The daily schedule has finally gone back to normal. D128 has begun this school year in full swing, with 8 periods a day entirely in person.

Senior, Isabelle Pangilinan, is looking forward to getting to experience activities seniors may have not gotten to experience in the last two years. Seniors this year get to carry on the VHHS tradition of buying children’s backpacks.

“I got to get my little fun backpack, do fun Friday activities, and go to the kickoff dance. All those fun, school-wide or senior things,” said Pangilinan (12).

Although Pangillian is excited to be back in school, there are still cautionary measures to be taken.

“So I am very excited to be back especially since I wasn’t at all last year. I’m still a little wary because of the variants,” she said.

Students are still required to wear masks as there is also now a statewide mask mandate. Pangilinan is in agreement with the mask mandate as long as it is keeping everyone safe.

Teachers are doing their best to make sure students follow the rules and keep their masks on and above their nose.

“I was actually surprised to see and hear some of the teachers correct those kids saying, like, hey, just pull it over your nose, put on your mask. But it’s a great surprise,” said Pangilinan (12).

Sophomore Jordan Dye, also favors the eight-period schedule rather than the block schedule.

“I would like to leave last year behind,” Dye said (10).

The social aspect of school has not only affected students but also affected the teachers perspective in classrooms.

As a result of remote learning, teachers had to plan their lessons accordingly. Specifically, the science teachers had to make a lot of modifications, as their lessons usually involve labs that require students to be in person to get a full interactive learning experience.

“We really missed the hands-on lab, lab techniques that students were able to learn by being in person,”  said Yon Choi, chemistry teacher.

The science teachers did their best last year to get students involved in labs by sending home lab kits that contained materials that could be used in labs at home. The science teachers also made sure that students got to see what the lab would look like if they were in person, by recording demonstrations of them doing the experiments themselves.

“Today we actually did the flame test. So that was a huge difference in the reaction, different than just watching a minute video, but actually understanding and doing,” said Choi.

Choi was not a big fan of the block schedule.

“As a teacher, I need to plan for mini-lessons within that big lesson then to spice it up a bit, “ said Choi.

Kiley Brockway and Kristina Todorovich contributed to this report.