Over the past month, Freedom High School students have been completing their classes online due to COVID-19. Speaking from a students perspective, it’s been a weird adjustment. Taking out the human connection and interaction within the education system has made learning increasingly more difficult for many students, especially when none of us were prepared for this. We all woke up one day and were just told that we won’t be going back for the rest of the year. So while maintaining online classes can be hard, there are also a lot of benefits of online learning.
1. Make your own schedule
This is what most people enjoy about the closing of schools. No one has to wake up super early anymore and being told exactly where to go every hour and a half. You can eat lunch on your own time, start assignments when most convenient for you, and not have to worry about a class that is paced too fast or too slow for you.
2. Gaining time management skills and self discipline
Personally, this has been my favorite part of quarantine. Time management and self discipline were two things I really struggled with, but now I have no choice but to become better at these things. I don’t have a teacher holding my hand, I don’t have a bell to tell me when to start and stop doing work, I have to do my assignments all on my own. These are two skills that I’ll be able to use throughout my entire life and I’m glad I’m learning them before I leave for college.
3. Better for the environment
It’s not like we used a lot of paper anyway, but for those times that we did, that paper is now being saved since now everything is online.
4. Spend more time with family
We are now constantly surrounded by our family and pets, we’re no longer too busy for family dinners, movie nights, and family walks around the block. This is especially important for seniors that are going to be leaving their families for the first time in a few months when they go to college, trade school, the military, or are just moving out.
5. More time for activities
A lot of time in school was spent idly walking the halls, waiting for other classmates to catch up with their works, being on our phones and goofing around with friends. We were never learning the full 7 hours, so now that we are able to finish everything fairly quickly with every class only supposed to be giving 30 minutes worth of work, we have more time for things we were once too busy for. Reading, playing an instrument, exercising, picking up new hobbies, learning a new language; the possibilities are endless.
So while there are many learning curves that go along with online classes, there’s not much we can do besides look at the silver linings.
