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With some remote learning likely for the fall, schools agonize over how much Zoom time to impose

By Jenna Russell on June 10, 2020

Zahriana Newson has had to keep up with a rigorous online schedule at Roxbury Prep charter school.

The global pandemic upended life as we know it, shutting down school campuses across the country, but Zahriana Newson’s schedule at Roxbury Prep charter school barely changed. The high school senior showed up for Mr. Budron’s English class at 8:30 a.m. instead of 8. Then came physics and math: three hourlong online classes back-to-back, followed by three more class blocks after lunch.

During the early days of school closure, Newson was ready to go each morning, even as she sat in her pajamas in her Mattapan bedroom. But as the novelty of the experiment wore off, and her long days staring at a Zoom screen began to blur together, the 18-year-old felt dogged by a new kind of exhaustion.

“It was already a demanding school, so that part wasn’t different,” Newson said. “What was hard was that you’re doing the same thing you do in school — even though you’re at home, in a global pandemic, figuring things out virtually.”

Read more via the Boston Globe >>