Jun 09 My Experience with Distance Learning, by Mary, Age 12
Over the course of these past few months I have been in lockdown, for school this means distant learning. My family travels a lot so I have done school from a distance before, but that doesn’t change the fact that it is very hard. Not being at school means I’ve lost many things, for example hands on work. One of my favorite parts of Mysa was my ability to study in more fun ways than just sitting at my desk and listening to teachers talk. I loved doing experiments in science class with my classmates and in makerspace doing fun art projects together. Another thing I lost was the ability to talk to my teachers whenever I needed them. Constantly asking for help is like taking the easy way out. I learned you have to really think about your problem before you ask others. That is an important lesson from distance learning.
During this pandemic I have found that if I put my mind to my work I can do almost anything. I don’t need my teachers to help with everything. I have also learned to manage my time so that I get the most work done in my day and stay as productive as possible. Sometimes I even schedule my whole day so that I can focus and I don’t wander over to unproductive things when I am feeling lazy. I now know that I must work before I play. I thought I was not going to learn much and get behind while working from home but I was very wrong. In each of my classes I have stayed on track if not gotten ahead!
In math I am able to master daily quizzes; I am more confident with math after each class.
In science I have learned so much about climate change and almost everything that causes it. Now, I am more conscious about my impact on the Earth.
I have always loved to write, and in english class I have discovered so much about different parts of speech and punctuation.
In makerspace I got very creative and had a great time with my friends, I made an amazing virtual puppet show with my classmates and I even sewed myself some clothes.
One of my personal favorite classes and one I think I took the most from, was Connect. For each unit we have a new topic and while distance learning we began to study Civics by investigating the covid-19 pandemic. I learned so much about how the government deals with emergencies like the coronavirus. I studied if our ways of dealing with the situation are constitutional, if safety outways freedom, the reopening of states, elections and much more! I will take away so much information that I will probably use for the rest of my life.
Overall, even though it was hard, I had an amazing experience with distance learning at home and I learned so much.