Doing school work in my pajamas, playing with my dog in the middle of math class, hiking and Netflix breaks in between assignments, online schooling definitely has its perks. However, the quality of learning has suffered greatly because of it.

 For me, it has felt like teachers have provided me with the tools to learn new things, but the actual learning has been up to me. YouTube and Google have become my best friends, and I have finally learned how to operate email. 

I think schooling online has helped students to take a bigger role in their own learning. No more showing up to class 3 minutes late, filling out half of an assignment and shoving it in your backpack for later. It takes persistence, time management, and organization to complete school work.

One of the hardest things for me has been finding the motivation to even do stuff. When you don’t have your teacher there cheering you on or forcing you to get off your phone and get to work, when you don’t even need to do anymore work to get an A in the class, how do you muster up the self control and energy to do something?

 Being a child of two parents who are both teachers has given me some insight into the teacher’s end of online learning. Each day they wake up early to post lessons and record videos before everyone else gets up and it is too loud. They are constantly checking their emails and google classrooms to help students with any questions they have. The most disheartening thing, however, is that maybe 25-40% of the students are doing any of the work. They try to be gracious seeing as many students are in less than ideal living situations or have rough home lives, but they know there are some students out there who are just ignoring all school work. 

So when I am unmotivated to do school work I just try and think about the time teachers have spent putting together videos and lessons so that we are maintaining some level of learning. Or if that doesn’t work for me I think about how participating in my school work will help me in my classes for next year. 

There are some aspects of online learning I have found to be super helpful that might be beneficial to continue next year even if we do go back to school in person. 

One is the video lectures. I love being able to take my time, pause the videos or even rewatch something to solidify the knowledge for myself. Another is the flexible hours. A lot of times I get on a roll with math or science, but then the bell rings and I just have to pack it away until the next day. 

At home, I get to choose when I do assignments and how much time I devote to each class without worrying about any time restraints. 

While I definitely think there are some pros to online learning, the cons of no teacher or peer interaction and self motivation outweigh them. The shift from full time classroom learning to 100% online learning over spring break allowed for hardly any transition time and has been a radical change for our school. Though it hasn’t been an easy transition, I think most teachers and students have worked hard to make sure we get the education that we deserve.