With the current situation in our world today, it is hard to predict what will happen in the next week. COVID-19 cases could spike, the country could go into another lockdown or school could go virtual. One thing that people have learned in the past year is being able to adapt to the present situation and maybe even completely changing their way of life. With that being said, being prepared for whatever might happen is crucial in today’s world. To go from attending school in-person to attending completely virtual would have a huge impact on all students in the district. It would be a complete change in schedules. Some students might thrive in virtual learning environments, but some might have a downfall. Regardless, there are lots of ways to have a great learning experience through virtual learning.

One way that could help many students would be to do all classwork and homework for each class during the time period that they would be attending that class. This will keep students motivated to complete all of their work throughout the day. If a student has a class period with work that would only last them 20 minutes, then they would feel accomplished and have another 30 minutes to relax until their next class would start.

“I enjoy virtual learning because I am able to focus on my weak points in a subject more than the topics I already know well,” virtual student Ella Cordsiemon said. “I feel like I get more use [out] of my time.”

Making sure that each assignment is completed on time is important when it comes to virtual learning. Keeping a planner helps to organize all assignments by subject due date. When an assignment is turned in, students can cross it off from their planner to know that it is already completed.

“The planner allows me to remember what I need to complete each day and keeps me organized,” junior Kate Burnes said. “If I didn’t have a planner, I think I would easily forget what I have to do because it would be hard to keep track of seven classes.”

Staying on top of assignments is a great way to feel motivated to keep going. If a student starts getting behind on assignments, they will feel stressed out about not getting their work done on time. This unmotivated behavior can result in late and missing assignments.

“I always look at the assignment calendar the day before so that I know how much time I will need to complete each assignment,” virtual student Gabby Shoults said. “I love virtual because I get to make my own schedule and work at my own pace which is really nice.”