A Day in the Life of a Remote Learner – David James
In these new circumstances, its always important to try and keep your life as normal as possible. Finding ways of doing this can be challenging, so we have to try and embrace the good parts of our situation and tackle the bad.
Some of the good parts are that I no longer have to travel to school, meaning I can get up an hour later (YES). This is good, but being too relaxed can be a problem as well – school needs serious concentration, and if you’re still half asleep, then its not a good sign. I try to keep my morning routine roughly the same – eat breakfast straight after waking up, then get set up for the day as fast as possible as if there is still a deadline. It keeps up an order to my day, and helps a lot. I try to keep doing work inside the actual classes and to strictly adhere to the class times, because apart from keeping an order to the day, important information is given out at the very start of class most of the time, and it pays to be there.
Another very important part of online learning is to keep up with friends. Being in contact with them reminds you that there are people who you can do things with, even if they aren’t right there with you, so I try to involve them in most of my day, including doing schoolwork with them just like we would in the classroom. They’re also good to talk to because when you’re stuck inside your own home for this long, you begin to get sick of the people around you, even if they’ve done nothing to annoy you. Talking to other people, especially those your own age, is an immense help to this problem.
A good idea to keep in mind during this rather monotonous time is to find a project that you can do at home, without anyone else’s help or input. For instance, try to learn how to code a simple program (I tried this, its easier than it sounds) or set a goal in a video game you like to play that isn’t what you’d normally do. It gives an element of difference to each day, instead of it being school, school, school, eat, school, eat, sleep. Above all, though, its important to incorporate some variety into your day, otherwise you become confused, disorientated and everything gets harder and harder.
One other thing that you can do to make this experience as positive as possible is to exercise regularly. Not going out and going places actually has a large impact on your physical health and your general fitness, and you have to continue exercising regularly to stay healthy, even if it means losing out on time to play with your friends.
All in all, life as a remote learner has been good, even though there are several bad parts. The key point is to just keep positive and doing the things you normally do, and you’ll get through this fine.
David James
Year 9