How Long Can We Do With Just ‘Something’?
One of the biggest impacts of COVID-19 on students is the toll it has taken on in-class learning. The world has adapted to a new method of online teaching and learning—albeit in different ways. While for me it has been real-time Zoom lessons, for others it has been pre-recorded lectures. No gadgets have been spared during this adaptation process—laptops, tablets, phones, televisions and even the radio. Fortunately, my school was well equipped to make the transition from in-class to online learning rather seamlessly; for many, this has not been the case. It has been, and continues to be, a struggle for both teachers and students. I’ve experienced the challenges of online education from both sides of the screen—as a teacher and as a student.
Over the summer break, I conducted an online back-to-school crash course in Spanish for 8th graders. Creating presentations and worksheets, coming up with new games and even just getting across to the 8th graders was a huge challenge—and that was merely six hours of teaching. Many of us underestimate the amount of effort and time that goes into developing and delivering lessons, and I can only imagine how much harder it must have been for teachers to make this switch from physical to online classes. The 8th graders brushed up on their Spanish, but I took away so much more from this three-day crash course.
If I, born in the tech-generation, felt overwhelmed to teach students who weren’t much younger than me, I have nothing but huge amounts of respect for all the teachers who have embraced this new system of online education. For that, we are all grateful.
I used to grumble about waking up at six in the morning, to be ready by seven, and in school by eight. I used to groan at the thirty-minute drives to and from school. The lunches in the cafeteria, the long flights of stairs, the heavy backpacks on our shoulders—I used to crib about it all.
In all honesty, I miss it—even the traffic. The experience of sitting, sharing, arguing and laughing with friends and teachers is something that I took for granted while we were still at school. Now, the early mornings, the hefty textbooks and the school lunches don’t seem all that bad. In fact, I yearn for this. With less than two years left of school, I want to wake up at six in the morning, I want to eat the school lunches, I want to climb up and down the school stairs. If that’s what it will take to make my school days complete, I will happily do it.
Online school is here to stay—at least for the next few months. It’s definitely something, and something is better than nothing, but how long can we do with just ‘something’?
