Online classes

Features LAPTOP LEARNING LIVES ON

More McLean students opt to take online classes

Madelyn Frederick Sports EDitor | Sandra Cheng Social Media Manager

In an age of increasing digital education, more students are opting to take some of their classes online, attracted by the convenience and what they see as lightened rigor. With long hours spent playing sports or working, busy students find it difficult to devote enough time to schoolworkand appreciate that online classes are held once a week as opposed to two or three times a week.

Senior Ava Farivar is taking online AP Microeconomics and AP Macroeconomics, a class known for having a demanding workload. Farivar has found that taking the class online makes it easier to stay on top of the assignments and create a personalized study schedule.

“I really wanted to be able to take my time with [the class] during the week,” Farivar said. “I come in late every red day, but I use the extra time spent at home efficiently. Whether it’s using that time to work on other classes or economics, I can prioritize the classes that require the most time from me for any specific week.”

Like many other seniors, Farivar often becomes overwhelmed trying to balance her commitments.

“It would be a lot more difficult to take in person because there is a lot more pressure to get assignments done by the block schedule, and I find that way too fast-paced,” Farivar said. “As an economics class and an AP, I wanted to take my time so I really understood [the material] before the exam.”

Online classes can be especially beneficial to athletes participating in extracurricular activities.

“Staying on top of my other classes’ work is a whole lot easier now that I have more time to do it,” said junior Jocelyn Brooks, a competitive diver who takes U.S. & Virginia History Honors online. “I also have more time to train and get better as an athlete without having to cram homework late every night.” AP Calculus BC teacher Crissie Ricketts started teaching online classes in 2010, joining FCPS’s Online Campus program in 2015. “[Teaching online classes] started out as a way to make extra money,” Ricketts said. “It’s like a second job, but it pays really well.” Online classes allow students to learn from any location through the use of remote meeting services. “It’s flexible, and I can [teach from] anywhere. I can do it sitting by myself at home, I could do it at the beach in the summer,” Ricketts said. “It’s as good for teachers to be flexible [as it is for students].” Although online classes are more flexible, a lot of students and teachers prefer in-person classes because they allow for personalized interactions among peers, and teachers can closely moderate their students.

“[One difficulty is making sure that] every student is aware of what’s going on,” said Steven Walker, who teaches dual enrollment Precalculus through the FCPS Online Campus. “In class, I can look around and tell who’s not paying attention and get their attention and make sure they understand [the topic]. Online, it’s more like you’re throwing [information] out there and just hoping that every kid that’s logged in is actually in front of the computer screen.”

Communicating online makes it harder for students to form connections with their teachers and ask for help. In a classroom setting, students are able to work on projects and have discussions more easily.

Ava at work — Senior Ava Farivar works on an assignment for her online AP Economics class. She finds that taking the class online helps her manage her time better. (Photo courtesy of Ella Farivar)

IT WOULD BE A LOT MORE DIFFICULT TO TAKE IN PERSON BECAUSE THERE IS A LOT MORE PRESSURE TO GET ASSIGNMENTS DONE BY THE BLOCK SCHEDULE.”

- AVA FARIVAR SENIOR

“I think it’s less social,” Ricketts said. “A lot of times the benefit to being in a classroom is collaborating with your peers.”

Online learning raises concerns about academic integrity, as some students find it easier to cheat on exams and assignments. Ricketts overcomes this by having four inperson exams, which account for 70% of the final grade.

“If [students] don’t take it seriously and don’t learn [the material], they’re going to struggle on the in-person exams,” Ricketts said.

Despite the drawbacks, online classes have seen an increase in registration at McLean in the past year, and FCPS Online Campus enrollment numbers are expected to continue to rise due to the flexibility and freedom these classes offer.

“You can study and learn on your own time—the material meets you where you are,” Ricketts said. “[Students can learn] anywhere, anytime of the day.”

THE MAN BEHIND THE CAMERA

How Kent Arnold came to be McLean’s star photographer

Haley Riggins Reporter

The stands of the McLean High football stadium were packed on Oct. 21 long before kick-off as the student section anxiously awaited the Homecoming football game. Fans began to cheer, yet there were no football players in sight. They were cheering for Kent Arnold.

As a volunteer photographer for McLean sports for the past 15 years, Arnold is a familiar face among students and teachers alike. He photographs everything from football games on McLean’s stadium field to crew regattas on the Potomac.

“The coaches know that I’m just part of the scenery,” Arnold said. “I’m not going to give them any coaching tips…I’m very much there for their players…and they’re there for the love of the sport and for the love of passing [it] along.”

Arnold took up photography at 8 years old when he received his first camera from his father.

“My father taught me the technical basics, and I picked it up from there,” Arnold said. “It was just basically making a lot of mistakes, taking a lot of really bad images.”

Arnold’s father’s job as an intelligence officer in the CIA had the family moving across different continents every couple of years, offering him the best photography subject possible: the natural world.

Arnold has lived all around the globe including Sweden, Afghanistan, Myanmar (formerly Burma), England and Germany. Each country provided him access to different cultures and landscapes to photograph, which helped him develop his talent and love for the world of photography.

“Some of my favorite photographs I’ve ever taken came out of Afghanistan back in peacetime…from flat alpine plains [to] straight up and down mountains [to] ferociously independent people and stunning, stunning scenery everywhere,” Arnold said.

Arnold’s frequent moves enabled him to form connections and an understanding between himself and others in his many communities. When he eventually moved back to the U.S., Arnold felt as thought he was an outsider in his native country. He did not know much about American culture, or the role sports played in it. Looking for an outlet to express himself, he turned to photography.

“[Sports] were kind of what pushed me to the edges,” Arnold said. “But photography was something I could share with someone else that they could look at without necessarily looking at me.”

Arnold carried the hobby with him through high school and all the way to Dartmouth, where he majored in physics and electrical engineering. After graduating he traveled around the world again before returning to McLean, where he is now working as a principal engineer for the MITRE Corporation. Most importantly though, Arnold is a father.

“[McLean] has just been vital to their progress even now as adults,” Arnold said.

Although his two children, John and Cathy, have long since graduated from McLean, they originally brought Arnold into the school community. Their experiences of inclusion and kindness here are the reason he’s stayed.

“John was a special needs kid that didn’t really get along with a lot of people,” Arnold said.

The August before his freshman year, John said he wanted to play football. A few days later they went to the school, and the only thing they heard was the banging of metal coming from the weight room. It was football practice. John asked to join the team.

“The coach said, ‘Sure, John, you can come play football, but where have you been?’ John didn’t have anything to say but, ‘Sir, I missed it, I know, but I’d very much like to join in now,’” Arnold said. “It was a terribly threatening situation for a kid like him…[but] he started pushing weights and showed them training ethic…he had something to prove.”

John’s career on the football team in 2007 sparked Arnold’s serious dive into sports photography. As a parent in the stands of McLean games, Arnold saw that the pictures other parents took were not doing their exceptional athletes justice.

“I saw these astonishingly talented athletes that were putting a lot into their training, and their parents were putting a lot into their preparation…and the pictures [were] just dreary,” Arnold said. “Some of the finest athletes to come through McLean were blurred, with their opponents taking up three-fourths of their pictures.”

Arnold wanted to provide McLean athletes with a memento of

PHOTOGRAPHY WAS SOMETHING...[PEOPLE] COULD LOOK AT WITHOUT NECESSARILY LOOKING AT ME.”

- KENT ARNOLD VOLUNTEER PHOTOGRAPHER

their talent and to highlight what it means to be an athlete.

“You can sustain bruises, you can be knocked down, your team can be defeated again and again, but you can learn aspects of people you never even knew to ask about,” Arnold said. “This is something I want to encourage in students and award their families for.”

Arnold also hopes the pictures serve as encouragement for future generations to go outside and engage in sports instead of the temptations of growing technology.

“Eventually [these pictures may] come out of a trunk and some 6- or 7-year-old kid who’s deciding between electronic toys is going to say, ‘Let’s set aside the headset and do some real competition,’” Arnold said.

Although Arnold will occasionally photograph sports at other high schools, he remains loyal to McLean because of his children’s positive experiences here. Despite only stepping on the football field for a matter of 15 seconds the entire season, John went on to win the most valuable player award as a result of his commitment and courage.

“The faculty here…shows a level of motivation that I have not seen in 40 years in an industry of people being paid far higher,” Arnold said. “Their dedication and personal ability as well as the copious extra hours they spend unpaid...you’ve got a gold mine here.”

He photographs 29 of the 31 varsity sports offered at McLean, with the exception of tennis and golf due to scheduling conflicts. He spends hours sifting through the game schedules every season, making sure not to miss the important games. Arnold then shows up to each game as early as possible, pulls out his camera and starts shooting.

“Everyone loves his photos, and they’re really helpful,” varsity volleyball coach Samantha Stewart said. “[He does] something players don’t fully understand and appreciate—he is providing an additional memory of what it means to be a part of McLean volleyball that players can look back on fondly.”

After games he uploads all of the photos onto his computer and carves out whatever time he has in the coming days to select, edit and upload the pictures to his website, heromoment.com. Not only does he volunteer his services, but all photos can be downloaded by anyone for free.

“I’m not going to go out on the field and not photograph a kid [for] pay,” Arnold saud. “I’m making something for the whole team.”

Despite not being paid for his work, McLean athletes’ and families’ gratitude for Arnold does not fall short.

“Whether or not people actually like the photos, they come up to me and tell me they like them, which is immensely rewarding,” Arnold said.

There are students that Arnold has followed through all four years of high school, photographing their freshman debut all the way to their senior night.

“I really appreciate Kent for taking pictures of me and my teams over the past four years because I know he doesn’t do it for the money but out of the goodness of his heart,” senior varsity basketball and baseball player Jakob Luu said. “Even more than that, I appreciate him as a positive person who always lifts us up with his contagious smile.”

Future students have nothing to fear, as Arnold doesn’t plan on taking his work anywhere else.

“I plan on staying here,” Arnold said. “I am going to keep photographing until my eyesight goes out, and then I’ll just rely on autofocus.”

a few of Kent arnold’s Favorite photos

Top Left: “My son John Arnold ‘11 found the same kind of home for his training ethic within crew as he had found in his classes, football and the weight room. The erg is hardly a joyful machine, but McLean welcomed and encouraged all the power he could throw at it plus those other experiences, and gave him belonging in return. That’s McLean at its best.”

Bottom Left: “This was perhaps the most labor-intensive composite in my past (40+ hours of Photoshop), but well worth it: the coach and his daughter (on the right) were particularly pleased.”

Right: “When and where else have we seen one cheerleader lift another, straight-armed overhead? I particularly admire the calm and grace that Kayla Smith ‘24 expresses here: total confidence in her teammate Michael Norton ‘24.”