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2021-01-15
After months and months of online school I developed my daily routines. Roll out of bed, get ready and hop on the zoom call at 8. Take a break, make a snack and get back into class. Online school was difficult because everyday felt the same. Over and over days up in my room finishing assignments, watching a zoom, and talking to teachers. FaceTime and Zoom were the closest possible thing to interacting with friends which posed as a difficult obstacle for everyone. Although we were able to wake up later and not have to wear uniforms, I was never more upset about not going to school. It seemed like it was all bad but there were a few things that especially brought me joy like spending time with family, playing video games with friends, setting up zoom calls on holidays with relatives. It seemed as if the world had shut down for brief period of time. Businesses, airports, restaurants and even some grocery stores were closed. Here we are now slowly returning back to the new normal and adapting to a new way of life. Things were tough but overall I think we came out stronger together than before.
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2021-01-15
Virtual learning for me was a big struggle for me. I would get headaches every day from looking at the screen. One thing that was good about online school is I can just role out of bed in turn on my computer and go to school on Zoom. A lot of people would cheat so they saw a huge upgrade into they're grade. I would always get yelled at for eating and wearing a hat during class. I would have to do my bed so in the background of my camera on zoom it didn't seam like I was having a terrible time though online school. So I would take all the stuff on my floor and put it under my desk so the camera would not see it. People really never got the hang of having to un mute and how to share your screen on zoom for a while. I did not have fun in online school at all but a lot of my friends liked it so they could cheat.
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2020-05-14
Learning virtually was not normal but we had to make it the norm. We were used to having everyone at school bunched up with no mask on. Now we were online in the comfort of our own homes looking at a screen with every student. I started to like online school. Siting with no dress code, being able to play video games like Call of Duty and NBA 2k in between classes. Eating whatever whenever we want and we enjoyed it. Until we all changed our minds and went crazy over the fact that everyone wanted to go back. An hour and 30-minute classes sitting in the same place with over amount of work to just take a picture and submit online. We took advantage when we were at school playing basketball at break and going to practice after school. We had to stay at home with nowhere else to go except grocery stores and the McDonalds drive-through. Everything was starting to get boring and we knew we couldn't stand these rules anymore and it was driving us insane.
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2020-09-15
I would wake up as late as possible. I would usually wake up 10 minutes before my first class. I would throw on some sweat pants and a hoodie, no shirt and not style my hair. I would finish school and take an hour-long nap. On Wednesdays I would wake up at 10 to my work and go to golf.
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2021-01-15
When COVID 19 started I was a little excited to try out online school because I didn't have to get up early and put on my uniform. My routine while doing school via zoom was to wake up 10 minutes before class to brush my teeth, wash my face, and change which I really enjoyed because I love to sleep in. Since I live so far away it was very convenient to wake up at 7:50 instead of 6:30 and not having to drive for an hour. There is always traffic on the freeway or some kind of accident so I enjoyed being able to do things from home. Fast forward a couple of months the first semester of my 8th-grade year is already over. I am a new kid this year and wasn't really able to socialize with anyone or make many friends. Because of this, I felt that it was going to be harder to make new friends once we get back to in-person school. The days started to feel longer and I started to forget what it felt like to be back on campus and get to hang out and talk with my friends. The breaks we had felt shorter and during class, I was barely able to sit still. August 2020-December 2020 were some of the hardest months I have ever had to go through especially with school. Although we now have to wear masks, I am thrilled that we get to be back on campus and learn in person.
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2021-01-15
During COVID-19 my school participated in virtual learning. It was not a very great experience considering we had to sit at our computers all day. I became so bored that I started downloading games on my phone and sometimes would beat them before school ended. All I could describe it as would be boring. It was the same thing over and over and it started to feel robotic. It was like an inescapable prison. Day after day of the same thing over and over I just couldn't take it. Eventually I started to realize that the pandemic was becoming more and more political based and I Realized it wouldn't end anytime soon.
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2021-01-15
Virtual learning for me was a big struggle for me. I would get headaches every day from looking at the screen. One thing that was good about online school is I can just role out of bed in turn on my computer and go to school on Zoom. A lot of people would cheat so they saw a huge upgrade into they're grade. I would always get yelled at for eating and wearing a hat during class. I would have to do my bed so in the background of my camera on zoom it didn't seam like I was having a terrible time though online school. So I would take all the stuff on my floor and put it under my desk so the camera would not see it. People really never got the hang of having to un mute and how to share your screen on zoom for a while. I did not have fun in online school at all but a lot of my friends liked it so they could cheat.
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2020
My virtual learning experience was not unique, I imagine, consisting of waking up about five minutes before school started, sitting through a class while watching endless hours of youtube, making myself breakfast during my break, and the occasional going to water polo after three more classes. Though I have always thought that school lacked challenge, virtual learning bored me out of my mind, I could not stand it.
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2021-01-15
During the time in which we had to quarantine at we had to attend classes online. I would wake up, get ready for class in the morning then sit down at my desk and get on zoom. I had to be on my computer for over 6 hours. It was honestly pretty hard for me to stay focused and learn like I would in a classroom. What was nice about online school was that I had a lot more freedom than I would if I was at school. It was a lot harder to stay engaged in class because the abyss of online school and quarantine made everything blend together and made life really gloomy and repetitive. Life was the same every single day, there was nothing unique or exciting about my days. There was really nothing to look forward to.
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2021-01-15
Virtual Learning was CRAZY. SO many pros and cons. Some pros are that we get to stay home and have our choice of lunch and we also get to be anywhere like on vacation and stuff as long as we had wifi we could do it. Some cons is that its SUPER distracting and soooo many temptations such as going downstairs to eat during class, going on your phone and do other stuff, and also, (the biggest of all) people cheating on quizzes and tests. All you have to do is have the quiz or test on one tab, and the answers on the other. I like in school learning wayyyy better because I get to see friends, get more exercise instead of being cooped up in my room, and be more focused during class. AND THE AMOUNT OF STUDENTS THAT FORGET THAT THEY AREN'T MUTED IS HILARIOUS!!! THEY'D BE WATCHING VIDEOS OR PLAYING MUSIC OR TALKING TO SOMEONE OFF OF MUTE AND THE WHOLE CLASS WOULD HEAR!!!! In some cases, some did get in trouble for what the situation was and what they were playing. Some zoom classes were also getting leaked (I was in one of the leaked zooms) and some random person would take the name of a student and then do something inappropriate and leave right after so we would know who it was. It was obvious a student leaked the zoom call because how would a complete stranger have the same exact name as a student in the same period? Anyways I personally prefer in person learning far more than online.
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2021-01-15
During Covid-19 our school shut down. We had to stay home, and just worry about how bad this virus could really be. They extended our classes to 90 minutes. This could benefit the teachers by giving them enough time to complete a section we were currently learning. Most students disliked this however since now they have to give their full attention for 90 minutes.Instead of the regular 30-40 minutes, Not having to wear uniform or starting class somewhat later was a benefit for me and others, but it came at a cost.
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2021-01-15
My routine for my online learning from the corona Virus is was odd at first because we were not in school and fully online. the benefits were I not to spend more time with family but the downside is that we couldn't leave our house but only for groceries and we could not see any friends or go to school.
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2020
Remote learning has been actually easy for me. I've found it interesting, and sometimes fun. I like learning from home, but I miss going to school and seeing all of my friends.
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2021-01-14
My experiences with virtual learning is like a detatched environment from in person school. The benefits are being in the comfort of your own home, being able to concentrate more, and having food/water/bathroom near you. The negative side is that the poor technology can make communication more difficult.
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2021-01-15
During COVID our school was shut down due to the corona virus. We were sent to online school although we still had the teachers with us on zoom. My routine stayed the same from day to day, wake up, eat breakfast, shower, and open my computer at my desk. It was both beneficial to wake up later in the morning but also there were many obstacles with turning in assignments online rather than paper in person. Usually our lunch was very late and by our schedule lunch period I was very hungry. Another benefit though was that I never had to walk very far or prepare a lunch before school. This was my experience with remote learning during COVID-19
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2021-01-14
If someone asked me ten years from now the defining smell that I remember from the plague year, I would quickly respond with hand-sanitizer. Before the start of the pandemic, it was the smell of bleach and Pine-sol that reminded me of those bygone days when my mom would wake up early on a Saturday to open all the windows and scrub the house from top to bottom because “cleanliness was next to godliness” as she would say. In the past, the smell of bleach and Pine-sol had come to mean a sense of cleanliness and the simpler days of childhood, where my biggest fear was missing the latest Power Rangers episode. However, hand-sanitizer mixed with its scent of alcohol and strong perfume has now become the smell that I relate to cleanliness. Hand-sanitizer has become that essential item in my purse that I cannot leave the house without first checking to see if I have more than one bottle. When I leave a public space, the first thing I reach for is not my car keys or my cellphone; instead, it is my Bath & Body Works Pocketbac Sanitizer. It has become an accessory that matches my outfits, masks, and even daily perfume choices. This past fall, when I celebrated my birthday, one of my most exciting gifts was not my seasonal favorite body spray, Sweet Cinnamon Pumpkin, but the hand-sanitizer that shared its name. Hand sanitizer has become a safety net and tool to make venturing in public spaces with high touch areas a bit easier. While handwashing, social-distancing, and proper face coverings are the most effective way to prevent the spread of Covid-19, hand sanitizers can hold one over until they can wash their hands properly. Anyone with children can agree that hand-sanitizer is a necessary tool because kids touch everything.
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01/15/2021
A self-account of the exploding market of hand sanitizer and the smell thereof
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2020-03
My experiences of learning online have been terrible. In the beginning I didn't try my best and I didn't do my work. I just have so many distractions online at home like my family coming downstairs and being loud because they don't realize I'm still in class. After a while, I started to get into a routine of waking up at 7:30 and going downstairs. Getting my computer ready and setting up my workspace (aka the dining table). Going to class and after school doing my homework. Clearing off the table for dinner and going to bed.
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2021-01-15
Due to Covid-19, instead of learning in person everyone learned online or distant learning. The day before everything went online, at school we prepared for school online. We prepared Zoom, which is the video call that we used to learn. We would spend a lot of time on Zoom, in order to learn the same as we would in person. At times Zoom became very tiresome. On Zoom during advisory I remember our class talking about how Zoom is tiresome. The main thing online school lacked is social interaction, you could not really talk to friends at school like you normally would. Remote learning did have some positives, though. For example, it was nice to be at home at times rather than at school. All in all I am grateful that we were able to continue learning even through Covid-19.
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0020-01-15
When the teachers told us we were got going online, I was really surprised. I kept thinking about how this is going to be. I got excited to see how it was going to play out. We had 3 days off including the weekend for the teachers to prepare. That was nice. Online school started. At first I got super used to it. It was so weird waking up and going on a computer. At first I liked it and then finished the year. But when we were told we are starting 8th Grade, I got worried. When we got back into it and I was exhausted and had bad headaches. I stayed strong through the first semester. It was tough and interesting way of learning. It is crazy how so many schools shut down. Online school was an interesting experiment.
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2021-01-15
The first day we were informed we would be doing online school was on March 13, 2020. My parents had both gotten an email from my school explaining that we would be doing school from home on our laptops. I was both shocked and excited when I heard about this. Before that day the thought of us doing online school was just a rumor. The following day at school was just learning about how online school was going to go, and how to get logged on to all our classes. Everyone was so excited for the first 2-3 weeks, since we didn't have to get up so early. But soon enough, we all started to become lonely, bored, and anxious. Most people couldn't wait to go back in person. Online school was boring since we had to do all our classes over zoom calls, and it was extremely hard to focus trying to learn through a screen. The days were long, drawn out and boring. There was no way to socialize with your friends other than FaceTime. Personally for me the online good party about learning virtual was the fact that we got to sleep in an hour later. Overall, we did online school for 8 months(not including summer break). It was unlike anything I've ever experienced and we've finally gone back to school this month(January 2021). It isn't even a question how much better in person school is than virtual learning, for me. It was boring, dark, quiet, and everyday was exactly the same as the day before. I am so happy we get to return to the way things were before last year, but we still do have lots of precautions for covid-19. I'm just glad that people are finally getting things back on their feet, and things are returning to normal(well, at least more normal than last year), and we can all appreciate in-person school for what it really is.
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2021-01-15
Virtual school was very different than normal school. In the second semester of the 2020 school year, we had to start doing school online. For the rest of that year school was very easy. I woke up five minutes before class and then logged onto zoom, each class was only 30 minutes long. Tests and homework were also easier. Then, after summer, I started going to a new school. It was hard getting used to the new school online. One other thing I didn't like about online school was having to stare at a computer all day. Something I did like about online school was being able to sleep and take long breaks between classes. Overall, I thought online school was much easier but normal school is a lot more fun.
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2021-01-15T10
At the start of Covid-19, we had to do virtual learning for the rest of the last semester until now. Online learning was better in my opinion. I liked it better because we got to sleep in, and also we didn't need to get changed into uniforms. But I also liked it because we had more free time right after school ended right at 2:45, but now I only have free time at 3:30 because that is when we get home. I liked it because everything was online and we didn't have to write on a piece of paper and get our hand tired. But I also like seeing my friends in-person school. I like online leaning better than in-person school.
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2020-10-19
My experiences with virtually learning was good. First I would wake up at 7. Then I would take a shower and eat. After I ate, I would take my dog for a quick walk and come back home to start school. School wasn't that hard at home, or on zoom. One benefit of zoom school would be that once you done with class early you get extra time to relax. But at school you would still having to stay in class and do work. One obstacle of my remote learning was having to do engineering at home. The problem with that is that I didn't have some of the materials so I had to get created. But having to get creating taught me to improvise which kind of did help. So thats my experience with online learning.
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2021-01-15
Learning virtually seemed so amazing in the beginning, but once it was the only option, it was terrible. The beginning seemed like a nice break from going to school, but after a while I was ready to go back. Being on a computer for almost seven hours a day, five days a week was killing me. Our classes were 80 minutes long, and all we did was sit and stare blankly into a computer. We weren't able to see any friends, and overall it was super boring. Some good things about it was we were at our own houses, so i didn't get up until 7:45 a.m to be in class at 8:00 a.m. If you were on a trip or in a different place, you could still bring all your school stuff with you and not miss anything. Overall, I am glad to be back in school again for now.
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2021-01-15
Online school had its ups and downs but the worst thing was that I had to deal with lag and glitches in online school. By the time someone actually reads this you will probably have holograms and jetpacks, but don't forget the people who came before you because they shaped the world for you and let be in charge of it. I encourage you to make the world a better place before you pass on and who knows maybe we will meet one day and have a chat. Until then Godspeed.
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2021-01-15
Have you ever done online learning? Well there is good and bad things about it. During when COVID first hit we were transitioned to online learning, it was a little hectic at first trying to figure everything out, but it wasn't the same. As of now we have done about 9 months of online learning. Some bad things are not being able to communicate with teachers or friends, turning in assignments, and even the learning itself. The first semester I was at a public school and we couldn't do much of online learning so we had very few assignments. Then in the fall of 2020, I moved to a private school where it was much better, but there was still some flaws. Some good things about online learning are if you finish class early you can take breaks, I don't have a problem with this but a lot of people do, you don't have to wake up as early when you are virtual, and finally you can get started on chores around the house if you have free time or relax. Overall, I thought it would be worse, but it wasn't too bad.
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2020
I am a middle schooler. In the middle of march, online school started because of the pandemic. This was a very significant change compared to normal school. There were some pros and cons to having online. Some advantages were sleeping in. Even though it was only like an extra 30 min to an hour, it was still nice. Another advantage was more free time. All that time spent driving and moving to classes was non-existent. Now for the disadvantages. Many people agree with me that it sucked not seeing any friends. My human interaction was very, very limited. Other than my family and when I went outside toe exercise, I didn't see anyone. Also, wifi can be a serious issue. Any bad internet makes learning incredibly hard. I did still talk to my friends very often on things like discord but it is not the same as seeing them in person. My daily routine was go to school, exercise and play video games. My life did not consist of much more than that till summer. Eventually, I started having my sports practice again, but that was not till after summer, and it was still restricted in many ways.
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2021-01-15
While learning virtually, there were many good things and some difficult. I was able to wake up just before school started and open my computer. I sat in bed in my pajamas and eating pancakes. But there were always days that my computer didn't turn on or it wouldn't connect to the internet. Even teachers had technical difficulties. Over all it was an experience to remember.
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2020-11-14
My experience during virtual school has some positives and negatives. I liked the fact that I didn't have to wake up so early. During virtual, I just got out of bed and walked to my desk. I also liked how I could do school in my pajamas. I didn't like how I couldn't really see friends, and I got distracted easily.
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2020-08-18
My experience with virtual school was weird at first, but As I did it for longer, I eventually got into a pretty solid routine. I would wake up at 7:30 every day to get ready for school. I would go to school on zoom from 8:00 to 2:45. After that I would do my homework and sports practices. Then I would go to sleep and start the whole routine over again. The hardest part about virtual school for me was that it was hard to pay attention and stay focused throughout the whole class.
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2021-01-15
At the beginning of 8th grade year, we were all virtually doing school which was hard to focus. My room is filled with so many things and it was hard for me to pay attention to the teacher on my screen. My computer had many mental breakdowns from overuse. A benefit is that I got to stay at my house all day, but it was hard to stay focused and engaged. I did not like virtual learning because everything was on the computer rather than on actual paper. I would much rather be in class for learning and school work.
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2020-03-13
Remote learning was a blessing and a curse, when I first started doing online it was so easy and i could talk to my friends, eat during class, and overall have a better time. This was the best part about online, but the worst was that I never received proper instructions for things, so my grades weren't too good.
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2021-01-13
At the beginning of the pandemic, it seemed for a bit of time that the infrastructure of the world was on shakey ground. Thankfully, our food supplies and economy did not collapse. However, the experience and extra-time during the pandemic led to me trying to become more self-sufficient in my livelihood. I have had a vegetable garden for years, but I started to grow different things this year than before. The picture above was my sweet potato harvest experiment, which I was pleased with and had a good amount of nutritious sweet potatoes. I had similar results with things like beans and regular potatoes (very nutritious and filling). On top of these things, I also tried to learn how to make products that I used regularly (even if these were more luxury items than necessities). Growing various herbs and spices, I began to make my own salad dressings, marinades, sauces, and pestos. Additionally, as a fan of craft beer, I enjoy drinking new and exciting beers but do not enjoy paying premium prices. During the lock down, I learned how to brew my own delicious beer for less than half of the cost from the store. All of these projects were fun to do, diminished boredom, and are skills which I can use to enrich my life moving forward.
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2020-04
When the pandemic began, the company I work for sent us all to work from home. While I did some baking and cooking before, I took it upon myself to grow and learn more. Plus, in the office we usually had some sort of food available, and now I had to provide that for myself. I began looking up recipes to make at home that were fast and easy, yet really good. I stumbled on this recipe and now it is my go to recipe. The smell from them baking and after they come out of the oven is great, and they don't take too much time. The smell lingers in the house the rest of the day as well, and the I love the flavor of these muffins.
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2021-01-13
As so many people's lives have become overturned by Covid, and people had more time on their hands than ever before to become engrossed in a hobby or activity, I feel that it is both a blessing and a curse being in a Masters degree program. Obtaining an advanced degree certainly seems to be a wise use of my pandemic time, but I cannot help but feel slight jealousy sometimes when I have to work on assignments instead of some of the interesting things that people have been doing this past year. However, I do enjoy gardening, fishing, kayaking, playing with my dog, and cooking. All of these are the things that have kept me sane and happy during the pandemic. Especially during the spring and summer, I ensured to take time away from school and work for a bit everyday to do some of those things. I am very fortunate that I live on a river/lake, so I could work in my garden, then launch my kayak with my dog in the passenger seat, and go fish until it was time to cook dinner whenever I wanted. It was a total blessing for me during Covid, for as isolating as it was at times, I was very lucky to have space and the ability to do my favorite things on a daily basis.
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2021-01-13
My family normally meets at my parent's house for Christmas every year with my Dad's infamous filet minion dinner. However, I have not been there in-person for the past decade or so because I always work on Christmas. Unfortunately (or I suppose fortunately), paramedics are needed to staff ambulances on holidays. Though I did not work on Christmas this year, I was still unable to go to the family party due to Covid.
The biggest difference this year for me was that for the first time, I was not the only family member who participated in the holiday party remotely. This is not to say that I was happy that my family could not get together like normal, but there was something oddly comforting to not being the only person on zoom/whats app/etc. during the holidays. Everyone prepared their own dinners at home, we jumped on zoom and did a family toast and showed each other our respective meals. We all logged off to eat and then jumped back on to continue to celebrate the holiday and do the annual secret Santa exchange. Overall, it was a more normal holiday for me than for the rest of my family, but it was overall a great Christmas.
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2021-01-15
School during COVID is okay because there is a lot of ups and downs. For example School is quite simple but I want to go on campus. Stay home gets kinda boring and thats one of the down falls.
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2021-01-15
Ever since March 13, 2020, till December of 2020, I had to do school online, from home. During this period of time, I had many new experiences. I have never done school at home before, and I never want to ever again. We used this app called zoom, and we had big face times with all of my classmates for our classes. All I had to do to go to school was roll out of bed and log on to my computer. Which is not as fun as it sounds. Doing all of my classes at home was really hard, I could not pay attention no matter how hard I tried. I always had my phone right next to me which was a big distraction, and my bed was 2 steps away. Although it was hard to pay attention and I didn't like doing school virtually, it was still fun. I had all the food at my house accessible to me, I got to nap at break, use my own bathroom, and face time my friends and stuff. So even though I hated do school at home, it was a fun and new experience that I will never forget.
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2021-01-15
Online school isn't that bad. I get to be in the comfort of my own home and away from probably sick kids. I feel better that way anyway. It's definitely easier too. I'm more focused at home surprisingly. I don't want to do it forever though. Maybe just for this year and then I can be a freshman. It's a good experience and others make it seem like it's the worst. It's kind of harder to learn but, that's only if you dont want to. When people tell me it's just as bad for me since its my last year of middle school, I definitely dont think so. I'm happy to leave and at least my last year of middle school is more interesting than others.
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2021-01-15
Online School has been rough it has its ups and many down. For Example its so hard to pay attention when you get a buzz on your phone and go to check it next thing you know your on it for 1 hour. The up side is that you dont hto get ready becadsue at my school you have to wear a uniform but in online you can wear whatever. Its also so much harder to learn because you can ask you teacher a question and have them show it to you. What makes it even harder for me is that im a visual learner. These are my reasons why i like and dislike online school
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0021-01-15
During virtual learning I learned a lot of different things. At first it was hard to pay attention, learn and just sit still for 80 minute classes on a computer. I was so used to shorter classes that would be done in a snap, but that changed quickly. I slowly started liking online school more and more. My schedule was usually waking up 5 minutes before class and setting up to learn. Then during break and lunch I could eat whatever I wanted and I got to go on my phone. I liked online because I have a lake house and we could go up there whenever we wanted. Now that we are back in person school I am definitely having an easier time learning but its hard waking up in the morning and sitting still for so so long. But I love seeing people and getting to socialize with people. Although sometimes I switch back to zoom for a day because school is very tiring and draining.
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2021-01-15
While learning online during COVID-19 there where many differences to normal school. I would wake up at sometime between 7:15 and 7:30 and I would go and eat and be at school online by 8:05 and everyone in class would be tired from waking up so early. One of the obstacles faced from learning on time where that it was hardy to pay attention and be really engaged with the class because there wasn't somebody right there making sure you are paying attention. One of the benefits of learning online was that we got more sleep and we had more time to do homework because you didn't have to drive home after school, it was easier to feel motivated to do homework at break because what else could you do, and the classes had longer periods so you had time to work on homework in class.
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2021-01-15
My experience learning virtually was ok. There were a lot of ups and downs. The hardest part was learning through zoom. Somedays I spent over 5 hours on zoom in one day. I was always tired and felt like doing nothing. I highlight of doing school at home was not having to get up early in the morning and I had more free time. I loved having more free time during the day. On a normal day, I would wake up and get ready for my first class. I would go through school and do my homework right after so I wouldn't have to do it later. After school, I would hang out with my family and enjoy the time i had with them because I couldn't do anything else like hang out with friends or sports.
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2021-01-15
It is great and it is bad in virtual school. In my opinion, I think it's good and bad because you get to have a lot more rest time and you can sleep in. On the other hand, I do miss the benefits of coming and interacting with my teachers and my friends. All and all, I cant wait till we go back to normal.
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2020
Learning online is much harder than usual, because it is much easier to not listen. Sure we are learning the same stuff as in school, but all the fun aspects of school disappear during online. That makes me have no motivation to learn. However I also like it because it gives me a bunch of free time to do art and stuff. Overall i like normal school more.
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2021-01-15
My annual holidays consist of Eid al-Fitr, Christmas, and New Years. This is what happened in 2020. I think it's important to be able to document experiences from different walks of life. I don't know how many people would celebrate the first two in the same family, but they've been a big part of my life since I was born.
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2020-10-11
I want to a Dallas Cowboys in October at AT&T Stadium were they were allowing in-person audiences with “limited capacity” and with masks. When I want to the stadium that has a capacity of over hundred thousand only twenty percent was allowed. As I sat in the stadium to watch the game, a roaring crowd took on a different meaning to audible sensory experiences. That is to say, because of the lack of fans crowd noises were piped in to emulate a hundred thousand people cheering. This was done to give fans a game feeling although we knew this noise was manufactured. Although this noise was piped in, yet it never felt like a real game.
The COVID-19 pandemic and my trip to the Dallas game had many effects on my senses as it relates to “limited capacity.” One, it caused my audible senses to now have to distinguish real from manufactured. Second, it made me further appreciate sounds of cheering and the silence of disappointment. Lastly, it made me realize that although visual sensory and memory plays a major part in our life experiences, audible sensory is just as important to us especially because the pandemic circumstance causes disruption in our lives.
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2021-01-14T18:43:30
As the year 2020 ushered in my family and I had many events we were looking forward to, one event was my son’s high-school graduation. Once COVID hit his ceremony got postponed, and then it was turned into a drive-thru graduation ceremony. I felt happy my son’s graduation ceremony was still happening, but sad for both my son and me too. Since, my son would miss out on the traditional aspects of a high-school graduation ceremony, and I felt sad for myself because I did not get to attend my own high-school graduation; so it had meant a lot to me to see him experience what I did not get to at a traditional high-school graduation ceremony. On the day of my son’s drive-thru graduation ceremony, I was driving and my hands were dry and slippery from the hand sanitizer, I constantly put on for protection from COVID, both factors therefore made it hard to focus totally on the visuals of the event; and also impacted my ability to get a lot of video and pictures at the event. These circumstances I feel made me fixate on all the sounds and smells just as much as the visuals in front of me while experiencing the graduation. While waiting in the car line to get to the graduation stage the graduation speeches were streamed from a local radio station. The speeches I heard given by chosen student speakers referenced at times the sadness they felt due to the senior events cancelled due to COVID. When usually speakers at graduations express sadness, but the class of 2020 had a unique sadness and that is the effects COVID had on their senior year. As my son and I approached the commencement stage we both put our masks on, the smells of my car were replaced by the stale air I breathed within my mask that I had become all too familiar with since the start of COVID. My son got out of the car to walk across the commencement stage. The sounds I heard from the car were kind of distant, and made me feel like I was watching the ceremony from a different location. At the end of the day, while watching my son walk across the graduation stage, all my feelings and different observations before the event subsided and I felt nothing but proud of my son. Along with I felt grateful for the people who put together the graduation, for some of the unique sensory experiences I may not have focused on as much in pre-COVID times, and for the event since it could have been canceled because of COVID. If anything COVID implications provided many unique aspects to my son’s graduation ceremony that may come to give more meaning to it in the long run then a traditional graduation ceremony.
The video clip I submitted is one of a few captured memories I have of the graduation; and it’s an example of the distant sounds of the graduation I heard while viewing it from my car.
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2021-01-14
I work in the library at a high school. It has been a surreal experience during the pandemic. While on spring break last year we learned that we were not coming back for two weeks, which became the remaining 9 weeks of the year in short order. At the end of the school year, we had to collect, and in some cases return, the items that students had from campus or had left on campus when we departed for spring break expecting to return on March 16, 2020. For a few weeks, we held drop-off zones for band instruments, sports uniforms, textbooks, and even cameras in the school parking lot. We distributed laptops to students who needed them for virtual learning. We asked seniors to drive through the student parking lot to pick up caps, gowns, and other graduation regalia, eventually diplomas, senior shirts, and if a favorite teacher was working that particular shift, to say final goodbyes. Drive-through graduations took place all across the state and the country in May, hoping that the rising senior class would have a different experience in 2021.
We somehow are no closer to the end of the pandemic, and there is little chance that my school will return to in-person learning before spring break, and that is how it should be. I cannot say what graduation will or won’t look like at this point. Cases in Arizona are exploding, and in the days surrounding my posting of this story, we lead the entire world in positive cases. In some ways, it doesn’t feel like we have even reached the halfway point.
But actually… I have. Because yesterday I was vaccinated with the first dose of the COVD-19 vaccine. My library team and I stalked the website all weekend, waiting for when 1B groups could sign up. I found an open time on Wednesday, January 13, 10 months after March 13, 2020, the day we now say the world fell apart. On top of working, I am a Ph.D. student in history at ASU. So after the first class meeting of my Wednesday class, I drove from Ahwatukee to Chandler-Gilbert Community College and participated in my own parking lot drive-through pandemic procedure. Almost like I was ordering a hamburger in a drive-through. Or maybe I am the hamburger in this analogy? We filed in lines, then split into multiple lanes, guided by a combination of medical staff and National Guard.
The first nurse I spoke to, who asked to see my appointment number and my ID, asked me if I had any medication allergies. I responded that I get raised hives from Amoxicillin and Bactrim. She tied a strip of yellow caution tape around my driver's side mirror and told me that I would have to stay 30 minutes after my injection, rather than 15, to make sure I didn’t have an adverse reaction and then proceed to lane 5. No one was paying attention to my car, and I was far from the only one with this yellow strip, but for the few hundred feet that I drove toward where Lane 5 split into an A and B, I felt marked, and then I got to thinking about what other things warranted the Caution tape. I think that it harkened back to my biggest fear about COVID, that if I became infected, I would be seen as irresponsible, a pariah. It’s a privileged outlook, to be sure, but I had done my best to be safe for almost a year, hence why I was in line for the vaccine on the third day that it was open to 1B individuals.
The next medical staff told me to lower all four windows in my car. You might think for airflow, but a coworker told me it was so that the EMTs could get in your vehicle if you were having a nasty reaction. The doctor for the 5A line asked me again about my allergies and decided to remove the tape that he did not see any fear for an adverse reaction. I pulled up under the tents, put my car in park, and the nurse opened the door. She confirmed with me that it was my first dose and rubbed a single-use alcohol prep pad on my arm. She asked if I was ready while she did that thing that doctors do, the thing where they squeeze a bit of your arm where they are going to stick you. “Yep,” I said back, chipper, unafraid of needles, vaccines, shots, or anything like that. “Okay,” she said, less than a second later, “you’re all done.” I didn’t even feel the needle before she was putting a bandage on my arm and putting my t-shirt sleeve back down. We exchanged “thank you” and “have a great day,” and I pulled up to the end of the line where an EMT gave me a packet of information on the vaccine and a card that had no patient name yet but was stamped with today’s date, indicating that I had completed my first of two vaccines. That I was halfway done. I really have to wait 30 days after the second dose to truly be “done,” but “third-way” done doesn’t quite have the same ring to it. I pulled off to the side on the meandering path back through the campus parking lot and took a photo with my half-completed card. Because by social media rules, if you don’t take a selfie with your card, were you really vaccinated? Thinking back to my coworkers’ puppies that had gotten their vaccinations to make them safe around other dogs over the summer, I sent the photo to our group chat, “halfway to street legal!”
