BSSC Year 12 student Greta Schaeche tells us what it has been like to learn from home.
My name is Greta, and I’m currently studying Year 12 VCE at Bendigo Senior Secondary, which has obviously taken quite a turn in the past few weeks, with all our studies now being completed online.
This first week has certainly been a challenge, simply in adapting to what the online classes look like and trying to develop healthy study and work habits completely from a home environment.
So far I’ve worked out lots of Easter eggs and walks around the block seem to do the trick and keep me focused.
I think that one of the biggest challenges of online learning is maintaining the same amount of motivation to complete schoolwork, especially since our formal VCAA assessment, always so clear and straight forward, is now obviously altered and quite ambiguous.
Also, the friendly smiles to your peers and passing conversations to your mates as you walk between classes, and even simply just that change of environment of different classrooms throughout the day, is something we absolutely took for granted in how much it reinforced effective learning.
I also miss the social aspect of school—recess and lunches, the inside jokes, the fun and simplicity of it.
My dog so far has filled this role and although she’s cute as heck, she doesn’t have a lot to say about much at all.
I do think however, that through all this, we need to remember how incredibly fortunate we are as Australians to have the opportunity to gain such a comprehensive education.
And if that education looks like amusing FaceTime’s with your class and online lesson plans for the foreseeable future, then we continue to be grateful and make the most of it all.