This month’s Question
“My Experiences During this Corona Period”
Savar Ramharakh
Student, Amsterdam
How do I go to school?
When going to school I either go to school by bus or by car. If I go to school by bus then I take the 242 or the 348. When I use the bus I have to be extremely careful that I am maintaining distance from others and to not touch anything unnecessarily, to carry hand sanitiser and also to wear a mask.
How careful am I at school?
I try to be very careful at school by not getting too close to people or by touching everything. I always wash and sanitize my hands as often as I can. Wearing a mask in school is not mandatory. In school they have implemented a one way routing system so that students can only go in certain directions through the hallway and down/up the stairs. This is one of the precautions that the school is taking to make sure that the students are safe.
What did I do over the holiday?
Over the holiday I built a computer and I played lots of games. I did not do a lot of schoolwork but I did do a lot of chores around the house to help my parents. I did not visit many of my friends at their homes but we did go to the beach a few times because the weather was very nice. We did not travel out of Amsterdam.
How careful am I in public places?
I try my best to wear a mask and keep a 1.5 meter distance from everyone even though some people don’t follow the rules. I am very careful about my surroundings and not to touch things unnecessarily and stay away from people that are coughing or sneezing.
How do I feel about this virus?
I feel happy and sad about this virus because it had quite a positive effect on me and my family. First of all this virus gave me the chance to build my computer and also allowed me to spend more time with my family. It also gave me a chance to learn new things and taught me the value of good personal hygiene. I feel very sad for the people that are suffering with the virus, especially for those people that are in poor countries where the healthcare system is not so good. It is a really stressful time for my family and I, as we are very concerned about our family and friends back home in South Africa where there is a high infection rate. The bad effects of course outweigh the positive ones.
Sushmita Raghoenath
Student, Rotterdam
Beste lezer,
Mijn naam is Sushmita Raghoenath, 14 jaar en woonachtig in Rotterdam. In dit stuk zal ik iets over mezelf vertellen tijdens deze corona periode.
Ik ga dagelijks met de tram naar school. Sinds corona begonnen is volg ik online les. Vooral in de stad zijn de regels omtrent corona heel streng. Na een aantal maanden was het weer mogelijk om (fysiek) les te volgen. Ik vond het wel heel lastig om thuis online les te volgen omdat je thuis makkelijker afgeleid raakt dan op school. Gelukkig is het allemaal goed verlopen en ben ik ook over gegaan naar leerjaar twee van de middelbare school.
Tijdens de zomervakantie heb ik vooral gerust. Ik ben heel actief films gaan kijken en heb ik ook veel gezongen. Zingen is tenslotte ook mijn hobby. Ik was zoveel mogelijk thuis, waardoor ik niet veel met de corona maatregelen te maken kreeg. Ik hield me wel aan de regels als het gevraagd werd, bijvoorbeeld in een winkel, restaurant of de Mandir.
Het is vervelend dat de wereld met corona te maken heeft op dit moment, maar hierdoor heb ik wel de gelegenheid gekregen om veel te rusten en om na te kunnen denken over mijn vervolgstudie.
ENGLISH VERSION
Dear reader,
My name is Sushmita Raghoenath, 14 years old and living in Rotterdam. In this piece I will tell you something about myself during this corona period.
I take the tram to school every day. Since corona started I have been taking lessons online. Especially in the city, the rules regarding corona are very strict. After a few months it was possible to take (physical) lessons again. I found it very difficult to follow online lessons at home because you get distracted more easily at home than at school. Fortunately it all went well and I also moved on to year two of secondary school.
During the summer holidays I mainly rested. I started watching movies very actively and I also sang a lot. After all, singing is also my hobby. I was at home as much as possible, so I did not have to deal with the corona measures much. I did follow the rules when asked, for example in a shop, restaurant or the Mandir.
It is annoying that the world is dealing with corona at the moment, but this gave me the opportunity to rest a lot and to think about my further study.
Samarth Mangla
Student, Amsterdam
Hi , I am Samarth Mangla & I am 11 Years old. I am currently studying in MYP1. I would like to share how I am dealing with Corona Virus in day to day life.
On a school day, I usually go to school by public transport. When I take a bus, I wear my face mask without fail and sanitize my hands after I reach school. I also go by car when weather is bad. When I go to for my lessons, I sanitize my hands prior to entering the classroom. To avoid contact with other students, I carry my own pencils, pens & other stationary. This reduces the risk of Cororna Virus spread.
In school, we follow one way system. So there are dedicated staircase for going upstairs and students can come downstairs using another staircase. This also prevents Corona virus spread. I put my school bag and coat in my personal locker to avoid it being touched by other students.
We do sanitize our hands before and after playtime. I also sanitize my hands before and after lunch. I also wash my hands thoroughly when I use school washroom.
On coming from school, I again wear my facemask and wash my hands with soap and water immediately after I reach home.
In other places like supermarkets, I sanitize my hands and trolley before using it. I also make sure to maintain distance with people in public places. Me & my family avoid public places like shopping malls, beaches etc. to avoid getting affected by others. This way, we help the country to minimize the spread of Corona Virus.
I spent most of my summer holidays indoors watching videos on YouTube, movies on Netflix and spent quality time with my family. Sometimes, I used to play with my friends in park. We used to play football, cricket and other games. I also studied to keep learning new things. I also participated in various religious events organised by HSS, Amstelveen. I participated in Gayatri Mantra Japa, Krishna Janamastami & Ganesh Chaturthi. On 15th Aug, I participated in Independence day celebrations where we did virtual flag hosting and we all sang national anthem along with patriotic songs by myself and other kids. I also used to write one article everyday on a topic given by my mother. I also helped my mother in kitchen with new recipes and dishes.
I often don’t worry about current situation as it brings negative emotions. I try my best to stay positive and take all precautions to avoid getting affected by Corona Virus. I pray to God everyday that this situation goes away soon and we all live normal life without any fear.
Sambit Paul
Student, Utrecht
On a Sunday in mid-March, we got an email from school and over the school app too that “Starting from Monday 18th March you will no longer be allowed to attend physically at the school due to the recent coronavirus outbreak.” I never knew that coronavirus would be so deadly at the time. Our teachers told us about a new way of attending school that we still use to these days. We used an app called MS Teams. Teams is an app. where we can virtually join the class over video chat and also the teacher can assign us homework and we can submit the homework in the same app. We even had tests online in some subjects like drama and music by recording the play or a song and sending it to the teacher to be graded. Although an online test in math’s or English wasn’t possible, we still got our fair share of tests like one in arts where we needed to make a drawing in a certain amount of time and submit it.
Later on, in the mid of May my sister’s class was open but she could only go half of the week to school and then two weeks later her class came back to a normal routine and then my class started too. The teacher split the class into 2 groups, A and B. Group A went to school on Monday, Wednesday and Friday and would attend the online class on Tuesday and Thursday on week one and group B would go to school when group A would attend the online classes and vice versa. Through this system, we had our final assessment tests and then got promoted to the next grade.
In the first 3 months of lockdown (March, April & May), we spent our free time by renovating our new house. One day we put up wallpapers and the other day we replaced the floor. First 2 months, it was really fun when I wake up, attend online classes, finish my school and go on to house work and helping my parents. In first few days, we finished my and my sister’s room, so we could sleep in our own room while we put up the wallpaper and replace the living room flooring. By 8 to 10 weeks we had finished the house redecoration. We also had ordered a lot of bricks to make a small backyard garden to grow some vegetables at our own. We put down about one ton of bricks to build a small area where we put a lot of soil and start to grow plants as our kitchen garden. We planted plants like zucchini, bottle gourd and pumpkins. We grew about 4 gourds, 10 zucchinis and 4 pumpkins. In the front yard, we had a fish pond and in front of that a patch of gravel which we needed to pull weeds out almost every week. We finally decided to remove the gravel and put soil and plant flowers to make it look nicer. We threw about 15-20 bucket full of gravels away and then we put almost 5 bags of soil to finish it up and put few packets of seeds of Zinnia and Tulip bulbs. After a month we saw a beautiful patch of greenery.
Due this coronavirus pandemic situation, we didn’t plan to go anywhere in summer vacation, however we spent a great day out nearby to our city in Ijmuiden National Park and Ijmuiden beach, where we enjoyed a lot by flying kites, making sand castle and swimming.
During this whole pandemic period where most of the countries were in lockdown state, thousands of people died, most of the countries went through a major economical downfall and experiencing huge medical shortage, I learned a lot more on the digital world, various ways of communication, online schooling, social distancing and lot more. Even it was a time of fear, still was a learning opportunity towards our digital future.It was both academic and social learning period and it taught me some skills that I never thought I would learn.
Dhriti Chaudhuri
Student, Hoofdorp
When Corona virus started way back in March in Netherlands, our school has stopped and we had to study online. I felt very sad as I couldn’t meet my friends and teachers. This year we had to cancel our summer vacation to India and I am really upset that I couldn’t meet my grandparents and twin cousins. But, the best thing about Corona is I could find more time to learn new things like baking, watercolour painting. By summer time, the Corona infections decreased a bit and I could play with my friends in the neighbourhood.
I am so glad and excited to be back to school after summer holidays. I am still not travelling by bus or train to school. My father drops me to school by his car. At school, there is no major difference and I could play and study normal with my friends. But with teachers, we are maintaining social distancing. I couldn’t share birthday goodies with my friends on my birthday. It is all strange rules. I am hopeful that this pandemic is soon over. Sarvejanah sukhino bhavantu!!
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We invite contributions from children on topics which they are interested in.