Parents as well as other adults may be wondering what it is like to be a high school student during quarantine and e-learning.  The best way for me to describe it, is to give you a snapshot of one of my days.

At 8:30 a.m. I begin my day with breakfast, which usually consists of a bagel or some lucky charms. Not having to be at school at 8:00 a.m. is a definite benefit of quarantine.  By 9:00 a.m., I am prepped and at my dining room table ready for another day of virtual learning.

My academic day begins differently every day.  It might start with a check in call with Mr. Minogue who makes sure that I am not falling behind in my classes.  On other days, it starts with working on my weekly newspaper article.

This is followed by a 10:00 a.m. call for Algebra 2 taught by Mr. Jerrold Blew. This class has become increasingly more time consuming due to the frequency of assignments, and is a large part of my daily schedule. Math and science have always been my academic Achilles heel. Interestingly, I have found these subjects easier to learn during e-learning rather than classroom learning.  Perhaps the reason for this will be the subject of my next newspaper article.

My busiest hour of the day is  at 11:00 a.m. because I have a different class to attend depending on the day – Physics taught by Mr. Jamel Williams, African American History taught by Mr. Scott Sortal and Newspaper taught by Mr. Haggerty and Mr. Vrechek. Mr. Williams has a tendency to assign homework in the evening, so after class I usually put physics aside for several hours. Mr. Sortal assigns work every day, but his assignments are not lengthy, which  allows me to focus more on the material instead of trying to get the work done quickly. Newspaper meets once a week usually on Wednesday around 11:15 a.m. We will go over the topics that have been assigned for the week and brainstorm future articles.

At 12:00 p.m., I watch pre-recorded lesson for theology which is usually approximately 30 minutes long. While I watch, I usually enjoy my lunch which is made by my wonderful mother, another perk of quarantine.

Between 12:30 – 1:30 p.m. I do not have a class so I use this time to get a head start on homework that has been assigned.

Between 1:30 – 2:40 I join Mr. Nevrly’s English class twitch stream. Twitch is a live streaming platform. Mr. Neverly uses it to demonstrate new principles and to cover the homework that was assigned for the day.

At 2:40, I start my homework. This usually takes me anywhere between 2 to 4 hours. After my work day is done, I relax by watching U-tube videos, watching Netflix, or just spending time with my family.