Editor’s note: Casey Scouten (eighth grade) and Ryan Bronstein (seventh grade) are students at the Elgin School.
My School Life at Home
by Cason Scouten
Ever since I got word that our school would be shut down due to the coronavirus, I was interested to see how school would be with every student now at home.
That first week was a quick scramble, so my teachers sent home packets filled with work to do while we students stayed at home. I would wake up each morning and do the amount of work specified for each day of the week. For the first few days, it was a little weird not being around my friends, but I adjusted and kept doing my assignments. While working from home did have its advantages, I realized that it was more than just being able to work at your own pace or go outside whenever you want.
This whole working from home experience has given me the chance to be closer to my family and spend every day with them. Now instead of waking up and going to see my friends in the morning, I wake up and see my family. Not that I do not miss being around my friends, but this opportunity to be with my family is certainly a plus about working from home. I do get to see my friends through online group chats on Tuesdays and Thursdays held by my teachers to do classwork but to also reconnect and see what each other is up to.
Working from home can also have some downsides. If you have an urgent question and you email your teacher, you probably will have to wait a while to get an answer. However, in English class, Ms. Sebert uses the RemindApp to respond right away to all parents and students.
In addition to her RemindApp Class, we also use Zoom for live lessons, can text her, email her, and everything is posted on Google Classroom. In science class, we also have the RemindApp, email, and Google Classroom and the social studies class uses Google Classroom. My math class was already online when I started the school year, so it was the same kind of learning when I was actually at school.
Although there are deadlines, we can work at our own pace, taking breaks when needed, and again being around family.
When I found out that all schools in the state would be closed for the rest of the school year, I was a little disappointed that I would not go back to school and see my friends in person, but otherwise was comfortable with working from home. When I started my eighth-grade year at Elgin, I was thinking this was going to be a great year, and it did turn out to be a great year so far. Starting the first half of the school year at school and finishing the other half at home is a big adjustment, but one that put everything in perspective. I am sure my classmates can agree that this whole change of schooling was a weird but also humbling experience for us all.
Learning From Home
by Ryan Bronstein
Doing work at home for school, or having distance learning, because of Covid-19 can be really helpful, but it can also be very hard and aggravating.
One positive aspect is we can stay in bed all day while we work which is something I always want to do, and we can eat all day while we work, another thing I have always wanted to do.
However, we cannot talk with our teachers as often, so it is harder to communicate and sometimes harder to understand. Fortunately every student in our school has an electronic device that was sent home with us the Friday after our school was closed.
I could understand how hard it could be to be doing school without a device from school or a personal device.
Of course not having a teacher watching over my back can help me at least be relaxed and not have so much tension to get things done. I still do get them done – just in case any teachers from Elgin are reading this.