At 8:30 a.m. in the morning, I groggily opened up my laptop for my first class and was immediately greeted by a familiar grey dinosaur icon. No internet again.

HHS is no stranger to Wi-Fi problems — it has gone through brief periods of Wi-Fi shortages every year. This school year, from late August to mid-September, there was a particularly long shortage. 

Throughout this period of time, there was a distinct lack of preparation on how to adapt to such circumstances, resulting in hours of wasted class time. Given HHS’s history of issues with Wi-Fi,  staff should learn from these experiences and set forth contingency plans to ensure student learning continues.

In the most recent outage, there was minimal communication on the issue among faculty and students, which made accommodations for Wi-Fi issues difficult in classrooms.

Because teachers were not given enough time to adjust their lesson plans, I found myself and many classmates frustratedly clicking the refresh button while waiting for the Dinosaur Game to go away. Since most assignments are online, unreliable Wi-Fi is incredibly disruptive, leaving students with more work to finish at home, which takes time away from extracurriculars and other important involvements.

Had school administration sent an email at the start of the Wi-Fi outage alerting students and faculty about the issue and how long it would last, we could have adapted accordingly.

Moving forward, administration should establish a contingency plan and train faculty on how to adapt in case another outage occurs. This would help teachers be more flexible with switching up lesson plans and keeping students productive during class time.

Similarly, having better communication with faculty and students would allow teachers to prepare for activities that do not rely on Wi-Fi, such as paper worksheets or textbook reading. This ensures that class time is still used for learning, allowing students to stay on top of their work.

It is crucial to learn from past Wi-Fi outages and expect such disruptions, so we can swiftly implement solutions. While the Wi-Fi will not always be reliable, having a solid plan can ensure student learning remains consistent throughout the school year.