Filled to the brim with exhaustion, she got up for school at five in the morning. The bus ride was long, and she used it to get some extra rest, or sometimes to catch up on homework. In school, the days were long, with some classrooms that lacked resources, and others that were moldy and falling apart. Though she wanted to learn and try new things, simply existing was enough to deny her those...

Politics can be extremely complicated, especially in the US, and trying to understand politics can be difficult due to all the complex terminology used. Here is some of that vocabulary, defined in a straight-forward fashion.   Electoral College:  The system of electing the president. 538 electoral votes are divided up among the 50 states and Washington DC, and are based on the number...

This year, 10th and 11th grade English teacher, Ms. Brookman is taking on her first year of independent teaching at Wilde Lake. On top of these new beginnings, she must face the challenges of virtual learning. After completing her internship as a student teacher in March 2020, Ms. Brookman had a vision of how her skills would transfer to her own classroom. However, she was unprepared to teach...

This year’s freshmen class is the first in history to begin high school without ever having entered the school building. Every class, extracurricular, and interaction has taken place entirely over Google Meets, leaving many freshmen feeling disconnected from their new school. Due to COVID-19, the Howard County Board of Education decided upon virtual learning for the first three semesters of...

When Ranim Yaakboui got her acceptance letter for the Youth Exchange and Study (YES) program she was ecstatic, eager to begin her schooling in the states. After a few months of living in America, the surge of coronavirus ended her year prematurely and she was forced to return home.  In 2019, Ranim was accepted into the YES program, an organization that provides scholarships and educational...