school experience is worth trying to replicate. Specifically, I want to focus on how homeroom is being run throughout the different classes.
In a normal school setting, homeroom is usually a good place to interact with peers while also getting the major announcements for the day. The scheduled Zoom homerooms on April 6 and 28 were a great way for the whole class to get together in a non-academic environment. Outside of the scheduled homerooms, the presidents have been trying to come up with creative ways to run daily or weekly homerooms virtually, and also to make whole-class events in different ways. Even though homeroom is usually a no-technology zone, virtual homeroom is loaded with creative technological ideas. The sophomores have been making regular homeroom videos, trying to get a mix of fun homeroom themes as well (with considerable video editing). The sophomores also did an event/project where they each submitted a short clip or picture of how they spent the spring break, and master editor Eli Bailit III compiled the videos so that everyone could see each other again in an interactive way:
I also looked into what other classes are doing for their homerooms as well. The freshmen, with Tait Oberg IV at the helm, have been doing email announcements, as well as fun videos once a week. This is an example of one of the videos that he posted:
The juniors, led by Ben Crawford II, have been doing Zoom homerooms in which they have all of their announcements, as well as some fun events such as “Olem’s Orations,” a movie quotation event run by Willem Santry II. Although senior president Collin Bergstrom I claims that the seniors have “not been doing too much exciting stuff,” we can let them off the hook because the homerooms were “led by Mr. Pojman.”
The younger classes have also shown some success in their treatment of homerooms as well. Nick Consigli V, the president of the fifthie class, reports that he has run two live Zoom homerooms, in which he ran some fun events including Pictionary and trivia games. Following the presidential path of his older brother, Cole Oberg VI has been posting announcements via email for the class.
I am glad that all of the classes are able to enjoy social interactions in the form of homeroom, especially in a time when “social distancing” seems to be the buzzword.
