Page 131 - DGPS - YearBook

DISTANCE LEARNING

OVERCOMING COVID-19

Pandemic, Quarantine, Crisis. These words fly past your TV screen every day. Creeping out of a market in Wuhan, COVID-19 made sure to stop
by every country around the world for a small greeting. First cohort to have their board exams cancelled? I mean, not that I'm complaining, but I
think I spent more time on zoom calls than actually stepping out of the house this year. The anticipation of being the graduating class of 2020 has
been swept away. Instead, we are filled with a feeling of emptiness scaring this generation of millennials for the rest of their lives. We all speak about
how 2020 will be the year that children learn about in their future history classes, but how does it feel having lived through a pandemic? I mean, try
being at home for 2 months with an Indian family and you'll get where I'm coming from.

I'm certain I've played every single board game you can think of, done every single home workout, and overfilled my closet with clothes for summer
2021. Oh, and I started using Tik Tok, but that's a conversation for another time. Think about how unsettling this social distancing and quarantine
has been and how you’ve adapted. You may have spent at least 20 minutes trying to perfect Dalgona coffee, or bake that "easy" loaf of banana
bread. Your sleep schedule unquestionably reversed to the point where you started sleeping in the morning and waking up in the afternoon, and
your mum was probably hurling sanitizer at you at least 4 times a day.

However, there were some upsides to being stuck at home. For instance, you start noticing the smaller things in life, and developing a fresher
perspective. You have more time to explore and enhance skills you left behind in the past. For example, I have always been into streetwear and
sneakers, being in lockdown allowed me to start an Instagram page where I was able to combine photography and fashion and produce high-quali-
ty content. In a way, this lockdown was a blessing in disguise and allowed me to spend some quality time with my family considering I'm going
abroad for university this year. The magnitude of what is going on in the world right now is something no one has ever experienced before. And, to
some extent, I don’t think a lot of us can fully wrap our heads around the immensity of the situation. The vicious killing of George Floyd
started a movement for the Black Lives Matter protest around the world. The virus dropped pollution rates by over 30 to 40 percent in countries
around the world and forced people to take strict action by becoming more cautious. In conclusion, what I'm trying to say is that our current future
might be a little blurry because we aren't in control of the factors changing around us. But it all comes down to overcoming and adapting to the
different scenarios, growing as a society, and supporting each other through difficult times.
Jai Mansukhani - Year 13

DIGITAL IMPRINTS

The stark circumstances created due to COVID-19 have left many imprints which will have rippling effects for a long time in the future. One of these
is the mode of distance learning which all academic faculties have embraced as a challenge in the face of long term school closure.

Each staff member at DGPS took to e-learning in a serious manner in order to make the students feel at ease about the new process. Teachers
also became students with reference to learning new techniques of online communication. Students have been extremely proactive in picking up
the strings of virtual classes and have supported their teachers by working diligently. Despite being an uphill task at the outset, e-learning has now
become a part of the new normal at virtual school. Be it the core subjects or the co-curricular ones, each teacher sketched her own unique story.

Monisha Roy Chowdhury - Primary Librarian

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