Second Semester Brings New Motivation

Last year was a pretty rough one for families at Dimond High with many unusual events taking place. Starting with the football incident and ending with the earthquakes, the year was pretty irregular and shocking.
All of this had a negative impact on families and especially students.

Often when events like this happen, students find themselves distracted, or in need for emotional support by counselors and professionals since it is not easy to live through all of this.

These events that took place last semester raise the question: Have students’ grades been affected as a result of all of this?

Dimond Sophomore Ashton Wagner said, “These events that took place last semester have definitely affected students’ grades in a negative way as there was too much going on making it difficult for them to focus.”

Dimond Spanish Teacher Virginia Vinales said, “With everything that happened, I definitely did see a slight drop in kids´ grades and yeah, last semester was pretty crazy.”

Dimond Junior Angel Stacey said, ¨Most definitely, it has affected my grades. Yeah, I am less motivated just because there has been so much going on, and it kind of makes doing other things stressful.¨

Dimond Sophomore Emine Papraniku said, “Overall my motivation is kind of the same, but last semester was really scary. In general, my grades did go down a little but not too much.”

Teachers also had a lot of pressure and stress on them as they had to live through these horrific events and help students recover from them, as well.

They were supposed to talk with students, and make sure that everyone had emotional support as they needed. Along with that, they had to make lesson plans and try to make sure that they educated their students the best they could with all that was going on.

Vinales said, “We had to make sure our students were in tune and ok. I think the first week back from the earthquake was a bit unsettling.

“It was hard to juggle our personal life and also make sure all the kids were in tune. We are responsible for so many kids.”

The teachers may have had the biggest jobs in helping students recover from these traumatic events. After all that happened last semester, it was a struggle for some to keep their grades up and focus.

Now, it is 2019, a new year that is hopefully less eventful. Starting off this semester, after a crazy one Dimond students through not too long ago, may be hard as everyone’s focus may be thrown off.

Getting things back into routine may not be easy, especially for the students at Dimond High.

Wagner said, “After the threats and the earthquake, I’ve been pretty traumatized. I don’t know if there’s going to be another earthquake, and it’s really getting to me.

“People shake their legs in class, and it makes me think that it’s happening again. And when we have fire drills, I don’t know if they’re actually drills or if something real is happening, and I’ve just been so confused to what’s even happening anymore.”

Many of the students can agree with Wagner, but on the other hand there are also students like Dimond Sophomore Bryce Stevens, who did not get affected as much as people like Wagner.

Stevens said, “I’m on the same level of inspiration, and I’m pretty energetic about this new semester. The events really haven’t affected my grades much.”

Then, there is the perspective of the teachers who have to be ready to professionally handle any situation that may come their way as a result to the events.

Vinales said, “After the break they are a lot more upbeat and eager to learn, which is a huge difference. They seem to be more motivated this. I am glad that these kids were not impacted by all that had happened.”