by: Mr. Martin, Journalism Teacher

  When Wethersfield High School closed its doors in March due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many students thought all learning was lost.  However, the real learning had just begun.  

   On March 13, our last day of physical classes at WHS, I had a long talk with my period two class.  That discussion, wide-ranging and free-flowing, all followed this central pillar: That this experience could be a learning experience within itself.  The articles you are about to read are borne from that idea. 

   The thought was simple enough: Find some way over the next 30 days to make yourself better.  This could be physical, mental, spiritual, emotional, or intellectual; as long as it is outside of your comfort zone and something you could have never done in our "regular" school setting.  

  My students took to this like a duck to water, and proved to me that just because the school building is closed, learning does not have to end.  

In fact, learning extends far beyond the classroom, and students can use the skills they have learned and developed over time (research, experimentation, and especially resilience) to forge their own learning forward.  In a way, it was the purest version of learning: unadulterated and driven by the student. 


   Below you will read their initial stories, which I hope you take the time to read and make comments on.  Stay tuned for further articles, videos, and podcasts, as this will all sum up in a final long-form article in the coming weeks.  


Enjoy, 
Mr. Martin

by: Bella Samse

  My article will be me vlogging all of the workouts and exercises I am doing.  From ab workouts to simply going on a night walk with mom, I will be doing something to stay in shape. 

 As we know, the Coronavirus has taken over and taken away so many important things from me, namely the fun class trip, prom, and most likely graduation, but it also took away sports. 

 
  Growing up in sports has been such a huge influence on who I am today.  The fact I played my last high school basketball game without knowing, with my team in the locker room for the last time without knowing, had my last pasta dinner without knowing, it is all so much to process.  I still think that after this is all over I will be getting on a bus to play that quarter final state tournament game.  


  I chose to do a vlog so I can see my face and see if I am enjoying it.  I really hope that after this experience is done, I can go back and say I made the best of quarantine.  I want to stay active, in shape, motivated, like I was in basketball.  That was when I was happiest, on the court with a ball in my hand.

  I hope that as the days drag on, I can find the determination I had on the court, get these hard workouts done, and feel accomplished after doing it.  I want to go on walks and feel the simplest bliss I did back when I was just waiting for the bus with my team.  I miss it all so much and it will never come back.  

I hope that as my journey continues I accomplish my goal because I never made it to Mohegan, I want to find my run to the sun.

By: Kevin Torres
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For my journalism class, we were assigned to complete any task we wanted over a 30 day period to do while in quarantine.

These tasks could be a diet or exercise routine, anything that can benefit you for the future or at least something that can challenge yourself over the next month to better yourself as a person.

After a week or so of debating, I decided to try out fixing my sleep schedule because, I’ll be honest, I have been staying up pretty late.  Lately, I’m up until 3-4am, since we’ve been out of school, and I feel like I haven’t been as productive. 

My plan is to try to go up to bed and at least solidly attempt going to bed, and I will do this at an earlier and earlier time, as the days go on.

I started this long-term project about two weeks ago, and, honestly, I haven’t had much luck.

And while I was going up to bed earlier, about 12:30-1am, I would just lay there and stare at the ceiling for a good hour or two, tossing and turning.

Whenever I would put my phone away I would usually lay there for a good few minutes without being able to sleep then hop back on YouTube.

So my plan moving on will be to stop using my phone at a certain time before bed, probably around 11-12, because, in my research, I read that doing that will make you sleepier by the time you hit the hay, all in the hope that I can get closer to my goal of fixing my sleep schedule.

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Mr. Martin's note: We have a lot of students that chose the goal of 100 push-ups per day throughout their quarantine.  Instead of posting multiple posts of the same article type, I consolidated their stories.  You can read them all here.  

Kyle Edman's Story
How Jed has stayed active in quarantine
By: Kyle Edman
Over the last week and a half,  I decided to physically challenge myself by doing 100 push-ups and sit-ups everyday and I am going to continue to keep my grind strong.  I am going to maintain doing my push ups and sit ups over the next two and a half weeks for a total of four weeks long.  This is what I wanted to do and it has definitely motivated me. 

I decided to choose this kind of project because I have always been interested in my body physique and how I look so I can have a lot of self-confidence.  Another reason I decided to do this is because now that I have completed my four years of football I don’t hit the weights as hard as I used to and with the whole COVID-19 outbreak all the gyms are closed so I felt like this was the project that would be perfect for me to do.  
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Staying in great shape and being physically fit is really important to the human body and this is something so simple that anyone can do at their home that will keep them active and healthy and get you stronger.

During the start of my workout grind, I was thinking to myself, “This is going to be such a waste of time and I am just gonna do it for class because I have to.”
After only a few days I was really sore and tired but I was starting to love what I was doing.  I realized that is great for me and not only is it helping me but it is also keeping me on a schedule to do my push-ups and sit-ups every day.  Working out is a huge motivator for me.

I have learned that I am going to hurt that’s normal and I have been doing research and watching videos and this has also motivated me to drink a lot of water and just be healthy in general.

 For next week, I hope to accomplish my goal of doing my sets every day and Increase the number of push ups and sit ups I do in each set as of right now I have done 5 sets of 20 and 4 sets of 25 for a total of 100 each but I hope to increase the number and eventually be able to do two sets of 50.  My overall goal is to become stronger.

Jillian Gray's Story
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Starting a couple of days ago, I made the commitment for the next 4 weeks that I will push myself to do 100 push-ups and 100 sit ups a day. See now doesn’t that just sound like a fun idea?

I chose this experiment because while being bored all day because of Covid-19, it gave me a way to get up and get active. Staying healthy and taking care of my body is a huge thing to me, and this experiment kind of makes me and motivates me to do this every day for the next 4 weeks.

Oh, how I thought this would be easy. 

Little did I know, the first day really kicked my butt. I tried cranking out all 100 push-ups at one time and all 100 sit ups at one time, and I just want to tell you that it was a huge mistake. After the first day, my body was aching and it felt so sore to move.

 After learning my lesson the first day, I decided to start slow, only doing 10 push-ups and switching to 10 sit ups. I alternated back and forth until I hit 100 of each exercise. As the days went by, the exercises got easier and it made me feel more confident.

On most days, the sit ups were a breeze, but let me tell you that the push-ups really tire me out on most of the days. It got me frustrated when the push-ups or sit ups were getting hard and I just kept on thinking that I wasn’t strong enough. But at the end of the day, that one thought pushed me to complete the exercises each day. 

I want to prove to myself that I was strong enough and that by the end of the 4 weeks I can do all the exercises at once.

 Sarmin Alikavozovic's Story   

 I have chosen to do 100 pushups every single day for the next two weeks. 

I choose to do this and I am going to write an article about it or make a project on it and see what things I notice from before vs. after doing the push ups. 

I wanted to do this because i used to go to the gym and I stopped , so I wanted to see what happens when you do 100 pushups every single day. I've been doing 100 pushups every single day for the past week and a half and I feel so much better and energized from when I first started. 

I wanted to face these challenges and do this exact exercise because I want to have a good body and I want to work on it and face the obstacles, both mental and physical.  

For example, when I first started to do the pushups I had to split it into sets of 20 and do 20 maybe every 45 minutes. After the first 3-4 days, I was able to do 50-60 pushups at a time with no rests.

 I would say that I'm seeing progress in my arms and chest and it's making me addicted to doing more and more.  By next week I want to accomplish 700-800 pushups and I want to do 80-90 push ups in a row without taking a break. 

I feel like 100% I can do it, I just have to have enough sleep and be motivated to do it.

Jimmy Luiz's Story
For my project during this time at home, instead of just being lazy all day everyday until the world goes back to normal, I chose to better myself. 

I took on the challenge of doing 100 push ups a day and during these two weeks, I have actually gotten the motivation to do the 100 push ups no matter what and add a whole workout to them every day.
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 I am doing this because I love fitness and I used to go to the gym a lot. I would have had track season right now and, since it is not happening, I want to keep my body strong and healthy. 

At first it was tough because I was weaker than normal but as the days have gone on, I am back and I'm going to be better than ever very soon. I have split my days up into a push day, pull day, and then legs. I have done all the workouts in my house which I am very lucky to have weights to get it done. 

At first, the push ups were a challenge but I kept at it and now the push ups are getting easy but every single day my body is sore and I love it. It makes me feel better than yesterday and all i want is to wake up every day knowing i got stronger yesterday and I'm going to get even stronger today. 

The hardest part for me was coming up with the looks, so I made sure to look up some inspiration from artists and influencers to help me come up with what I wanted to do. I hope to eventually be able to do enough looks like these, so I can eventually be able to do them without looking at someone else as a guide. 

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by: Dzenita Korkutovic 
For my project, I’m trying out veganism for the very first time. To have a vegan diet means that you cannot eat anything that comes from animals (dairy, meat, fish, and eggs.) This means a really restrictive diet from what I’m used to. 

 I chose to do this diet because it is something that is out of my comfort zone. I am a very picky eater with a lot of food items, but there are still many things I love to eat. In addition, my aunt has been a vegan for almost five years and I have always been interested in trying the diet to see how different you feel when eating vegan products versus eating animal products, and how it changes your body. 

Also, I want to consider the changes that your body may go through from changing the diet and kinds of food you are putting in your body. 

I was at my aunt’s house for almost two weeks so she could help me with planning vegan meals. We planned many meals with products like vegetables, fruits, meat alternatives or plant based proteins, and dairy alternatives. It was hard at first because of the fact that it was not what my body was used to. 

I love products like chicken, beef, cheese, and milk, all of which come from animals. I had been tempted a couple of times to give up and eat some chicken but I did not. 

Eating or drinking the alternatives, such as veggie meat or soy/almond milk had a huge impact on my digestive system, as my stomach was hurting for the first few days because my body was not used to eating and drinking all of these new food items.  

I have  learned and begun to appreciate things throughout my journey so far. The most important thing I have learned so far is how my physical health has noticeably increased since beginning this diet.  

My body has been feeling so much healthier and I have more energy to do everyday things that I normally do. Next week, I hope to accomplish the diet without any cheat days or  any temptations. I feel like it will  be easier because I am beginning to get used to the new foods I have been eating to stick to the vegan aspect of the diet.

by: Finn McCarty

I’ve always been a clumsy person, which makes it difficult for me to keep my hands steady when using a guitar. 

However, I’ve been using this quarantine to break these boundaries and sharpen my skills. I decided to teach myself to play lead guitar...or at least try. 

When I began, I didn’t have the confidence to keep my heart set on a goal, so I went into it with the mindset that I wouldn’t be achieving anything any time soon.

Nevertheless, I persisted, and within a week I had already learned my first solo.

My journey was painful. This is especially because my fingers hurt most of the time while I practiced. I’m excited to see what else I can achieve while I’m trapped indoors until further notice.

​Watch the video to see me progress from frustration to enthusiasm within 8 days!

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To make a long story short, no I should not.
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I tried going with the “one new piece a day” routine, but it drained me of all creativity and motivation by the time a single week had passed. The issue here was that I had already started for the whole week, so it wasn’t like I could change my project topic at that point. So, in order to keep the motivation flowing but also not overwhelm myself with work, I had to come up with a new plan.

I decided to just write down any ideas that popped into my head at any given time, and then bring the concepts to life at my own pace. This is the new system that has helped me in getting back into my own art, and it’s keeping me active in the creative process. Things had been getting frustrating before, but I’m finally producing good work again so I’d say it was a functional idea. 
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by: Nathan Loura ​

 Pushing yourself and discipline has always been instilled in me since I was a baby by my father. He always taught me that when you feel the most tired that is when you have to push yourself even more. 

I based my project off of that mindset. 

I wanted to get my mile pace back to what it was when I was about 16. My record mile pace was 5.17 minutes per mile. However I lost that pace because I started to go for longer runs so I tried to go with a more steady pace rather than going for speed. However, while doing this project I decided to get back to my old ways. 

I started this project with one thing in mind and that was to beat my own personal record. With all the gyms closed down and not much other things to do other than do mostly cardio and running. I decided to take my old approach. 

I used to do 6 miles in the morning which is where I was able to get that fast pace going and set my 5.17 minute pace record for myself. However, then I decided to start doing 12 miles instead of 6. That is when my time started to increase because I felt that I wouldn’t be able to keep my 5.17 minute pace running 12 miles without stopping. So eventually my pace increased all the way up to 6.00 minutes flat and varied around there. Some days being more and others being less. 

The first week, I brought it back down to 6 miles but my pace was still a little high. By the end of the first week I was able to get my pace down to about 5.51 minutes per mile. It was a progress, but it wasn’t as much as I wanted it to be. The second week that is when I was really happy with my progress. I was able to get my pace down all the way to 5.30 minutes per mile. Which was about 21 seconds better than the previous week. 

This project is very important to me because it gives me the opportunity to compete against myself.

 I feel that the biggest competition you’ll ever face is the person staring back at you in the mirror. That is who I am competing with when I am doing my project and I want nothing more to keep setting new records for myself so that I can break them and make new records. That is why I chose this for my project, so that I can get in that mindset and apply it to other parts of my life and also apply it to the ring as well. 

by: Serena Console 

Before we all realized that two weeks of quarantine was not enough time to return our “normal” lives, the original idea for my two week project for journalism was to organize my house. 

At the time I thought that it would be a great way to kill time, but after finding out we would be in quarantine for much longer than two weeks, I decided to try something that would benefit my physical, mental, and emotional well being. My new idea was to create a new every day routine. 

During the time that we were in school, most of us had the simple routine of waking up, going to school, and then the after-school plan: eating, then sleeping, but now we’re stuck at home and our routines have definitely changed. To fix this problem, I decided to create my own routine of what I need to do in the morning, afternoon, and evening. 

I was struggling to get started so I spoke with English teacher, Mr. Martin and he helped me get started on this routine. He was able to provide me with great information based on his personal experience of following a routine. Mr. Martin shared with me that having a great morning leads to the rest of the day being just as great. 

With the information I was given, I decided that I need to eat something good in the morning and do all my school work before noon so that it was out of the way and it helped me have time for other things, such as working out or organizing. 

While trying out the new routine, I faced some challenges and the biggest challenge was having motivation. I struggled to have motivation to push myself to workout that day and to get up or go to bed at the time I set. That lack of motivation definitely overpowered me some days where I felt sad about myself, but those moments also helped me look at myself and say that I need to do this because I know it will help me. 

Although this was a project, I am going to continue working on this routine because this distance learning is very similar to what college will be like. You have your own routine in college because classes are not always back to back and some of the work you do is being done on your own time. Continuing this routine will help me get a start on training my mind and body to having a more independent every day routine. 

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