How and What Do JSEC Students Feel About Distance Learning–The New Normal

DISTANCE LEARNING—JSEC NEW TEMPORARY NORMAL

We have been collecting and compiling your thoughts, ideas, opinions regarding the transition from regular school to on-line learning:  We realize you been saturated with COVID-19 stories, facts, myths, and news stories along with having to learn many new ways to learn at home.  So this article is solely to share what other students are thinking, good/bad, and allows a voice for students to vent out a bit.  It also allows for students to share out some great new ways distance learning is working well.  Comments seem to be fair and balanced.    We thought it important to share this so you realize you’re not alone, that this is new to both students, parents, administrators, and teachers. To maintain privacy we have copied/pasted comments, thoughts, and ideas but have kept authors names private.  

Here are your comments:

*This pandemic affected my daily life by me not working, not being able to go out and what I normal would do. It has taken or will be taken our senior year away. But also good being home on lockdown brings your family together. Creates bonds that have never been built before.

*Week 2 went good and the class is good I wouldn’t change anything, I’m doing good

*I feel sad because i can’t be with all my family and seeing all these people die and wondering how their families must feel, it’s really bad .

*These past two weeks with the distance learning has been rough because I prefer to get a taught in person rather than watch or type everything on the laptop.

*How I feel with week 2 of distance learning is it’s easier since I have gotten used to doing work online, I think for gym and other classes are fine it´s not too hard but teachers are making us do the work and I think I am doing okay in all my classes.

*I don’t think week 2 was any better than week 1 because I still feel like it’s easy to get behind with all the work that’s being assigned. For classes like gym class I think that it’s going well with the structure that’s set up. It’s not hard and it’s a nice and fun way to stay active.

*Classes should tone down on the work.

*During week 2 of virtual learning I felt more comfortable because I am starting to get used to this way of learning

*The only thing that I don’t like is that some teachers are asking us to make videos and i don’t know if other students feel this way but I don’t like recording myself so I think we shouldn’t be asked to make videos.

*I felt great, the second week was like the best week because I understand everything about the work and all the stuff about Distance Learning.

*Distance learning have been frustrating for other classes.  Art, dance, and gym are fun and the work is what we do everyday.

*I think week 2 of distance learning was good, nothing really changed. Some of my teachers were trying to set up a zoom call and everyone was confused since it wasn’t starting, or they weren’t responding.

*Something that needs to improve is that some teachers should put due dates, and explain better because one of my teachers wrote something and it made no sense.

*These two weeks were stressful because all the teachers are putting more work to do and they sometimes don’t let us finish to put more work but i think we can get through this we just need to work more hard.

*During week 2 of Distance Learning I felt like I did good but not that great. I could’ve done way better with other classes. I also feel like I’ve been doing good in PE I’ve been doing the exercises which I feel like I need to improve on because before sometimes i would give up.

*I feel like the distance learning is cool but it gets boring so I would much rather be at school right now. There are some teachers that are overwhelming us with work. I know that I am doing very well in all of my classes

*I feel like this distance learning is so stressful & overwhelming

*I’ve been doing good with distance learning

*During week 2 of distance learning I felt like teachers are giving way to much work

*I think I’ve done well during these times. The schedule is a little crazy but I managed.

*I feel like the distance learning is cool but it gets boring so I would much rather be at school right now. There are some teachers that are overwhelming us with work but know that i am doing very well in all of my classes

*This corona virus has effected school and my everyday day life because now you can’t be in a restaurant you have to take your food with you. You can’t stay and eat there and now you see people with gloves and mask .

*The pandemic affected my life by me not being able to take transportation, Like the commuter rail going to Mass.

*The hardest thing for me is that I have to stay in the house all day and can’t leave what so ever. I got a little sick and now and I have to stay away from everyone because i don’t want to get anyone else sick

*This virus has affected many people in fact now no one can get out without worrying there are many people who are still working and many people are becoming more infected every day

*The pandemic has my everyday life because before i used to be able to go anywhere. But now we all have to be aware that we can get others and ourselves sick

*This pandemic affected my normal life by not letting me go out with my friends, not going to school.

*It has affected me by not allowing to go to school and meet up with my friends. it also affected mentally, not wanting to be around other people due to the virus

*This pandemic affects my life because neither I nor my family can go out because of the fear of being contaminated.

*It damaged my learning because i cannot go to school or do my normal daily life

*I watch movies eat popcorn and cook with my mom and brother so they don’t feel like are alone with all this stuff going on outside

*This coronavirus has caused me to step up more.   I’ve been helping my mom in the house and we read interesting books to keep our minds occupied so that we don’t think about this difficult situation.

*Due to this new way of living I have been helping my mom by cleaning the house and I have been babysitting my cousin so my aunt won’t be that stressed.

*I’m doing my best to talk to my family and friends and at the same time talking to them telling them to protect themselves and that anything they need, and that I will be there for them

*I babysit my niece twice a week so my sister can get out the house and clear her mind even if it’s to just drive around.

*I try to call my mother and to see how she’s doing I try to talk to her about her day and calm her down if she had a really bad day .

*I walked my around the park and practice some softball with my cousin.

*The first thing I do is not lick my hands and the second is not to sneeze in front of people so I will try not to infect anyone.

*This new normal has caused me and my family to wear gloves  and  wash our hands to keep safe.   We rarely go outside and avoid touching our faces with my hands.

*I do not like doing working at home but I understand that we have to sacrifice something because of what is going on the world right now.   Sometimes it’s difficult for me to wake up or do things that are assigned. When I am in bed I do not get motivated to get up, like I used to when it was time to go to regular school  The internet is another problem but I just have to be patient and wait a couple minutes for it to load. This week is going fine, it’s much better than the first week for sure.

*Something I’ve would do to not think of the COVID-19 is to try to do something to distract myself or talk to my friends to get distracted and most of the time think of activities I could do that takes my mind off the bad things that are currently either worldwide or in my everyday life

*With this coronavirus I try to remain calm and help my other family members calm down.  I try to    stop thinking about the covid-19 and my classes are a great distraction.

*To distract ourselves from what is happening in society with the coronavirus it’s a great time where we can learn new things in this time of quarantine. We can learn a new language or learn things that may be useful to you with the career you want to study, etc….

*For me, all this has been a slightly different experience. All this that is happening in our society has not been a limitation to stopping our learning thanks to the interest of the teachers.  We couldn’t learn without you and without the technology.  There’s no way it would not have been achieved if teachers and technology.   Classes, lessons, and learning is being achieved every day despite the distance.

*In my opinion I think distance learning personally is hard for me to keep catching up with all the work. I was caught up in all my classes until they shut down the school because of the virus . Now that we have this distance learning   I am scared that I won’t be passing for this year or the quarter doing work online.

*I feel like in person learning is way better as it helps us more.

*I don’t really like the online learning, because it just doesn’t work for some of the classes. It feels like everything is fast paced, and the work that we get online is more than what we get in school. I think that it’s really easy to get behind on the work.

*I don’t like that some kids can’t communicate with some teachers so they can’t get help if they wanted to. So that’s something to change and give kids the opportunity to communicate with all of their teachers if they need help.

*The truth is that online learning is a bit difficult since we are all used to seeing each other and interacting physically. Personally, I don’t like it very much because I don’t like doing homework in the comfort of my home. It is for that and the house is for the students to rest but I really hope in God that all this will end soon I do not deny that on the one hand it is good because it is easy to do homework online but it is not the custom that we have and sometimes stress of too much.

*I do not like distant learning at all, I’m used to doing work online but this is a stretch, it’s difficult because these teachers assign things to do everyday, and it’s non stop, and I think because they know we’re home they think we have all the time in the world to do their work, I just wish things would go back to normal honestly.

*My opinion on this online distance learning is that I don´t really like it. I feel that is much more difficult than working at school. There is much more work given than usually, it feels awkward doing everything online since I´ve never done this before. I honestly cannot wait to go back to school. Being stuck inside is not fun. For now I am doing my work and learning, so I will adjust week after week.

*For my personal experience distance has been something I’ve been needing to get used to for the moment but it’s pretty difficult because I get more distracted by surroundings and even though my parents try to keep me on track I still get distracted.   When I don’t understand something because it starts to get stressful for me and since my body and mind is used to waking up to go to school and not staying home it’s been difficult for me to wake up at 8:00am sharp and it’s something I’ve been trying to work on.  Teachers have been great to get back to me when I email them.