(This is the second post in a multipart series. You can see Part One .)
The question-of-the-week:
What has your online learning experience been as a student this fall? What is working for you and why? What is not working for you and why?
This series will highlight contributions from students in my classes.
In , Cathy Liu, Julia Yang, Eliseo Angulo Lopez, and Masihullah Shafiq shared their thoughts.
Today, Luis Diaz, Samantha Nicole Vicedo, Cheyenne Lo, and Manpreet Rana contribute their commentaries.
Too much work
Luis Diaz is a junior at Luther Burbank High School in Sacramento, Calif.:
Online learning as a student this fall has, in my opinion, been the equivalent of hell on earth. The way that teachers demand us to do hours of work when only seeing them for 40 minutes at minimum. I鈥檓 used to staring at a laptop screen for long periods of time, but many people I know are not used to it, and their eyes are beginning to strain, and some now need glasses but can鈥檛 afford them. All I鈥檓 seeing is that people are not used to being on a computer for hours at a time. I鈥檓 used to it, but not for this long. I don鈥檛 understand how we鈥檙e supposed to be on a screen from 9:30 am all the way to 7 pm because of classwork. That is 10 hours of screen time for work and only work. Some people have other work to do, but instead we鈥檙e working hard in front of a screen for teachers that don鈥檛 even try to get to know us.
What has worked, though, was teachers having office hours to contact them out of class. I cannot begin to remember how many times I needed help with asynchronous assignments for class only for me to not have any way to contact my teacher. I don鈥檛 understand how I鈥檓 supposed to get work done when I have no idea how to even do the assignment in the first place, but luckily, one of my teachers has office hours that I can use to talk to my teacher when I need help from her class.
What doesn鈥檛 work is heaping on assignment after assignment while others don鈥檛 even have the first assignment finished yet. Not everyone works at the same pace, but teachers expect us to finish all their given assignments in an hour or less. What they don鈥檛 remember is that we鈥檙e learning, meaning that we don鈥檛 have all the knowledge we need to properly do the assignments.
鈥淚t鈥檚 hard to talk to a profile picture鈥�
Samantha Nicole Vicedo is a junior at Luther Burbank High School:
Online learning has been a roller coaster experience, one where you鈥檙e constantly screaming and not out of joy. I still enjoy my classes because I make sure to give my 100% best, but sometimes it just gets a little too much, and I鈥檓 afraid of getting overwhelmed to the point of shutting down and not doing anything since almost all my classes collectively stress me out. I鈥檓 sure it鈥檚 stressful for the adults as well, but we teenagers still haven鈥檛 fully grasped our emotions yet and tend to be driven by them no matter how hard we try to be in control, especially when our emotions overload us.
Some teachers鈥� classes go overtime unintentionally, maybe because interactions between teachers and students make it more exciting, interesting, and engaging since we鈥檙e in the middle of a pandemic, and it gets lonely sometimes. Some teachers鈥� classes go overtime intentionally to compel students to work on the designated assignment so that they can get it over with.
Each student鈥檚 home situation is unique; some students have siblings they need to take care of, chores to get done, or some may not like online learning because they feel unattached as opposed to physical learning where it鈥檚 hands-on. All I know is that each student is trying their best to survive the school year and get passing grades until everything goes back to normal again.
Both parties are trying their best to adapt to this new form of learning, but it鈥檚 hard to talk to a profile picture. It鈥檚 hard to connect with new students because you don鈥檛 see them and sometimes you don鈥檛 even hear from them. Some of my teachers encourage getting to know each other, but I still end up picking the same people I know from last year because I feel uncomfortable talking with people I don鈥檛 see and don鈥檛 know yet. It鈥檚 hard to take full advantage of your teacher as a resource to be successful because you can鈥檛 just yell their name or raise your hand when you need help.
I actually kind of like online learning, I just wish more people were engaged in collectively making it feel as if we were still in physical classes. It鈥檇 be more fun, more socially engaging, less lonesome, and less emotionally draining.
鈥淚 hate the Chromebooks鈥�
Cheyenne Lo is a junior at Luther Burbank High School:
Doing online school this year has been interesting. I am not sure if I like it or don鈥檛 like it. First and foremost, I will be honest. I hate the Chromebooks. These Chromebooks could be better. I hate having to log in all the time and having to log into my Zoom and every day. It came to a point where I just leave my Chromebook on 24/7 so that I don鈥檛 have to login every time. I feel like being in Zoom during the day is OK because I still have time to do other things while I listen in on what we have to do during class.
I have a problem with some of my teachers because we have 80 minutes with them. From my knowledge, teachers are supposed to teach us for 40 minutes and then give us 40 minutes to do our assignments. Not a lot of my teachers have been following that schedule. They spend the whole time talking, and sometimes it gets to a point where I leave Zoom just so I can do my assignments or I completely mute them so I can work.
I do miss that dedicated time during school to do assignments because personally, as a broke child without parents, I have a job and I work 40 hours a week, and it is very hard to do 2-3 hours of work every day after 鈥渟chool鈥� when I go straight to work after school and then don鈥檛 get home until 11 at night. I still have to eat and shower after I get home from work so I don鈥檛 even settle in my room to do homework until midnight. From there on, I stay up until 3 to finish my assignments, then I am exhausted the next day during school and I just don鈥檛 feel ready for school in the morning, and the process just repeats until the weekends. I don鈥檛 have to wake up as early, but even then I work on weekends, and with my busy schedule, I have to do other things so I don鈥檛 have time to sleep in and catch up on sleep. Overall, I just wish I had more class time to do my work, and teachers would give us more time to do assignments during Zoom calls.
鈥淗ang in there鈥�
Manpreet Rana is a junior at Luther Burbank High School:
Since this quarantine has started and everyone started staying at home, a lot of things have changed. I鈥檓 a high school student, and this year has been crazy for me because before I used to go to school, see all my friends, and have fun. I used to say, 鈥淥h, I hate school,鈥� but I kinda miss it now. I do miss talking to friends and doing stupid stuff in the classroom. Now it doesn鈥檛 even feel like school is going on. It just feels like we are watching a video or something.
As of my experience of online studying, I would say it鈥檚 good and bad for me. The good part is that I get more time to do my work and I don鈥檛 have to sit in a boring lecture for really long and also I can wear and eat whatever I want and whenever I want. The bad part would not be seeing my friends, missing out on all the fun things like prom, homecoming, and many more things and also just not having that classroom fun we used to have. And I would say that attending class online is very difficult because school feels very optional now. If I don鈥檛 do any class, I can still work on Google Classroom and get good grades by not even attending the class. That鈥檚 the thing I鈥檓 struggling with. And I know a lot of students struggling with a lot of problems in this online learning and I would say just hang in there, take some time off if you have to, but stay focused, and things will get better.
Thanks to Luis, Samantha, Cheyenne, and Manpreet for their contributions!
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