Issue 1 October 2020

2
editoral
Design by Anna Wang ‘22 • Photos Courtesy of Presley Daggett ‘21 and Ava Olson ‘21
The just-Normal
Co-Editors-in-Chief Presley Daggett ‘21 and Ava Olson ‘21 offer the student
body their advice on handling the current reality of the world.
Lavender’s
Lens
GOOGLE CLASSROOM SUCKS
Who designs a learning
management system without
averaging the grade?
By LAVENDER HUANG ‘22
By PRESLEY DAGGETT ‘21 AND AVA OLSON ‘21
Welcome back
Baldwin Upper
School. It’s
been seven crazy months
since our last day of
in-person teaching back
in March and WOW is
life different now. We are
not only living through a
pandemic, but also a civil
rights movement, a time
of severe climate change,
and a global depression
as our country approaches
an incredibly polarized
presidential election.
So let’s just face the
facts: going back to school
is weird. Getting used to
this “new normal” is going
to be weird. Weird and
uncomfortable and scary
and daunting and any other
word you can use to describe
the current reality
that is our world right now.
No matter how much
we wish our lives could
go back to a time when we
didn’t keep surgical masks
hanging on the rearview
mirrors of our cars, the
truth is that things just aren’t
going to be the same
as years before. The rules
that the Baldwin administration
has put in place
to keep us all safe- social
distancing guidelines,
mask-wearing, health
screening, temperature
checks- are not elements
of a “typical school day.”
Editor-in-Chief Ava Olson ‘21
Editor-in-Chief Presley Daggett ‘21
And it’s okay if you’re
upset, uncomfortable, anxious,
or frustrated. It’s okay
if your only goal is just to
get through the day. It’s
okay if you reminisce about
brighter, happier times. But
we, as a community, must
try not to only dwell on
the past or speculate about
the could-have-beens, if
the pandemic didn’t exist.
It is crucial that we
make the best of the situation
we are all in. Together
we must embrace
this “normal”- without the
new- because, in all honesty,
we could be here for
a while. The sooner we
can normalize washing
our hands at every free
moment and wiping down
our desks before and after
use, the sooner we can
let our minds be at peace
with our surroundings.
So on behalf of the
entire Hourglass staff, the
editorial board urges you
to focus on the now-normal
and new future.
Focus on the positives.
Focus on creating
safe alternatives to the traditions
we love. Focus on
the new ways we can adapt
as a school and community.
Focus on the little things
you missed while at home.
Let me make this extremely
loud and clear: Google
Classroom sucks.
Baldwin students have acclimated
to many of the adjustments
made at school due to COVID-19.
One of the most impactful changes
is the switch from PowerSchool
Learning (PSL) to Google Classroom.
However, I believe that Google
Classroom is an inconvenient
learning management system, not
a productive replacement for PSL.
The most apparent and aggravating
change is the lack of a grading
system on Google Classroom.
PSL had a specific tab where teachers
could enter the weight of each
assignment and upload the students’
grades. This way students could
calculate the grades they must obtain
to reach their goals for the end
of the year and focus on improving
their grades in certain subjects.
This grading feature had been
taken for granted until Google
Classroom. For whatever reason,
Google Classroom only allows students
to see their grades for each assignment,
making it impossible for
students to figure out their grades
for the semester in a certain course.
Even if you look past the
grades, put simply, Google Classroom
is not a well-designed system.
While PSL had pages and
tabs for easy navigation to find
the desired topic, Google Classroom
only allows teachers to
add “blocks,” which, on the student’s
end, means endless scrolling
through tons of material.
Since teachers have control
over their page, PSL’s most important
materials are usually on the
top block, and the important assignments
can be accessed through
dropbox. Google Classroom, however,
lacks the elegant divide--having
tabs only for the stream, classwork,
and people-- and chooses to
mesh everything together, making
the students dig for their desired destination
through old, finished units.
[ CONTINUED on the WEBSITE ]
The Hourglass
The Baldwin School
October 2020 Volume 60 Issue 1
701 Montgomery Ave.
Bryn Mawr, PA 19010
Co-Editors-in-Chief Ava Olson ‘21 · Presley
Daggett ‘21 Creative Director Maggie Song
‘21 Junior Creative Directors Anna Wang ‘22
· Sophie Cai ‘22 Layout Editor Hana Ahanger
‘21 Photography Editor Melody Hao ‘22 · Izzy
Antanavicius ‘22 News Editor Grace Halak ‘22
Features Editor Rhea Jain ‘21 Opinions Editor
Kaitlyn O’Malley ‘22 Sports Editor Lavender
Huang ‘22 Arts and Culture Editor Melody Gui
‘21 Media Content Editor Elise Kait ‘21 Website
Editor Krissy Bhargava ‘22 FACULTY ADVISORS Dr.
Diane Senior · Ms. Janice Wilke · Ms. Alex Greco
The Hourglass is The Baldwin Upper School’s newspaper dedicated to
publishing student articles. The views expressed in The Hourglass do not
necessarily reflect those of the school or the editors. All content published
in The Hourglass (including but not limited to articles, designs, graphics,
photographs, and illustrations) are created by Baldwin students for the exclusive
use of The Hourglass unless otherwise indicated. The Hourglass
aspires for its content to be fair and correct, and regrets when it is not.
If you have questions or comments about our coverage, contact the Editors-in-Chiefs
at aolson@baldwinschool.org or pdaggett@baldwinschool.
org. The Hourglass is made possible through the generosity of the Ruth S.
Hochberger ‘68 Hourglass Sustainability Fund. The Hourglass is affiliated
with the Columbia Scholastic Press Association.