As many people know this year’s schedule for school looks just a little bit different.  The district gave the students and their families two different schedules to choose from. Family choice Remote Learning and Hybrid learning. 

Family choice Remote Learning requires students to remote into their classes from home when they have a class that day. Hybrid learning requires students to come to school two days out of the week and then on the three other days students remote in. 

For me, my parents and I chose to do remote learning. There were a few reasons why my family and I chose it. One reason is because I have asthma and in the past when I got sick my respiratory system got hit the hardest and it became hard for me to breathe. 

The second reason family thought it would be better is because we think that eventually, the school will shut down because of the coronavirus rates and outbreaks at the high school. 

Being a remote student was definitely a challenge for me. I would say that I am a very social person and like being around other people. When school started, all of a sudden I was by myself most of the day. 

While yes I was still talking to my friends on social media like Snapchat and iMessage, it wasn’t the same. 

I would go to the football games so that I could still get some kind of interaction with people around my age and to see my friends. When doing this, I found it hard to talk to others because I haven’t had to do it in a while. 

Remote-only learning also takes a toll on your mental and emotional health. I became sad because I was lonely so often and I wasn’t used to being by myself for so long.

When I would go see friends I would feel so happy, but once I got home I would sadness would take over because I knew I wouldn’t see people for another week or two. 

It was also easy to get behind academically and slack off because you were on a computer and no one really has control of what you do. 

I have now been able to go from fully remote to hybrid and I couldn’t be any more grateful. I am lucky to be able to have this chance. 

There are definitely pros and cons to being in both schedules. Some pros for remote are that students have more time to work on all of their homework because they only remote into class for an average of 20 minutes, but then in some classes like math students are there for the whole hour. 

Another pro is that when students have appointments sometimes they can go between classes if they have enough time, I have done that before and I just needed to check in to CLP on my phone, check-in, and then head back home right before my next class. 

Along with the positives, there are also negatives to FCRL.  Students aren’t able to get the same level of help that they get in person. It is also very easy to get distracted during class. 

Students also aren’t able to socialize with people often and if their internet connection sucks, then it’s pretty hard to get checked in and get instructions for their class that day. 

It’s also easy for teachers to forget about their remote students. There weren’t that many students in remote during the start of the year, and when teachers would forget it was like they were left stranded in the middle of a desert alone. 

In hybrid,  students are there with their teacher and are able to get help a lot easier. They are also able to interact with a lot more people than when they are at home. 

Hybrid also helps keep students’ schedules on track because they have to get up and actually go to school rather than just waking up five minutes before school starts, checking in for about ten minutes, and then going right back to sleep. 

In hybrid, however,  I am at a much greater risk if I catch COVID-19 being around so many people. I also get anxious when people don’t wear their masks correctly because they are putting people at risk even more. 

Also hybrid still feels like remote in a way because I am only there for two days and while yes it’s better than nothing.

I would say all around that both options are not the greatest, but I do think that they are better than going back full time because then it would be worse with COVID-19 outbreaks at our school.