Contact Information: makinghistoryQEHS@gmail.com 

Project Founder & Team Lead: Max D 

Executives: Aryan P, Andy, W, Aaron T, Amy W, Ekam K, Yandan M

Teacher Sponsor: Ms. Gallant 

QEHS Making History Project Mission 

The Making History Project was made to record QEHS school history for the time of the COVID-19 Pandemic. It will allow students to express their feelings, voices and experiences about how the pandemic has affected/changed their lives. 

Background 

Beginning in December 2019, a new novel coronavirus named Covid-19 (Coronavirus Disease of 2019). The virus spread worldwide within months. The WHO declared Covid-19 a pandemic in March 2020. Guided by the direction of Alberta Education, QEHS was temporarily closed from March 15, 2020, and started CBE “Learning from Home” to support the health and safety of students, staff and families. QEHS resumed in-school classes under scenario one (near normal with health measures) on Sept 14, 2020.

Making History Student Submissions

Applause to: Aaron Tan, Yandan Ma, Thaddeaus Tang, Ms. Daljevic, Krysta Fawcett, Max Du, and a few anonymous students for contributing to record our history. 

On behalf of the Making History Team, We would like to thank all participants who have put time and effort into their entries during this project. Every participant will get a prize because you helped the school preserve this unprecedented part of history. Without you, the Making History Project wouldn't exist, and future generations would never know our school's experiences during the pandemic. 

We would like to thank each of you for taking your time to read through the experiences the QEHS community has had during COVID-19. We truly could not have done it without you. Without the readers, this whole project wouldn’t mean anything. We make history together and record it, but most importantly, we learn from history and care about history.  

We would also like to thank Mr. Arrell, Ms. Dupont, Ms. Gallant, and all the teachers, students, and parents who supported us immensely and continuously when we approached them for this project. 

Thank you to the Making History Team for your passion and dedication to this project. Throughout the year, I have constantly been amazed with the enthusiasm, professionalism, and thoroughness that you have applied to your project. And when I say your project, I truly mean it. The student team has initiated and carried out each part of this project independently and with commitment. Well done.    Ms. Gallant 

The Making History Project was created to record QEHS school history for the time of the COVID-19 Pandemic. It will allow students to express their feelings, voices and experiences about how the pandemic has affected/changed their lives. If QEHS students do not record this unprecedented lifetime of history, future generations may never fully understand the hardships/unique experiences that we underwent.

June Submission

This is the third and last Making History Project showcase! It consists of four submissions: Aaron T, Yandan M, an anonymous student, and Thaddeaus T. These submissions are superb and we hope that all of you guys submit works too. We will be announcing the winners of the prize in a week. Thank You.

Anonymous

Photographer: Anonymous

The first photo was taken on April 19th, 2021. Queen Elizabeth High School was shut down temporarily on Monday, April 19, 2021. Students in Grades 7-12 transitioned to at-home learning for at least two weeks upon Alberta Education. This was due to cases of COVD-19 increasing, and the number of students and staff required to quarantine rising. On April 28, 2021, CBE announced to have students in Grades 7-12 continue to learn from home for an additional two weeks to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 in schools. 

The second photo was taken on May 17th, 2021, In-person classes resumed on Monday, May 17th, 2021. On the day that the school was opened, the school principal Mr. Arrell standing at the front welcoming students back to in-person learning.

Aaron T

This is a journal response written by a Grade 8 student named Aaron T, which highlighted his frustration towards COVID-19. Aaron also reflects on his thoughts and hopes.

My experiences during COVID have been interesting, to say the least. Ever since COVID happened in March of 2020, I went online happily thinking that it would be over quickly and I would be able to see my friends again soon. I took the time at home happily since I would be able to play my favourite games more with all my extra time. However, when we ended up not going back to school it was quite sad for me. What was even worse was that I ended up going to HUB. HUB school was decent but I felt I wasn’t being challenged and went through without being taught the GATE 8 Curriculum that I would've been taught in in-person school. However, I would go back to in-person school back in February and it felt way different. The pace was much faster and harder to keep up with. It was much different from HUB learning. However, the teachers in our school made the transfer from HUB to in-person much easier and I managed to keep up with all my schoolwork. 

Yandan M

This is an essay written by a Grade 8 student named Yandan M. Yandan shares his struggle through HUB and transferring to in-person classes and his other experiences with COVID.

Since the novel coronavirus hit North America in March 2020, the course of everyone’s lives has been changed. It led to numerous economic and health problems internationally.

I first heard about COVID over the radio in early January of 2020. I didn’t think too much of it at first, since it had only been reported in Asia at that time. At this time, almost everybody overlooked it. By March, the virus had spread across Asia and had reached parts of Europe and Africa. At this time, it had also reached North America. Again, nobody paid too much attention to it until the COVID cases exponentially shot up. People began to panic. By late March, the schools were shut down and everyone switched to online learning.

I attended online school for two semesters: the second semester of grade 7 and the first semester of grade 8. While virtual learning is an efficient and effective way to attempt to combat the coronavirus, it was also less effective from an educational standpoint. Many students, including myself, found it harder to pay attention to class and finish schoolwork on time. Another leading factor was that the online school schedule was so fixed, making every day practically the same. This resulted in students finding it even harder to stay motivated and concentrated.

During the lockdown, it became increasingly hard to keep in touch with family or friends with whom you do not live with. We weren’t allowed outside, and even if we did go outside, we weren’t allowed to gather or socialize. The best we could do was talk over voice or video, which just isn’t the same. Connections became more and more distant as the pandemic drew on.

Though the lockdowns helped ease the COVID strains, they also posed new problems. The obesity rate went up, as many people were just sitting at home with barely any exercise. General mental health also declined, due to social isolation and no outside connections or contact whatsoever. Declining mental health could also be due to factors such as being locked in a house with your loud and annoying family for the entire day.

In conclusion, this pandemic has been a crossroads for many people. We faced many difficult situations, but we still pulled through. I think my life and many others have been changed forever due to this virus. We can take this pandemic as a learning experience. We can look back and implement the things we learned during these tough times into our lives for a better tomorrow.

Thaddaeus T

We have a paragraph written by Thaddeaus T about how he lost his bird but learned lessons from it.

During this time, my bird, named “bud bud”, sadly died. His death caused me a lot of grief. However, his death taught me a greater lesson that bad things only last for a while about you can still keep going forward. I keep this hope for this pandemic and I hope that although the pandemic may be very bad right now, it will pass after a while.  Just like how I ended up mourning over my dead bird, I hope we can get over this pandemic and move on.

Final Message Draft:

On behalf of the Making History Team, we would like to thank you for taking your time to read through the experiences people have had during these tough times and encourage you to share yours as well. We would like to thank all of those who have submitted entries for projects during this project. We can’t thank you enough for the time and effort you put into these entries. Without you, the Making History Project wouldn't exist and future generations would never know the experiences that you had during this strange time. We would also like to thank you, the readers. Without the readers, this whole project wouldn’t mean anything. So on behalf of everyone on the Making History team, we thank you for taking the time to read through our collection of experiences. We would like to thank everyone who has submitted their personal experiences to this collection, and we thank everyone for their continued support with this project. We truly could not have done it without you.

March Submission

Teacher Supervisor: Ms. Gallant

Student Editors: Max D, Ekam K, Aaron T, and Aryan P

This is the second Making History Project showcase! It consists of three submissions, one from Kiana C, one from Ms. Daljevic, and one from Benjamin K. These submissions are superb and we hope that all of you guys submit work too. See you at the next showcase!

Benjamin K

Playing an instrument without spreading COVID-19 is still possible! This was an amazing video of Benjamin and his clarinet, it shows how playing an instrument is still possible even during COVID-19 if you take the correct precautions.

Benjamin K Video

 Ms. Daljevic

Photographer: Ms. Daljevic

This photo demonstrates and puts into perspective the precautions that teachers must take in order to provide learning to students. The desks are put as separate as possible in order to restrict the spread of COVID-19.

Kiana C

This is a journal response written by a Grade 8 student named Kiana C, which highlighted her resentment towards COVID-19. Kiana also reflects on her thoughts and hopes.

COVID-19 has really affected a lot of us recently as it hit most of North America last year in March 2020. I feel like COVID has really taken a lot away from myself and many others but at the same time improved some things as well. Although COVID has caused an economic crisis such as job employment and shortages of resources, it has done us some good. I admire the social health care workers, doctors, and researchers as they are trying their very best to find vaccines and treat the people who got the Coronavirus.

When I first heard about COVID back last year in January, I had just come back from a travel trip to Spain and Orlando. So after I heard the news, I didn't think much of it. Little did I know it would make a great impact on my life, our lives. Especially the lives of young teenagers and children. Two months passed after coming back from winter break and everyone on social media started posting about school shutting down for a week, just to clear things due to COVID. The next thing you know, it becomes two weeks, then a month, then two months, and eventually the rest of the year. During the four months in isolation, COVID wasn't getting any better. All sports activities were cancelled and almost everything was shut down. People were scared that the government was not doing anything about it, some people made COVID into a conspiracy theory. But really who knows, the government and its economy were crashing while kids were out of school. An increase in the suicide rate amongst teens rose as we were on lockdown.

Throughout the four months we had online school, well it wasn't even online school at that point, it was more like self-taught school, my routine was actually pretty normal. I would wake up at 9:00 am, eat breakfast, do the work assigned by our teachers, complete it by noon, eat lunch, go outside for a walk, practice piano, play video games, eat dinner, and sleep. Repeating that almost 7x a week was extremely repetitive and boring. I felt that at that point in my life, there was no purpose, and I'm sure not only I felt it but many others as well. Essentially, kids were stuck in their rooms/house teaching themselves and dying of boredom. I'm not saying that school was easy, hard or boring, it was just so concerning that we had no other purpose. Yet we couldn't see my friends, the best we could do was FaceTime, assuming that you have an available electronic to use. Most of the time after I was staying up late and watching shows or just vibing in my room until 2 am. Which is very unhealthy, but again, what else could I do? No interactions, no school, nothing to attend.

As I mentioned earlier, sports was an extracurricular activity that played a major role in my life and everyone else's life before COVID. After sports were cancelled, there really was nothing else to do for me. When I attended swim practice, I could associate and talk with my friends and that's really what I enjoyed doing apart from swimming. For almost a total of seven months, I hadn't even swum or hung out with much of my friends as a result of COVID. It did make me reflect on what I could have done. It has now been a full year since COVID entered my life. Consequently, I believe we really did change during that period of time, at least I feel like I did as to before COVID hit, we haven't been very hygienic. It took a whole global pandemic to get people to start washing their hands more often, avoid touching your face, wearing masks to protect ourselves.

I know that I, myself, have truly changed and my experiences with COVID reflect on me every day. People around me changed who I am and so did COVID. I wish that everything could go back to normal but it really isn't possible. Many things have changed over the past time as COVID will be around for at least the next year and I do and don't look forward to it, but hope that everything gets better for the greater good.

January Submission

Teacher Supervisor: Ms. Gallant and Michelle

Student Editors: Max D and Aryan P

This is January’s Making History Project showcase! It consists of four submissions, one from Krysta F, one from Max D,  and two anonymous submissions. These submissions are superb and we hope that all of you guys submit works too. See you at the next showcase!

Submit your works at makinghistoryqehs@gmail.com

Krysta F

Hand washing to reduce the spread of COVID-19 could be fun! This was an amazing video of Krysta and her Rube Goldberg Machine, it shows how her Rube Goldberg machine turns on the tap so that she can wash her hands.

Krysta's Rube Goldberg Machine

Anonymous Student

Photographer: Anonymous

8:44 AM, Nov 3rd, 2020 at QEHS Front Entrance, Principal Mr. Arrell was greeting students as his daily routine was the same as before COVID-19. Every student was wearing masks to enter school because masks were mandatory in all indoor public places.

Max D

This is a journal response written by a Grade 8 student named Max D, which highlighted his exciting experience of witnessing his neighbour’s unique birthday party during COVID-19 in July 2020. Max also reflects on his thoughts and hopes.

The sounds were just like a toy siren. Although the noise was not as scary as the typical police and ambulance sirens, I still put down the book that I was reading and looked outside because it was strange to hear such a loud noise in our quiet neighbourhood. There was a fire truck parked in front of my neighbour’s house. The firefighters suddenly turned on the sirens. At first, I thought that my neighbour had been robbed again because a couple of years ago the police and firemen came to the house on a report of a robbery. The robber had broken in and took some valuables.

I was scared so I rushed down to tell my mom. As soon as we saw the fire truck with kids I was confused, as I had never seen kids playing on a firetruck in front of their own house. We saw that Raymond with a birthday hat on was playing with his sister in the front seats, jumping and yelling in excitement as they gained full control of the sirens and lights. This moment greatly relieved my mom and as we saw that it was just a birthday celebration. Raymond’s parents rushed to the front of the vehicle to catch this moment of glee in a photo. There were a couple of firefighters that were there, wearing face masks and congratulating Raymond on turning six years old. This made our quiet neighbourhood into a cheerful atmosphere. I felt very happy for Raymond, this is such an amazing thing and a special celebration which brightened my day.

After further research, I found out that this is a thing that the fire department does in quarantine to help people celebrate their birthdays. This program is for people between the ages of four and 12, or over the age of 75. Well, all you have to do is submit a request for the Calgary Fire Department to drive by your house in trucks with flashing lights and sirens to help you celebrate your birthday!

This is an extraordinary thing that the City of Calgary did. It’s fantastic for young children or older adults to celebrate their Birthday in joy. Even though during these desperate Covid-19 pandemic times, we will still find ways to celebrate momentous occasions. This helps not only the people celebrating the birthday but it also helps the entire community and society gain hope that we will get through these dark times as long as we work together and be optimistic.

Anonymous Grade 8 Student

 From The Author: This is a poem written by a Grade 8 student. It is a romanticized version of the true events happening throughout the year 2020 focusing on the effects of the COVID-19.

"Yea so basically I just wrote this poem in like 10 minutes, It's pretty bad", The author of the poem responded when asked if they believe their poem was of good quality or not

*Disclaimer: This poem contents are not necessarily related to reality or facts.*

Oh, the crowd so plenty lend me your ears, for I have a story for you.

Once there was a bat flying so high, it got caught so it no longer flew.

It was taken to a wet market, where it was sold and eaten. By the end of March, we were all almost beaten.

We were all told to stay two meters apart.

And when shopping, sanitize your cart.

Here we are today, on the second wave.

By this time we were all quite grave. Who knows how long it’ll be until we can return to normalcy.

For now the colour I think to describe our situation is burgundy.