Online Learning in the New Term

While school has reopened and many of our classmates have gone back to campus, there are still some of us who chose to stay behind in our home country. Teachers need to cater for this by conducting hybrid teaching. Those of us still at home would have to attend lessons online using Teams whilst the others attend in person with social distancing measures in place. Being one of those who are not at school, I would like to share my experience of hybrid learning…

Interestingly, I found that when teachers have students attending classes in person, lessons go more smoothly, and they convey concepts more effectively as compared to last term when it was fully remote, understandably. What this means is that for this term, studying online may not be as disadvantageous as what many would first imagine. However, equally, when the lesson is better delivered, it is tough for me to stay focused throughout the whole school day. This is especially so in the evenings after a few hours of lessons, I would find my eyes extremely tired from staring at the screen which would lead to a struggle to concentrate. This is mitigated on the days when I have more free periods to take breaks in between lessons. Online classes from afternoon into the night also means no evening preparation for classes the next day. The adjustment of having to finish up my homework in the morning is challenging as I sometimes fail to allocate enough time to do so. This is now even more important since Saturday tests have resumed.

From school events like cross-country to silly insider jokes made by classmates, we are definitely missing out on some of the fun. As a Prefect, I am also unable to fulfil some of my duties since I am away. The pandemic has shortened our high school experience, making teenagers from all over the world lose out on many opportunities to grow and socialise in the ‘normal’ environment we know. However, our safety is most important, and we should make use of whatever tools we have to minimise any disruption to our studies until the pandemic threat subsides. This pandemic has brought many negative impacts to our world but also good learnings and innovations to the way we conduct our lives and adaptations to this new normal.

Amber – 6.2