As it is known, schools across the country have taken action to use remote learning for the rest of the 2019-2020 school year. With this, there comes many benefits and negatives within the learning aspect to the students.

For sophomore Tanvi Shahi and freshman Rocco Bowser, they both feel as though e-learning has had more negative impacts to their own learning rather than positives.

“I feel like this has made a negative impact onto my learning. It’s obviously necessary that we need e- learning, and I’m glad that instead of completely not doing any type of learning we still are learning and growing, but e-learning has overall just made it a lot harder in every subject especially the more hands on classes. And, it doesn’t help that AP tests are right around the corner and everything we’ve been preparing for with them has changed. So it’s definitely been a bit negative. There’s pros and cons to both, but I definitely prefer learning at school since I can get more direct help and I focus a lot better there and procrastinate less, and it’s always fun to see your friends every day,” Shahi said.

“It’s definitely more of a negative. It is just not an efficient way of learning for myself personally. I prefer learning at school, there are less distractions but I still get to see my friends,” Bowser said.

On the other side of the spectrum, sophomore Trystan Schultz believes there are positives that come out of e-learning.

“When it comes to e-learning, I believe it is beneficial to individuals who need more time on their work and spacing it out. Being able to somewhat create their own schedule and do their own learning can bring out positives, especially to those who are going to college next year and need to learn what works best for them when it comes to scheduling. It also allows students to pace themselves and create new learning habits that can benefit them in the long run,” Schultz said.

Transitioning from in-person learning at school to e-learning can teach students their own ways of learning how to continue their motivation while still learning at home.

“Some of the hardest things of transitioning to at-home learning is getting myself in the mindset to get all my work done. Since at home I don’t have the same strict schedule like I did at school such as a set time to do my econ work and then an hour later going to do my bio work. It’s all just given to me and I have to figure out how to do it all without that guidance and especially without getting overwhelmed,” Shahi said. “I find motivation at home by having a reward system. When I get a big assignment done, I usually take a mental break and do something I like such as take a walk or watch an episode of a show or eat a snack.”

“I would say some of the hardest things I have had to adjust to is having to find an area to work that isn’t distracting. Since I’m always home now, I find it really easy to get distracted by things around me. Also, since I am on my home WIFI carrier, I have noticed that my computer has been slower than usual,” said senior Kristen Monaco. “Honestly, finding motivation has been extremely challenging recently. I think the best thing that I have done is get all the work done in one sitting, so I know that once I finish I can go on with the rest of my day. This is also very difficult knowing that I am a senior, but once again I know that the sooner I finish the better.”

Each student has a different amount of work they are given a day, especially with the new block schedule the school has given the students.

“On average, I receive about two hours worth of work on a daily basis. I think that this amount is manageable,” Monaco said.

“I am given probably three to four assignments to do over a period of a week, but I take 30 minutes a class or less,” Bowser said.

“The work spread out is different for me in each of my classes. Since I’m taking two AP classes, the learning is all just dedicated to preparing for those tests, so I’m given work at the beginning of the week, and it’s due on Thursday. Each day I think I spend about two hours for both of them,” Shahi said. “For example, in my Spanish class, I’m given work each day for the block schedule and it’s due on Sunday before 12. I probably spend about 30 minutes doing it. For all my other classes, I spend about an hour doing those every day regardless of what classes I have that day, since it’s less overwhelming than getting all of it done in one day.”

During this time, it is also important to balance school work with personal time so that you do not overload or overwhelm yourself with work.

“I make sure that I have certain times for both school and personal time. Normally, I ensure that I do school work first, and then I can do some form of self-care afterward to ‘treat myself’,” Monaco said.

“I balance school and personal relaxation time by getting my work done as fast I can in the morning so I can spend the rest of the day doing what I want because I know that as soon as I can get my work done I can do what I want after which is nice to think about. But then I also listen to myself, and if I know I don’t feel like actually getting work done and I push myself to do it anyway I won’t be learning anything, so I listen to myself and relax when I need to and work when I want too,” Shahi said