There haven’t been a lot of positive things to come out of the COVID-19 pandemic. However as a result of the disaster that has been the coronavirus, virtual learning has been inserted into the lives of millions of students across the nation, and SCHS students have been no exception, myself included. Through the first semester, I had to learn and adapt to the new ways of learning about completing classwork while on a Zoom call. 

Classwork

Every class will have different classwork, and different ways of executing that work. However, as I continuously worked my way through the first semester, I realized that working on classwork while working virtual isn’t all that different across various classes. The most diverse and fun experience I had because of virtual learning was Photography class. Instead of being confined to the walls and outer areas of SCHS, I had free access to take photos inside and outside of my home, as well as anywhere I wanted to go. Typically, Photography class features advanced cameras, however this year we were limited to our own smartphones. However, the majority of my assignments throughout my other classes were Google Docs assignments, where I would either complete the assignment on a Google Doc, or print out a piece of paper. The classwork was straightforward in execution, as long as the internet was cooperating the entire school day. Along with classwork comes homework, which for me, I surprisingly didn’t put off all that much.

Homework

A lot of times with homework, many students wait until the last minute to complete it. Through my first three years of high school, I was no exception. However I’ve found that with virtual learning, I seemed to have more of a drive to complete my homework in first semester. The reason for this I believe is because the accessibility I had to my work was much more consistent and efficient, as it was all on my laptop. It also felt like I had a lot more time to complete my assignments as sometimes my teachers would simply let us leave the Zoom call early because we were done with classwork. Homework was one thing I was most concerned about with virtual learning, yet I have realized now it is one of the least of my concerns. While classwork and homework have been fairly simple on how to complete, tests have been a little unconventional and obviously different.

Tests

Tests have been, and will continue to be one of the more stress-inducing aspects of school, no matter your age, or how you’re learning. A lot of my class tests tended to be projects, simply as a result of my classes I’m taking, however one class that had consistent and regular tests was AP Chemistry. Every test was done on a Google Form. We would choose the multiple choice answers in the bubbles, and write the rest in the text boxes that were provided. Go Guardian was turned on for the virtual students, a way of securing legitimacy within the test taking. If there were questions that we had to show our work for, we would have to get a piece of paper and write our work there, and then take a picture of that work. From there, we would upload that picture to our Google Drive, and then insert it into the Google Classroom assignment of our test. Through it all, the test taking as a virtual student seemed to have put less stress on me, most likely because I was in a room by myself.

All in all, virtual learning has been a surprisingly laid back and in a way, fun new experience for me. The classwork is quick to finish, the homework gives me more motivation than in-person, and the tests don’t stress me out nearly as much. The first semester of virtual learning for this SCHS senior was one that brought many new challenges, however looking back, I know I made the right choice on where to do my learning.