Remote vs Hybrid Learning During the 2020-2021 School Year

Normally, school is a hectic time for everyone. With tests, homework and report cards, it’s a fun yet stressful time for all. This year with COVID-19, school just got more complicated. This year, I chose to do remote learning. Remote learning for me is less stressful and gives more leeway for learning. Firstly, I find it calmer to be able to complete my work from my desk at home. There are less distractions and it causes less stress to you, knowing you are in your own house. The only downside of being in your own home is that you might be tempted to go on your phone during class since it is a lot easier to do. For myself, I make sure my phone is out of reach when doing work in class so I don’t get distracted. I also feel that it is easier to take notes since I can just pin the teachers screen and copy the slide without having to worry about not seeing the whole screen or running out of time before the teacher switches the slide. Mostly, quizzes and tests are also less stressful at home because you don’t have to worry about getting distracted or panicking. It is a lot easier to calm yourself before tests when you're in the comfort of your own home or bed. I also get a little more sleep during remote learning because I don’t have to wake up early to get ready or dressed. All I need to do is wake up in enough time to open my computer and join my first google meet. I am also able to eat more throughout the day because I don’t have to worry about being a disruption in class, or have to worry about what teachers will let you eat in class. Whenever I get hungry I’m able to just go quickly and grab a snack. The only real downside I have found in remote learning is that it is very easy to lose motivation. Sometimes, since I am in my own house it becomes harder to separate my time for school work. The only way to combat this is to just stay on top of things. It’s a lot harder to do than normally but it is not impossible. I make a calendar and try to make myself complete all work. Procrastinating has always been a problem for me, but in remote learning it becomes easier to push off work. You just need to work very hard to make sure you complete all your work in a timely manner. Overall, this school year is different for everyone, but for me, remote learning makes this school year more bearable

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The surge of the coronavirus pandemic around the globe not only affected public health and the economy, but also how education is approached and run in schools. Carey High School, with safety always being the foremost concern, allowed students to choose which method of learning would be best for them, given all unprecedented circumstances and the ever-prevalent coronavirus. One of these methods was hybrid learning, in which students physically go to school every other day and stay home on the off days to learn remotely, operating on an A/B schedule. Being a hybrid student myself for almost three months now, I have developed some opinions about my learning experience this year and the value I’m finding in it. On the negative side, for remote and in-school days, the extent of my education relies heavily on the proper functioning of the Internet and Wifi. Due to the great volume of students in the school and across the country who are heavily utilizing the online world to complete school, the Internet and Wifi are often down or glitchy in the building. This makes it extremely difficult to learn and for our teachers to carry out adequate lessons because most all of our classwork, notes, and homework is on platforms such as Google Classroom. Bad Internet connection within the school building affects me even when I’m home because, although I can easily access the classwork for the day, the students and my teachers in school can’t, so no lesson can be fully executed. In addition, I have found that I am much less inclined to participate in a class conversation or answer a question when I am at home. For some reason, it is more daunting and nerve wracking to unmute yourself to speak on a Google Meet than to raise your hand in class. Regardless of this, simply not being present in the building among your peers and teachers inevitably stifles participation. Lastly, on the days that I’m home, I’m usually forced to split screen between the Google Meet of the class I’m in with whichever other app I am using to take notes or complete classwork on. This is a pain, as the space in which you are able to write and work on is significantly lessened and my iPad often crashes from the strain of it all. Learning from home almost requires the use of more than one device, which is not always possible for me. On the positive side of hybrid learning, I enjoy the days that I am in school. I feel like most of the staff, including teachers, janitors, and aides are all making good efforts to promote hygiene and health. Most of my classrooms have hand sanitizer in them and proper social distancing is maintained in classrooms and at lunch, despite the less than six feet of distance between each person in the hallways. I do wish that some students and teachers wore their masks properly, such as covering their nose completely and not speaking when their mask is off on mask breaks. But, the biggest reason why I enjoy hybrid learning is because I have noticed a decrease in my overall anxiety. To account for the stresses of our current world with the pandemic and differences in learning methods across the student population, teachers have administered mostly open notes tests and quizzes, which is starkly different from previous years. I do not find myself staying up late to study and forcing myself to memorize information for a test’s purpose. Now, I find myself learning more naturally and with less stress and anxiety. I can learn for the purpose of enriching myself rather than focusing on getting excellent grades in a course, which is still of course important but shouldn’t be a student’s only concern. Overall, I can only hope that someday soon we can all return to school together like in years past and enjoy a normal and safe learning experience while also reflecting on and utilizing the positive aspects of our experiences with hybrid and remote learning.