March 23, 2020

Kayla Poholek

Prompt 1: How will “distance learning” be different from traditional school? What are

some of the benefits and challenges we will face as a community? In your journaling,

describe how we got to this day, what transpired in the world and in our local community,

and especially how you are feeling about all of these events, and the impact on your life.

Distance learning will be different from school because we will not be around our peers

and teachers. Because of this, we have less accountability and more responsibility to get our

work done. In my opinion this is good to some degree because we can control how we get the

work done and it is a more comfortable assignment. I think that one downside to this is that the

deadline is set for 5pm. I think that it would be better if it was set later because we would have

more freedom to do things on our own time (I think around 7pm would be more reasonable), but

I suppose that it was set at this time because it gives the teachers time to grade our work. Another

downside is that we don’t have peers around us to help and also to just talk to. One more

downside is that it seems a lot more daunting when we get all of our work in at once and then we

have to pick a place to start. One thing that I wish is for us to not need to check in in the

mornings will be all of our classes because that definitely added to the stress and it was

somewhat difficult to switch my brain from one subject to another due to the fact that most

teachers posted short videos that required some form of response. This took a lot more time than

I expected and it really threw off my plan for the whole day; instead of taking a half hour like I

expected, it took over an hour to complete them all.

 I think one benefit to the community is that when we get back to school, people will most

likely be more appreciative to be in the classroom because they learned how difficult online

classes are. In addition to this, we will be more prepared for time off in the future if necessary

because we now have a system in place for distance learning. one challenge we will face as a

community is staying connected because we are all socially distant. I think that one way to

resolve this would be to have more video calls with either crew or other classes just to get some

interaction with the people outside of our families or close friend groups.

Based on my understanding, this whole pandemic situation could have been avoided had

China announced that there was an epidemic going on in the country when it began in December.

Had they done this, the world could have had top epidemiologists working to find a cure and

quarintieded sooner to prevent the spread of the virus to the rest of the globe. Because this didn’t

happen, the virus spread to Europe and then North America and eventually all across the world.

Now, Rhode island has close to 90 confirmed cases of Covid-19 and we have made many

moves to try and limit the spread of the virus so as to not overrun our hospitals with infected

individuals. These actions have included limiting groups to a maximum of 10 people, closing

many nonessential businesses, and our governor, Gina, has been talking about potentially

resorting to a total lockdown of travel between other states and a lockdown of all people, which

would require all citizens of Rhode Island to stay in their homes unless there is something they

urgently need or if the individual works in an essential position in a place of business (i.e.

pharmacy, doctors office, some grocery clerks, etc...).

Kayla Poholek

3.25.20

Tell me what’s on your mind. What do you need? What’s making you laugh? What’s

frustrating you? What’s giving you hope?

Dear Mrs. K,

I hope that all is well with you and your family; It seems like things are somewhat hectic

over there based on your videos that you posted on flipgrid. I am honestly kind of loving the

whole online school thing. I think that maybe it would be better if teachers posted things a little

earlier (like maybe around 8) because I have been trying to get up around 7:30 and get things

done as they come in which is a lot less stressful than seeing so many teacher notifications all at

once. I definitely understand that teachers want to sleep in too with this new schedule, but I do

find myself sitting and waiting sometimes. That being said, it does give me some spare time to

read my nonfiction book so I guess to some degree that's a good thing. The book I’m reading is

really quite interesting, but I keep on stopping to think about the stuff the book is talking about

so it takes me a lot longer to read this than a fiction book would.

I have also been getting back into old hobbies that I had no time for with my normal

schedule. I used to love writing fiction short stories, but with so much going on at school and

other activities, I didn’t have the brain power or energy to work on that but now I do! I actually

am writing some short stories for devin to read to help him boost his vocabulary and reading

skills for SAT’s (that is if we even are going to take them of course). I really enjoy doing it and I
didn’t realize how much I missed it until I started writing again. Another thing that I have been

doing is designing a new board game, which is something I have done in the past and really

enjoyed. Although it is not under good circumstances, I am grateful to have gotten back into

doing things that I love just for myself.

One thing that is unfortunate about the whole situation is the isolation. Even though

everyone in my family is home, we see each other less than before. Everyone has been going off

and doing their own thing, unless there is an argument to be had. I love them of course, but it is

just frustrating. In addition to that, because we have been cooped up, I haven’t been able to see

my friends. When we do talk, it seems like we are at eachothers throats more than usual because

of the stress caused by being stuck at home with our families.

As for things that are funny, I have been scrolling through tik tok and I have seen many

different funny things. One thing that I have noticed lately, even before the virus spread this far,

is that it seems that my generation has become desensitized to situations of this nature and other

such important events. I think that a big part of this is due to technology (I know I may sound

like a boomer for saying this haha) but I do think it is an important thing to note.

I wonder what the world will look like when we are in charge of making policy and

figuring out what to do in situations like this. I think that technology and access to information at

the click of a button has many benefits, but many young people seem to overlook the negative

aspects of it too. I can attest to the fact that it is a powerful tool, but I also believe that we are too

reliant on it and attached to our screens… how would we survive if someone pulled the plug on

the internet so to speak. Maybe in the future we won't be concerned about nuclear warfare but

rather about technological warfare. Anyway that’s all I’ve got for deep thoughts for now I guess.
Hope to see you soon!
Kayla Poholek

3.26.20

What are your overall thoughts? Was it relevant to your own life? Do you empathize with

any of it? What specific lines did you find impactful?

Two things that resonated with me from this poem were “crazy to think how those 12

years of education shaped who I am today” and “my education is whatever I made it to be”.

Overall, I liked the poem, but I don’t think it really connected to my life. For the most part, I

have always done well in school and I think that the first time I started to try in school was

freshman year, but I don't know that it was for the same reasons that he said. For me, it was just

more so expected and I just felt like I owed it to others and myself to try in school, not like I was

trying to take responsibility for my education. I think that the things he said about education

being my responsibility and a privilege isn’t something I came to discover until after I already

tried in school. To build on that further, had I not started to try in and care about school, I don't

know that I would’ve ever realized those things.

I don’t know that I really empathize with him all that much because I don’t see that he

went through much of anything. I understand where he is coming from, just because I am a good

student doesn’t mean that I don’t hate homework and tests too, but I don’t think that that is a

good enough reason to not try in school and do the work anyway.

In my opinion, not trying in school is one of the most disrespectful things someone can

do. I can’t imagine wasting so many opportunities just because you don’t like it. I know that for

some students, they don’t have as much support at home or encouragement to do their school

work, but I think that is all the more reason to try in school. Growing up, I did not have the same
life that I have now, in fact it was quite the opposite. I grew up hearing that I was stupid and that

school didn’t matter that much. Regardless of this, I still persevered and eventually came to a

place where I could unlock my full potential and became a learner rather than just a student.

S​ ​ the speaker is Aadil Malik

P​ ​ the purpose of this piece is to inform people of his experience in the school system

A​ The audience is anyone who watches his youtube channel and also other students

C​ The context is that he was a student and didn’t like school very much

E​ The exigence is that his perspective changed and he realized his privilege and potential

C​ He chose to use a recurring anecdote about a young girl, he chose to repeat some lines

A​ He has Ethos and uses Pathos.

T​ The tone of this is positive, serious, and retrospective

March 30, 2020
Lee notes that “Joy isn’t some superfluous extra. It is directly connected to our
fundamental instinct for survival.” Do you agree? Do you think of yourself as someone who
seeks joy? Do you think being joyful can improve your health and wellbeing?

I don't really agree with Lee’s statement that, “Joy isn’t some superfluous extra. It is

directly connected to our fundamental instinct for survival” because the only things that are

really necessary to survival is food and water. I think that joy is something that is necessary to

live, but not to survive. I think the rhetoric here is something that is very important and a

distinction that I have created in my mind that has gotten me through some of the hardest times

of my life. Survival is just the bare minimum. Survival is to simply exist. Survival is no more

than a time of waiting to live--a transitional period so to speak. When you are simply surviving,

you are not living, you don’t seek joy or happiness, it is an existence filled with nothingness, an

existence void of emotions is not a place where joy is needed.

A great percentage of my life was spent surviving; at that time I did not seek joy. I think

that that part of my life has nearly past me and that I find myself seeking joy a fair amount of the

time. To me, the hard part of joy is not seeking it, it’s about finding it. My life is fairly busy so

finding joy is not really a top priority, but it is nice to stumble upon it sometimes.

In addition to this, I think that joy can mean different things to different people. Even

though the speaker said that there is a universality to joy that connects people across the world, I

somewhat disagree. I think that we are all different and that that is alright. Because of this, we all

have different little things that bring us joy.

I think that joy leads to happiness and happiness definitely impacts health and wellbeing.

I think that it is not simply the joy that helps our wellbeing but it is also the hope for future joy
that can be very helpful. I think joy plays a big part in health, especially mental health. Situations

we are in definitely impact how our mental health is and joy can make our situation a little bit

better and that is definitely something that is important.