A Teen’s Honest Look At Part 2 of Distance Learning

From March to June of last school year, online school was a breeze! Your grade couldn’t go down, only up. Classes were two days out of the week, so assignments weren’t due until that next week. Even the assignments weren’t even hard, most of it felt like busy work. Then on top of that, I was told by all of my teachers that we would be back to the regularly scheduled program by August. 

Then the COVID cases kept going up…

How a high school junior is handling distance learning

Now I’m involuntarily doing school on a computer, and everything counts. Luckily most of my classes are on a rolling grade book, so according to my teachers, the quarter grades are a snapshot of your progress. Well, my progress isn’t looking too good right now. I have :

• 4 As
• 1 B
• 1 B-
• and a C+ (it’s coming up, don’t worry[lol I hope]).

The toll on a teen’s grades during distance learning

To be honest, it’s not entirely my teachers’ fault that my grades have slipped from last year. While I do have really hard classes, it’s that combined with my lack of motivation that is really taking a toll on my grades.  

At this point, I haven’t learned a thing! I’m just doing and remembering the necessities to turn in the assignment by 11:59:59 pm, and I have no shame. Khan Academy, Youtube, Quizlet, and Tutor.com have been my best friends this year. I can assure you that at about 10:00 on a Monday night, I am frantically trying to figure out the answers through at least one of those sites. Especially for AP Calculus and AP Physics. I should’ve minded my business and taken Environmental Science instead. 

But in my defense, I chose my classes when I thought I was going to be in school this year, so I was a little bit naive. Ignorant if you will, of the things that were coming for me. If I now could go back in time when lil ole’ sophomore me was sitting in the counselor’s office to pick my classes, I would’ve screamed at her, “DO NOT TAKE AP PHYSICS AND AP CALC AT THE SAME TIME! YOU’LL BE ON A COMPUTER, AND YOU WILL CRY!†Heck, if I could go back in time and talk to myself at the beginning of the year, I would’ve screamed, “DROP OUT OF PHYSICS!†Sadly, since I didn’t have that foresight, I’m stuck where I am. 

On top of having no motivation and my classes being confusing, I’m just tired of looking at my computer all day. I took my PSAT, and yeah, it was boring, but it was also very refreshing. I wasn’t vapidly staring at a screen the whole time, and I got real human interaction because I had to take it at my school. I finally got to see people I haven’t seen in over 8 months.

I need to go back to school, but I also want to keep other’s safe and healthy

I just really want to go back to school. Actually no… I need to go back to school. I thrive so much better when it’s in-person. Sadly, I don’t know exactly when that’ll be, and I want to keep people safe and healthy so I understand why nothing is set in stone for when I can go back.

It just really sucks right now having to do everything from my house and not be around other people.

However, aside from that, I’m healthy, alive, and want for nothing during this pandemic. So overall, I am still hanging in there.

You can read another of my articles where I share about my Trials and Triumphs of a Military Child.