A couple of weeks ago, during 2nd period, an announcement regarding Covid-19 was made by Dr. Hefferman. It ended up disappointing a lot of students, as well as relieving many at the same time. 

As soon as he mentioned the virus, my whole class went silent and when he said we didn’t have to go back online, a wave of relief swept over mostly everyone. Online learning is definitely something many of us would not want to go back to, but it’s also something that some students would prefer.

Online learning is something that many of us disliked, and many flat out hated. Many students had stuff going on at home at the same time, which became impediments to being able to focus on our classes and process what we were being taught. As an example of this, during online classes I had a lot of connection issues which made it impossible for me to be able to understand what my teacher was saying. My computer would lag, and living in a small house definitely did not help either. Issues such as these definitely throw students off and make it super hard for us to learn anything.

On the flip side, learning through a screen provides us students with a lot of freedom, and in many cases, way more than we can handle. Although some may find it easier to be more independent, many students need that little extra push from teachers to keep us on track and finish all of our assignments, leading to no motivation to do our work, which is what happened to me.

Lack of motivation when it comes to school is one of the biggest issues that keeps students from doing their best. Every student is capable of getting good grades and being successful in school, but the one thing keeping everyone from succeeding is lack of motivation and procrastination, which was at its peak during online learning. I speak from experience when I say that being responsible for your own learning is definitely not something every student is prepared for and something that caught a lot of us off guard, since we were not prepared for what hit us unexpectedly last year.

On the other hand, I personally feel that in-person school is the better option simply because it is so much easier in a way, at least for students, to be able to learn. The lessons are easier to understand since you have your teacher a couple feet away from you and you’re free to ask questions whenever you have them. There is also the great advantage when it comes to connection issues, since there are none or at least none that can prevent you from learning.

Although there are some good things when it comes to online learning, it is definitely something that sets a lot of students back in their education. It is something that could be beneficial for some, and of course there are different responsibilities that students have, different situations in which everyone is in, and being at home all day may affect students. 

So regardless of how you feel about online learning or in-person learning, procrastination and overthinking are issues that affect every student regardless of the situation, or if we’re attending school online or in-person, and I really encourage everyone to keep a positive mindset and always try your best.