During these past 9 months, I've had more time than I would usually have. Virtual learning was boring and I couldn't focus as well as I would in a class. I would zoom from a desk in my dining room with the cold feeling of the hard tile under my feet. My dogs would sometimes jump up on my chair or sit at my feet, they are no lapdogs they are three large chocolate labs that would sit with me. Sometimes if I got tired of the usual setting I would head outside and sit under the bougainvillea tree with the smell the lavender under my nose. Besides school I would travel, we went to Arizona for a baseball tournament which was rather enjoyable, I love baseball with the sun beating down on your neck and the feel of dirt in your shoes after a play at second, it was like heaven. During the summer I went on a trip to Texas but that doesn't have anything to do with virtual learning. Virtual learning was a challenge but I am glad that we are back to school in person.

Remote learning was very hard. I had to sit in front of a computer for 6 hours straight on zoom. The learning was hard and turning things in online was hard and also not seeing anyone. The few benefits were that I didn't have to get changed for school or wake up super early but other than that it was really hard.

When I first got the word that I would be online learning I was happy. When I first started virtual learning, I was energized because of the change of pace. Though, later on, it was starting to feel repetitive and boring. My routine was always the same. Wake up, log on to Zoom, eat lunch, log on to Zoom, do homework, then go to sleep. To summarize, I am happy I am back at school but miss the unique experience that I may never experience again

I've written a small little recounting of how me and my extended family celebrated Christmas over the app 'house party' on our phones - in comparison with our previous Christmas celebrations it was incredibly small, short lived and felt hollow. In a sense, this feeling was reflected throughout my own household during the whole Christmas break.

My family Thanksgiving's have featured a wide variety of fare throughout the years. The one constant, the one dish that has always made an appearance is dressing. The recipe is a family one that originated with my great-grandmother, a wonderful woman who lived to the ripe old age of 102. Known across the extended family as the Queen of the Kitchen, her legacy lives on through the recipes she left behind. This Thanksgiving was more difficult than any I can remember. Out of the twenty-four Thanksgiving's I have been alive to see, I have never spent one without my sister. Now, she lives a state away and health concerns surrounding my 93-year old grandmother kept my sister away. COVID-19 drastically changed the mood of the holiday, but one dish still had to be cooked. You guessed it, dressing. Ingredients: 10 baked biscuits 2-3 cups of baked yellow cornbread 1 loaf of toasted bread 1 1/2 cup chopped onion 2 cup chopped celery 1 cup celery tops 1 tablespoon sage 1 tablespoon poultry seasoning 2 cups water 1 cup chicken boullion 2 eggs Salt and pepper to taste Original Directions: Break bread into small pieces. Set aside. Put all remaining ingredients except eggs in a saucepan. Boil till celery and onions are tender. Pour over bread mixture and toss. (Add more liquid if it needs to have more water. Cool. Add eggs. Mix lightly. Put in greased pan - Bake 300 degrees for 30 minutes.

Every morning I woke up just 20 minutes before class. That would give me enough time to get out of bed, brush my teeth, eat breakfast, and get ready for school. At each lunch or break period is when I would see and talk to my family. During class, I would often get distracted or lose concentration from learning. This would make it hard for me to do my assignments or answer questions in class. Procrastinating was a big challenge for me during virtual learning. I would mostly do all of my assignments at the last minute, this was because I really did not enjoy virtual learning. After school I would just practice soccer or play video games since I had no motivation to do my homework. In class it got very boring for sitting in my room half of the day and not really moving around much. I did not enjoy online learning a lot since it was a very hard time.

My experience while learning remotely was tough. I had so many distractions around me that made me not focus. Although there were a lot of good things that came from it. Like I was able to get more sleep and wake up five minutes before school. I did miss my friends a lot while home so overall I am happy we are back to as normal as it can get.

I didn't have too many problems with virtual learning other then how much more boring it was compared to regular school. the only good thing is that e would get more break time if we finish work early so i would get a lot more free time then I regularly would. but the classes were basically me just sitting there. there also a lot less interaction with people that was not virtual.

Corona Virus or Covid-19 started in Wuhan China in early 2020. It has almost been a year since this deadly virus started. When the disease spread to America and was declared a national pandemic. Stores all around the world, and with those stores, schools shut down too. All kids around the world were now going on virtual meetings and learning from home. This change affected me a lot. I started going to bed later and barley getting sleep, I wasn't exercising, or eating right. Life wasn't that good... until I got used to it. Once I got used to it I would sleep in between classes and have all my assignments turned in on time. We're back to school now which makes me sad and happy at the same time. Whatever happens I'm just glad I get a good education.

School started in August 2020. It took place at home. During the spring, I already had experience in learning at home, so it was not too hard to adjust to the beginning of the 2020-2021 school year. I cannot believe that I have been learning virtually for almost half of the school year already. My morning routine starts at 7:30 AM. Sometimes, I would wake up at 7:55 and skip breakfast to attend my first-period class at 8:00. Then, I would go through my class schedule. We separate A days from B days. Each day would have different classes. We still had our required core classes and our electives. At the end of the day, I would finish all my homework and then rest. The benefit of doing remote learning is safety. However, it causes eye pain, burning, and discomfort because of screentime. I had no obstacles or challenges while doing remote learning. Especially this year, I have learned to adapt to changes.

Things started out O.K., but band was a mess, and classes seemed very boring. I usually got up around my usual 6:00 a.m., but I didn't make my lunch as I used to, because I didn't need to. I then would practice piano, and then I would have an hour to do nothing, unless I had Jazz Lab, then it would be more like 30 minutes. School itself wasn't all that different, sine the only thing that changed was that it was a block schedule and that almost everything was online. The homework load decreased significantly, there were almost no group projects. They changed the Wednesday schedule a few times, but I got used to those pretty quickly. After a while, I kind of felt like there was no schedule at all. Once we got to go to campus to do remote learning, things felt more normal which was really nice.

My experience with remote learning was tough and hard. It was hard to stay focused while you're in your home theres so much stuff to do. Having no one to physically talk to or have lunch with is boring and it makes it harder to want to do school. School was already boring and hard but having no one around you to talk to you was even harder.

when I started virtual learning I thought it was just for a little but after 2 weeks of it I found out we were going to finish the year this way. on a regular day of virtual learning I would wake up at 7:40, when I used to wake up at 6:00 because I didn't need to take a 30 mile drive to school so from that I would have an extra 20 min and it took less time to get ready because I wasn't in person. after waking up, i would then have breakfast which was usually just bowl of cereal and a piece of bread. after eating I would log onto zoom. some times the power went out when I was in school because of the electrical lines so I would miss that whole day of school. I good thing is I could go strait from school to hanging with friends in my neighborhood because I didn't need to be in the car.

Virtual learning was definitely an experience that came with a lot of challenges, but also a lot of added benefits. Some challenges were not being able to ask questions in person, because some questions are too detailed to get a good answer to without seeing what the other person is talking about. I also seemed to zone out more online than I would in class because we were on zoom so long. I definitely feel I was on my computer more in the last year-ish than my entire life. Some benefits were my sleep schedule was actually way better when we were online than it has been in a while or when we were in person. My stress also seemed to go down incredibly when online because the teachers seemed to be way more understanding on zoom, and wanted to help you. Overall I like being back in school, but being online wasn't as bad for me as it must have been for others.

My personal experience while learning remotely was pretty tough. I mean it was hard to stay focused with all the distracting of your room. I guess the good part was you could wake up 5 minutes before school and open your laptop and school was right there. And you wouldn't have to wait in line for your parents to pick you up or anything. But I did miss my friends a lot and I am happy to see them now.

Every morning I woke up just 20 minutes before class. That would give me enough time to get out of bed, brush my teeth, eat breakfast, and get ready for school. At each lunch or break period is when I would see and talk to my family. During class, I would often get distracted or lose concentration from learning. This would make it hard for me to do my assignments or answer questions in class. Procrastinating was a big challenge for me during virtual learning. I would mostly do all of my assignments at the last minute, this was because I really did not enjoy virtual learning. After school I would just practice soccer or play video games since I had no motivation to do my homework. In class it got very boring for sitting in my room half of the day and not really moving around much. I did not enjoy online learning a lot since it was a very hard time.

Online learning has not been the easiest thing for me. I would prefer to do school off the screen instead, mainly because I learn better when I write things down on paper, and I am on the screen for many other extra curricular activities. Other obstacles about online school is that I always have internet problems so might miss something important in class or I cant do my homework when the internet is down so I have to wait for it to work again. Some benefits for me of learning virtually are that you can wear comfortable cloths to school instead of a uniform and I can wake up later to go to school because I don't have to drive there. My school is a 30 minute drive from my house so I get to sleep for an extra 30 minutes or more. My school has opened again but I am not allowed to go until the vaccine comes out. So I will probably be doing remote learning for a little while longer.

My first day of online school was March 18th 2020. It was the second semester of my 7th grade year. Using zoom was not as difficult as I expected and it helped that we used axis instead of google classroom. WIFI was not a very common issue for me but other student had constant problems. The first few months took a lot of learning but towards the end I got the hang of it. I started my 8th grade year on zoom. I was already used to online because of the pervious year so I was okay with it. First period began at 8 AM and most days I woke up at 7:45. It was nice getting done with class before the actual period ended because I could do my own thing off zoom. It gave me a longer break between periods. To be honest it was hard to stay on task and motivated because it a completely different environment that in person school. When my microphone or camera didn't work it was frustrating but not the biggest deal. It was slightly disappointing to have so many projects changed. I had seen the 8th graders years before do it so it was a bummer to have it altered.

Almost my whole 2020 was in online school. I would wake up later in the morning, have breakfast, brush my teeth, and start school from my room. It was much easier than in-person. I would be on Zoom most of the day, and stay on my computer after school to do homework. Most of my day is in my room. There were some benefits to this, however. I could go do something right after school instead of having to drive home and all that. It was easier because everything was on the computer. But I didn't like it too much because I didn't get to see my friends and I just like being in-person more. Overall, you get used to it after a while, but I still prefer in-person school. It wasn't really that bad, it just could be boring.

My expiriance doing virtual learning is I wake up at 7:30, eat breakfast and then sit at my desk and do school. its a bit harder to pay attention but if you try hard you get used to it. It gives you more independence which is good. Overall I didn't quite enjoy online school but I'm happy its over.

Remote learning has been super different compared to pre-covid learning in good and bad ways. First of all it is good because there are longer breaks and in between classes, you can go take a short nap or get some food or play video games. Also you can do school in your sleeping clothes. However it is really bad because they give 5x more work, and class periods are twice as long now! Also it is really hard to learn things, I had to enroll myself in tutoring for the first time. Those are the benifits and bad things of online school.

The year started out like any other. We were all in class together enjoying to company of friends and teachers. We had hear of a disease spreading on China but nobody was even worried about it. The disease began to spread more and more into the world, and eventually, in the the USA. One the Corona Virus had reached the United States it started to become a more serious problem. But it wasn't untill we had our own cases in LA and Vetura county that things really changed. On March 15, 2020 we started our romote learning. It was a big change we had to get used to. It was mostly downsides but there were some upsides aswell. One of the upsides was we had more freedome in what we could do durring our breaks. When we were in school we only had a selection of activities to do, but since we were home we could do many different things that weren't at school. Another upside is that we didn't have to spend the time driving so we could wake up later and get to doing our activities earlier after the school day ended. That was pretty much it for the upsides however and now we must talk of the downsides. W weren't able to see any of our friends from school anymore! That was a bummer because it made me feel distant and disconected fro the society at school. Another downside was that it was alot harder to understand things in class. We had to make sure we found the assignments online instead of just being handed then=m in class with direct instruction. This factor made it hard for me sometimes to understand what was due the next day and what we had to do for homework. These are the biggest downsides, but there are many more I haven't mentioned in this single article.

My experience learning online is very annoying. Almost everyday my zoom crashes at least twice and my WIFI starts being laggy. It is easier to learn in a way but harder to submit everything. So it is very different from in person but now that we are in person it is easier.

My experience with virtual learning during this pandemic hasn't been the most positive. Gosh, it's been almost 10 months since we started. The beginning was exciting I guess because I thought it was just a break from the normal, boring school day. But, boy was I wrong. After a while, the routine of waking up, doing school, going to sleep was getting very repetitive. Don't get me wrong, I liked not having to wake up at 6:30 every single morning, but I started to get angsty. I felt like I wasn't focusing on schoolwork and tests as I should have been, and I definitely did not retain any of the information that I was taught. After a while, I not only was bored and anxious, but I was also very lonely too. I did not like the fact that I didn't get to socialize with my school friends and teachers every single day. On top of that, I wasn't allowed to see my friends yet because my parents were very strict. Summer was even worse. At least I had a day to day schedule with online school, but when it came to summer, I had nothing to do. By end of June, I was allowed to hang out with friends again, but it wasn't the same. This year, I actually transferred to a new school for 8th grade. That would normally be hard because I am socially awkward, but the fact that we didn't even go in person made it far worse. It took me a while to feel comfortable in all of my classes and meet people. Also, it was a really big change because I used to go to public school and we only had 2 hours a day of online school, but at my new private school, we had school from 8-2:45 every day. Although it is what I would normally do in person, it felt like a large shift from before, and I thought I was going to fall behind. Thankfully, I met a lot of people who helped me adjust just fine. Now, it is January and we are back in person. Although online school was a struggle, it made me realize how much I took school for granted. I think it also helped us grow and mature greatly.

it was march 18th we started online school. none of knew what we were doing we just logged onto zoom. it was confusing because we didn't know what to do if we had ask a questions or if we had to go to the bathroom. I think my favorite thing from online school was defiantly getting to make my own lunch. I had sat at my dining room table just doing school work. it was hard for teachers to find stuff for us to do like in rocketry we just watch movies.i finally went back to school and started in person. one of my favorite things was waking up at 7:50 and going to school at 8. and that was my virtual learning experience.

While learning virtually, I got to wake up at 7am instead of 6am because there was no commute. I set my alarm on my clock that also doubles as a radio, so when the alarm goes off it plays whatever station the radio is on. I have it set as a classical music station. I would get dressed, go downstairs, and wait while doing something such as YouTube. Most mornings I didn't have breakfast before my first class. I logged onto my computer and to ZOOM at 7:55, 5 minutes before my class started. After my first 80 minute class, I would eat some breakfast at around 9:20 and then do my next two before lunch. Something that was good about being online was getting to wake up later than normal. However, one challenge was getting distracted while in class. Since the teachers couldn't see what I was doing I often would read in class or do something else with my hands. I also enjoyed the fact that online classes could and often would be let out early, something that can't happen in person.

Learning virtually was very strange and had many advantages and disadvantages. Every day I got on zoom from my bedroom from March 18 to about December with the exception of summer. Some advantages about it were that I didn't have to wake up as early to drive to school and that I can do school from the comfort of my room. Some disadvantages however were I couldn't hang out with my friends or talk very much, and I personally found it really hard to pay attention because each period was about an hour and 20 min on the computer and my grades weren't as good because I had a hard time not zoning out. And on top of that nearly everything was closed down from restaurants to malls and other places to hang out, exc. I prefer learning in class than virtually because I can hang out with my friends and I pay attention better in school.

Online school did not start until two weeks after school was canceled in school. My previous school I attended for the first half of school had no idea on what to do so I never really had anything to do or, if I did it was very easy. I never really learned anything during online school but how to join a zoom for the first time. The next school year though, I had zoom everyday in my room. I was very behind thought because I learned nothing the end of last year. Now currently I am in school but covid safe, and is back to learning at a new school.

It started in March 18. The death of me. Online school... staring at a computer for 7 hours a day. My eyes hurting after each day. My mind racing at all times on other things. I sat at my desk in my room. I had barely any social interactions with my friends. All I could do was FaceTime or text them. The one nice thing about online school is waking up at 7:50 everyday. I also liked that during my breaks I could just shoot outside on my court at my house. Other than that, I am glad we are back in person school.

Every day I woke up at about 7:45 am and school started at 8 am. I brushed my hair and brushed my teeth, put a sweatshirt on, and joined my zoom class. The benefits of this online learning were that I could get up a lot later than I normally would have for in-person school. I usually wake up at 6:45 am for in-person school. I also got to leave classes early when I finished my assignment and it was very nice. All of my assignments were usually finished by 3 pm that day. I had lots of problems with wifi though and it wouldn't let me access tests/quizzes and homework assignments. Also whenever I used OneNote, it deleted all of the work that I had written in.

When COVID_19 started to hit California I was in my second semester of 7th grade. On March 13, 2020 my school announced that we were closing down and switching to online learning. That last day of normal school we prepared our zoom meetings, schedules, and we said our goodbyes. At first everyone thought we were shutting down for two weeks, like and extended spring break. Who knew it would go on for 11 months. My first online school day was wake up 10 minutes before my first class, eat breakfast, and log on at 8am. Simple right? No my wifi decided to shut off and I couldn't attend my first zoom meeting. I email my teacher and got it figured out. I have 3 more classes that day and by the end it felt weird. That same feeling went on for about 4 months. I would facetime my friends every night and talk about our computer issues. Then it started to become normal. The last day of 7th grade I pressed "End meeting" and said wow that was really 7th grade. It felt like something was missing. Summer came and it was very boring, I was excited to even go on a walk. 8th grade rolled around and we were still online. It was my new normal and so I didn't mind it. I was missing my friends more than ever though. I got through the semester and I went to Colorado for winter break. After I got home my school announced we were going back. I was very excited. I thought everything was going to go back to normal besides wearing masks. The first day was very weird we stayed 6 feet apart, my dance class was outside, my hands were dry from hand sanitizer. It was very crazy, but overall I am very thankful to be back and school and have human interaction again.

While virtual learning from home my experience was very interesting it wasn't fun but it was also really boring sometimes. My routine would be to wake up grab breakfast grab my computer and started zooming online. I once did school in Utah which was pretty fun. The benefits of being online were probably being able to wear sweatpants all day and eating food when I wanted to and also probably not waking up as early and the obstacles of being online where I felt like I didn't get the full feel of being at school because we were virtual learning and also I couldn't see any of my friends.

Quarantine makes people stay at home, especially for students. During this particular time, schools provided us remote learnings. We discovered many technologies online, and it also made turning in assignments easier. On the other hand, students spent too much time on electronics during remote learning, and collaboration is always difficult.

When I first started online school in march I thought we would be off-campus for 3 or 4 weeks, and then we would go back. I didn't know much about covid-19, so though I would still be able to see my friends. We had plans to do online school at each other's house, and hang out all the time. We went into a state-wide lockdown 2 days after and I wasn't allowed to go anywhere or hang out with anyone. It was fun at first, we watched shows, we did puzzles, we cooked a lot. But once we hit late may and I still hadn't seen my friends, I was getting really sad. As for online school. I thought it was nice because I didn't have to get up so early. The first week or so, we got up I got dressed, I did my hair, but they somewhere along the way. I rolled out of bed, still in my pajamas, and turned my video off. During classes, I was always so bored because school wasn't really interesting because we weren't learning as much. I was fine with online it was just the fact that I wasn't eating lunch with my friends anymore, or that I couldn't talk to them during passing periods, but I did love being able to eat in class or getting a snack whenever I wanted. It was also hard in the fact you couldn't really get one on one help with the teacher.

During the quarantine, we still had to go to school, so we switched to remote learning. Using a meeting application called Zoom, we could talk to each other and continue our classes. We would start every day at 8:00 and end every day at 2:45. Our classes were divided into A days and B days. Half our classes were on A days, and the other classes on B days. We would get breaks between classes which was a total plus. However, we also had to adapt to something new and strange. It was hard but a great learning experience. Overall, online learning was hard to get used to, but it will be a useful skill to know in the future.

It has been a few months now since I 1st started Online Learning. How it would work is all the students would enter a ZOOM Room online with a provided URL. (ZOOM does not mean anything in particular, other than it being a company name) We had the ability to mute our mics so others in the room would not be able to hear us, we could turn off our cameras to not be able to be seen, and other small things which barely anyone used. Every day that I would need to enter a ZOOM Room for educational purposes, I would create a routine. I wake up 7:00 AM PST (Pacific South Time), relax and make sure any and all work that needs to be done is complete, eat breakfast, change (if needed), and went onto my computer to enter the room at the given time. Whenever I had a break, I would relax and take a snack if I felt hungry and waited for the next given time. This worked wonders, and felt super relaxing for a Monday. Although Virtual learning through ZOOM is far more relaxing and free, you can't learn as well, since there are most likely more distractions around you, you can't ask questions nearly a easily, and being in the classroom zones you into the lesson more.

This year because of covid most of the students had to do virtual learning. I personally love doing online school, because I'm a lazy person. When you wake up everyday, you only need to open up your computer and login on to zoom. But for regular school I had to wake up at 6 every single day because I live far away from my school, this isn’t fun at all. And another thing l love for online school is that you can eat during classes and on one will see it, at school if you got caught eating during class, you will definitely get in trouble.

Doing school online was a crazy experience that I will not forget. I did all of my class on my apple laptop on zoom. I was able to go on zoom in different places such as Utah, Arizona, friends houses, and just different room in my house. It was fun because i could wake up and just go to my computer, i wouldn't have to get ready for school. It also sucked cause i couldn't see my friends and it was hard to learn and pay attention online. That was about everything that happened during online school.

Learning virtually was definitely a change. It was hard to get used to at first. There are sone benefits of learning online. All your classes are right infront of you and with a click of a button your are in your class. Also, all of your supplies are on your desk, so you dont have to carry any books or anything to class. But, there were also some downsides. Not being able to see my teachers and friends was hard. Teaching a class online is also definitely harder and there are many distractions when it comes to online school. Changing to the block schedule was also difficult. We used to have all 7 periods in 1 day, but now we have 3-4 classes a day and they are twice as longer. It is hard sitting on a chair for an hour and a half for each period.

When I got the news that my school would be shutting down on March 6, 2020, I thought it would be only for a few weeks. Little did I know that it would be months before even being able to see friends. Looking back, zooming in to classes in 7th grade was crazier than 8th grade, as I was learning the routine. I remember not knowing how to go to Gallery view, so whenever someone spoke I would have a massive head on my screen. It always made me laugh. After about a month, I started to get the hang of things, and I was even enjoying it! I had a routine. 7:30: wake up, shower, get dressed. 7:50, sit in my chair and watch Youtube until class started. I noticed that my grades were increasing, and I had better sleep schedules! I also was getting better lunches than I did at school, although school lunches at my school are amazing! I remember I asked my dad if he could do a Meatball Sandwich, and it was the best thing I ever ate while in Science! To be honest, I enjoyed online school more than in person school, but now, in the month of January 2021, I am missing seeing friends and teachers in person.

I personally enjoyed virtual learning because I got to be at home. Virtual learning has lots of pros and cons. The pros being that you get to be at home and be more comfortable. But the cons being its more difficult to focus and you don't get to see your friends

I worked at a daycare in Hoover, Alabama for 5 years that provided care to over 200 children. When the state went on lockdown, our numbers dwindled down to 60 as we were only allowing children of first responders to stay. All other children were either left to their parents, babysitters, family, friends, etc. I was a lead infant teacher for babies 6-12 months. I normally have about 10 but on my first day of work after lockdown was initiated, I only had 2 and that instantly meant less noise. I have a schedule I keep but each activity lasted half the time it normally does. It gave the babies more time to play and explore but for me, I had to begin the process of deep cleaning. We were issued new cleaning products and if there was a time when you weren't busy with children, you had to clean. We kept our masks on all day for the children's sake but it limited my breathing since I wasn't used to wearing one. Add that to new, stronger cleaning products and it makes for a difficult day. I experienced the normal smells of infant care that I have for the last 5 years but the new, stronger cleaning smells altered my olfactory system. I was worried how the babies and I would react to it after we've been exposed to the chemicals for a long period of time. We weren't allowed to open our doors or windows so the smell stayed with us all day. It gave me headaches and made my babies cranky. It was a learning process with the new sanitizing methods and we all finally got a rhythm down and requested that we be allowed to open our windows and doors while cleaning. It helped us keep our kids and ourselves healthier and more conscientious about our cleaning habits. With less children around, we were able to clean thoroughly and get everything in order but it felt less like a daycare without all the noise. We worked diligently so that when lockdown was over, we could welcome back our loud and crazy kids to a new, sanitized environment.

While I am not currently working from home, I am studying from home and staying home as much as I possibly can, which can feel extremely stifling. I would sit at my small desk in my bedroom for hours at a time, longing for the setting of a library or cafe to do my work in, and would soon grow bored and unfocused, failing at being productive. After a week or two of some distracted study sessions in which it felt like I got nothing done, I was fed up and frustrated, so I decided to try out a few changes to refresh my study space. Here are my hacks to creating a comfortable study-from-home (or work-from-home!) space without investing in new furniture or risking exposure to Covid-19. 1) Move your desk. My previous desk location blocked my window, leading my little office area to feel dark and closed off. By moving my desk, I now sit adjacent to the window. This allows more natural light to shine, raising my mood, and it allows me to people watch when I need a break from staring at my screen all day. 2) Clean your workspace. I am definitely guilty of having a cluttered, messy workspace, with papers all over my desk and books all over the floor. I recently reorganized so only the absolute essentials were in my workspace, and it feels so streamlined. It really is true that a cluttered space leads to a cluttered mind, and clearing it out has given me more mental clarity when working. 3) Go outside! I don't have a huge backyard, but I have enough space for a small patio table and chair that has provided a great change of scenery when I'm feeling cooped up. Now, I do work on a desktop computer, so I can't do all of my work outside, but I try to go out there as often as possible when I'm working on readings or using my tablet for school instead of my computer. The fresh air is so necessary, and the sunlight gives me some vitamin D while also raising my spirits. 4) Drink tea. While this isn't really a pandemic-specific hack, I found that a cup of tea serves as a great timer for working on schoolwork. I make a fresh cup of tea right before I start working, sip it throughout my study session, and take a break when I finish the cup. A cup will usually last me 30 minutes to an hour, and I typically take a few minutes to stretch and walk around before making another cup and starting the process over again. It is both relaxing and hydrating, and serves as my own little form of the pomodoro technique. So, there ya go. My little tips and "hacks" to make at-home studying or working just a little more bearable. While I definitely look forward to the day that I can study in public again, I have gotten more comfortable with my home set-up, and will continue with this routine while staying at home is the safest option.

Covid-19 reset everything for me. School, weekends, shopping, restaurants and so much more. So I had to take a step back and recreate my routine for school to follow the new normals for me during Covid-19. I started off from the first thing I do everyday. Getting ready for school. Now that I don't have to drive or pack my bag anymore I now allocated this time as extra/backup time for homework. For the most part things should be the same material wise but I need to make new home for my books so I can stay organized with all my class. The last thing I need to recreate for School is what should is what I should during my break and lunch. I thought of some ideas that did not do with electronics and came up just talking with m y family or working ahead on homework. In conclusion, I think recreating my routine was very substantial and don't regret one bit of it.

When my school shut down in March, I welcomed remote learning. My life had become so busy and stressful and I never got enough sleep. I would be a nice two week break before I went back to school for the last two months of school. I had no idea how wrong I was. Within 4 days, the novelty had worn off. The long hours (5 1/2) on Zoom were horrible. English was the worst. We were reading Shakespeare (in 7th grade!) and it move so slowly. Being the fast reader that I was it was my worst nightmare reading at this slow, slow pace. We had 80 minutes of class. We spent all of those 80 minutes reading and only got through 5 pages. We had a block schedule. Four classes one day and three the next with chapel. For the last three months of seventh grade, I sat at a picnic table in my parent's room. I got one half and my brother got the other. During these three months I was miserable. Three days after the end of school I got a new bed for my room. It was a loft and it had a desk underneath. All summer I would do something educational at this desk for three hours, eat lunch, workout, and go outside to hang out. All that summer, all the kids in the neighborhood wanted to do was Nerf war. I was lucky that the summer before I had received a pink and purple strongarm with pink and white bullets. These six bullets were quickly lost in the grass and replaced with some of my friend's classic orange and blue ones. When summer was over I had to go back to my desk for those 5 1/2 hours a day, except this time I would have homework. The previous year the teacher had done their best to make sure that we didn't have to do work outside of class (my English teacher of course made no effort to do this). Now I was in 8th grade with one of the hardest possible course loads. I was taking Geometry, Conceptual Physics, Spanish 2, and all of the other required classes. I would regularly work for an hour and an half after school before working out. I would do yoga or a random HIIT or strength class I found on Peloton. During all of my breaks I would walk my dog (a yellow lab puppy). In October, we got a Peloton stationary bike and my brother got to go to school to do his Zoom classes (weird, I know). Now I would be home alone from 9am to 11:30am every day. My schedule looked like this. 6:45 - get up and get ready for school 8 - go to my first class 9 - walk my dog and practice piano 9:45 - go to my next 2 classes 12:35 - lunch 1:25 - my last class 4 - workout I was glad when it was over. Now that I think about it, I didn't actually list any benefits.

Virtual learning was easy for me, but I did not like it. I do not like having to do things on my computer, and I did not learn as well as I did previously. However, I learned many things that I usually would not have learned such as keyboard shortcuts, ways to access things on my computer more quickly, and many other computer skills. I learned how to type more quickly, I learned the better ways to take pictures for a clearer image, and I got into a few fields of learning that I never would have tried. Even though 2020 was a difficult year, it taught me many good skills and lessons. After 2020, I have become a much more well-rounded person.

routines before Covid were easy because they where every day. routines during covid were different because. the world closed down most off the sports programs, and restaurants and even grocer stores. people had to stay ind=side other wise they would be fined a lot of money. our family had to shop from Amazon for the first couple months. I play a lot of sports, like baseball, football, tennis, golf, and swimming sports. all those sports were canceled due to covid. then after that you have nothing to do.

This is how my life was during online learning. I normally would wake up at around 7:50, I feel tired and exhausted and not motivated to do anything, I just want to go back to sleep. I do my first class and then have breakfast. My breakfast gives me some energy but not that much. I then just finish the rest of my classes and then have lunch and do homework. When i was going online school it just felt that life was on repeat, like there was no other thing I could do. I wouldn’t see any friends which made me feel that I had to talk to people a lot so I would video call people all the time after class, but I wouldn’t see them in person like normal. I never was motivated to do online school and only did it since it was school. I just felt tired, I was annoyed that I couldn't see any of my friends and I just felt constrained to my computer, as if I was locked in my room and I had nowhere else to go. Some of the benefits of online learning was the fact that I would be able to travel to another state and then still be able to do school like everyone else. Also I was able to make my schedule however I wanted it to be since I was online. I also liked the fact that I could get closer with my family since I was with them stuck in the house for a long time. So there are a good amount of benefits of online learning, but going to school on campus is way better, believe me.

For my routine, I would usually wake up about 5 minutes before class had actually started. Between classes I just laid on my bed, doing whatever on my computer like games, youtube, but never homework until the next class. Then at lunch I would go downstairs to eat whatever was ready or anything my dad or mom had gotten. Eating lunch would usually take me about 15 minutes and then afterwards I went back upstairs to take a nap for the remainder of the time. Everything felt so slow and so boring and I felt like I wasted my time. The benefits of virtual learning are only not having to wake up at 6:30 and being able to stay home. The cons were it was boring, I had no motivation for anything, and probably just everything mentally and emotionally sucked. I just did whatever I was supposed to, and then maybe baseball practice after school. That was mostly all I did.

When remote learning started due to COVID-19 and having to quarantine, I didn't think much of it. I figured we'd be back in school within months and it wouldn't be very different online. . . little did I know how much I was missing. Now that I am back in school after winter break, I'm realizing what it's like at school with friends and being able to see people. Materials aren't easily accessible, internet connections can be unstable, and there are a lot more distractions at home than at school in-person, but there are benefits, as well. I can work on my own time at my own pace, I am more organized as I am at home, I don't have to get ready before school, allowing me to sleep in, and I can eat whenever I'm hungry. There's a slight luxury with remote learning, but it doesn't compare to being at school in-person.