Both of my daughters are learning virtually during this 2020-2021 school year due to Covid-19. For my oldest, JoElle, this is her 6th year of completely online school. This is her second year of high school and she is quite comfortable with her schooling. For my youngest, Alexa, this is new territory as she just started her first year of Junior High School (7th grade) and is doing virtual school with her brick-and-mortar school.
The jump from 9th grade to 10th this year has JoElle exhausted, but since she is a pro at online school, she is handling it very well. She spends the mornings on lessons, the afternoons writing for her blog or school newspaper, all while finding time to study Chinese (for fun!) and watching those KDramas that she can't get enough of.
The transition for Alexa from elementary to junior high has been anything but usual since the Covid-19 pandemic forced our school district online only for the first 8 weeks. Thankfully she had her big sister to help her navigate turning in assignments from her Google Drive, converting document types,turning on a hotspot for wifi when its rainy outside, and signing into Zoom or Microsoft Teams for live lessons and troubleshooting when it doesn't work out the first time. Despite the many challenges, she will remain online for the foreseeable future.
Alexa "brags" that Advanced 9th grade Algebra has caused her to cry six times already this year! It is giving her an overdose of anxiety and frustration and, yes, many tears have been shed. Asking her teacher for help can take hours or even a day so when an assignment is due and she can't complete it, her evening is anything but pleasant. Tonight, her sister helped her with two questions on a Algebra quiz. JoElle helped Alexa to figure out that she actually did calculate the problem correctly, the error was in checking her solution. She found me soaking in the tub to inform me that she was right after all and to share a song she came up with: Have an Eggy Eggy Christmas. I asked her why eggs? and never got a clear response, but oh well she enjoyed singing it to me and music always soothes her.
Both girls have done virtual tours of colleges recently, which has helped them begin to prepare for their college plans. At dinner tonight, Alexa shared that in her tour of UTA today, she learned that you can change your major in only 20 minutes! She was impressed, but we had to break it to her that if you do this several times, it will literally take you YEARS to graduate, maybe 5-8 years total. One fact she shared is that UTA has the lowest college debt of any university in Texas and is second in the nations. That is impressive actually and great for our wallets! Plus UTA is located about 20 minutes from us, which would save even more moolah!
We are hanging on to the prospect that virtual school will only be for this year- fingers crossed, prayers said- so that little morsel gives us all hope!
No comments:
Post a Comment