Coming into 2020, I was excited. I had a fresh, blank slate for my grades, more competitions, and I was looking forward to spending more time with my friends. I enjoyed school, 2/3 of it. I enjoyed being in a classroom and learning as well as seeing my friends. I did not however, like test and quizzes. There was so much I could do with them. When I had heard news about the virus, I thought, along with a few others, that it would be no big deal and just a little bump in the road. Well, I was wrong; very wrong. Not only was the virus spreading, it was turning the lives of people and countries upside down. Businesses started to shut down, then schools, cities, and then countries. Although I liked being at home sometimes, I didn’t like that I was forced to stay home.

Then came the obstacle of learning. For the most part, distance learning was ok for me. I got most of my lessons and work done. There was two aspects that made distance learning difficult for me; procrastination and understanding. Deadlines for assignments were often days away. I had no ambition and motivation to finish them early. So naturally, I would let the work pile up, panic, and then finish them. The method got the job done, but it didn’t really help me. Personally, I am an auditory and visual learner, so understanding the lesson was easier to do in school than at home. Finishing homework, studying, and sleeping on time wasn’t much of a problem back then. With distance learning, it has gotten a lot harder to finish work, with me wanting to do anything but school work. Another aspect that made distance learning challenging was understanding particular part to a lesson. Before in a classroom, it was much easier to go ask the teachers or friends for help. With distance learning, I find it much harder to ask understand a lesson. When I have questions, sometimes the response is delivered in a few days. The responses I get sometimes are unclear in their explanation and that makes it harder to understand, and further my panic. Video chats are helpful, but there is only so much you can do in an hour. There are times when I miss the meetings so I can’t really ask question.

There were some things I found helpful. Video recordings of the lesson and the meetings were extremely helpful for me this semester. The recordings explained and showed examples of the lesson and this helped clear some of the confusion that I may have had. Studying in the same room as my mom also helped because it kept me focused on the work rather than spiraling down a Youtube binge.

The strategy that worked the best during social distancing was for teachers to create videos about a specific concept or lesson because students can watch them over again if they don’t understand or need to refer back to something. Some of my teachers would create YouTube videos or videos on Loom which I found useful. Also, by making these videos, it felt as if I was in a regular classroom with the teacher explaining and teaching us in person. – Jasmine Pan

With virus cases going up and the vaccine being worked on, there’s no answer to when the pandemic is going to be over and schools reopened. As much as I would love school to reopen and go back to normal, I know it’s not going to happen. One plan that I really like is the rotating hybrid. The rotating hybrid allows students to ask the teacher any questions that they might have and get a better understanding on the lesson. However, it may not be the most ideal since there is a chance that the virus is going to spread and students may get bored just staying in one class for a few hours. Despite these plans that we are coming up with for school in the fall, we really don’t know what the future is going to look like whether gloomy or bright.