science

What Students Are Saying About Remote Learning – The New York Times


Everyday my motivation to do my work decreases and recently all my assignments have been turned in late causing my grades to drop. It has also been very difficult because I’ve had to become my seven-year-old brother’s teacher. My parents aren’t very fluent in English, so they aren’t able to help him with his schoolwork. It’s very challenging to keep up with both his work and my work at the same time.

Adriana Segura, Cass High School, GA

The switch to distance learning has been hard for my family. I’m lucky enough to go to a school that provides each student with a computer, but for the first two weeks my younger brother (age 9) didn’t. He was sent home with a folder packed with work, but once that ran out, his teacher expected him to go digital. We have a computer, but it’s barely functioning, let alone good enough to run the programs they expected us to use. This was later remedied, but he’s also on an IEP which means he’s used to one on one learning for math, science, and reading as well as holds a general animosity towards learning in general. We’re terrified for what this will do to the progress he’s made. My mom has been struggling to teach it to him so she’s been enlisting my help. I’m happy to do it, but now I’m tackling two work loads a day on top of everything else going on.

Kaylee Tener, Holicong Middle School

The only thing familiar about my “school days” is getting up in the morning. The similarities come to an abrupt stop there. I eat breakfast each morning with my mom, who now works from home, and converse with her frequently throughout the day. Having a chance to connect with her in this way has is something I am grateful for. During the scheduled lunch break my school includes in its remote learning class schedule, I frequently take naps, mostly out of boredom. Far more distractions — my pet and the availability of food all the time, to name a few — abound as I try to remain engaged in classes and complete assignments. For the most part I am on task, but some of the very same distractions I deal with in school, such as receiving texts from friends or my phone serving as a distraction in and of itself — seem much harder to resist at home. For the most part, though, as a high school senior, I know and accept what work I have to complete and I return to the tried and tested routines that have served me well throughout my high school years.

Aaliyah Rogers, Martin Luther School-Maspeth, Queens, NY

A school day for me is very different than what I’m used to. I now wake up an hour after I would normally be getting to school, so that’s three hours of extra sleep. I think because of this, my sleep schedule is messed up and I don’t have the structure we used to all get. I’ve noticed that staying on task gets harder as the week goes on. We’re obviously not at school working with our classmates and teachers, so it is hard for me to focus … There’s no structure, which is making it hard to get up and be productive. Overall, online school makes time management extremely difficult and I feel like I’m not even learning in some of my classes.

Riley S, Brooklyn, NY

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Collegeboard announced massive changes to the AP tests: students only have 45 minutes, the tests are now only free response questions, and the major twist, the exams are now online. With this new information, as well as the fact that Collegeboard cut down on the curriculum we are being tested on, many of my classes switched from learning new material to review mode. Instead of preparing for multiple choice questions, I must now scramble to prepare for a writing only test that will determine my fate on whether I receive college credit for the many AP classes I have spent a year taking. My biggest fear now is that it is unknown how the new shortened tests will be graded, leaving me with only the written portion to get a good score on the exam. This added stress was not something I needed in an already stressful year.

Ryan C, Dawson High School

As a junior, I have been very stressed about how the rest of the school year will pan out. Constant thoughts running through my head are, “When am I going to take the SAT? How harshly are AP exams going to be graded now? What are colleges going to do for admissions next year?” All of these questions are constant thoughts that most teenagers my age are thinking about right now. The work that we are being provided with now is only supplementary; which, does not help students stay motivated to get their work completed. Teachers are doing the best they can but the ones who truly care about their students’ mental health and education are putting in extra time just to help. Sadly, I have one teacher who I know I can count on to go to because she has been sending out constant emails about our AP exams and always asking how we are doing. If as many teachers cared as much as she did, then maybe more students would want to do their work …

Amaya Lancaster, Branham High School, San Jose, CA

Luckily I have pretty good computer knowledge, but like Ms. Goldstein pointed out, I feel for our teachers who have had to change everything about their classes. Asking teachers to all of sudden offer the same kind of curriculum online is impossible, so it is important we stay patient … I’m not really thinking about what I need from my teachers as much as what our teachers need from us. All we have to do is stay on task and take this seriously while they have to change their jobs from in school to online in a matter of days. The workload isn’t unbearable and the teachers are very lenient, but as long as we don’t take advantage of this and stay diligent we can all get through this.

Estevan, Corpus Christi, Texas



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