Back to school 2020!
Hey everyone and happy Tuesday! I'm writing this a bit earlier in advance since I'm planning for a busy week (it's currently Sunday while I'm writing this). I have gotten a good amount of things done today and am feeling relatively satisfied with myself and my progress. I'm recently getting more into learning new things on Skillshare and am super excited to start some writing courses.
Recently, I've been working with my school district on a series of videos to help students who may be struggling with not getting to go back to school. I realize this issue is specific for the area I live in, but I also know that many places around the world are doing school differently this year and I want to recognize that. Specifically for me, I'm not going back to school at all (most likely) and going online for the full year. It definitely sucks a lot for me and a lot of my friends as well, which is why I wanted to write a bit about back to school 2020.
It's going to be hard for a lot, especially those who are starting "important" years this year such as "senior year" (or the end of highschool in the US) or those who are starting college or university. Regardless, it's going to be really different and it wasn't what we were expecting 5 months ago when this pandemic first started. All emotions of grief over missed events, missing seeing friends, missed academics, or anything else is completely valid. I think it's easy to brush off these really valid emotions so I wanted to start this forum post with that fact. Whatever emotions you might be feeling about covid19 and school are valid and valued in this sub-community and valid to me!
But I shouldn't be the only person who is validating your emotions about back to school troubles with covid19!! Whatever you're feeling about school is so valid and so important to acknowledge, and we all need to be able to help ourselves out too. One way we can do this is by shifting our ways of thinking so that we're thinking in positive light about some things that would otherwise be really dark and scary to think about. But this is only if you're ready to start thinking of these things differently! For example with the topic about not getting to see friends and schoolmates, we might be thinking "Dang, I'm really sad that I won't be able to talk to my friends often this year." If this is something that you need more time to come to terms with, that's totally okay! But when you're ready to use techniques of CBT to reframe this thought, you can think of it like "I'm sad that I won't get to see my friends this year, but I know doing so will protect them from the virus." I hope that makes sense, but shifting our way of thinking about things can be really helpful!
Another thing that can be a small way that we can ease into online schooling at home is to change up our setup. This can be a big dramatic room makeover, or it can be as simple as cleaning our school desk a bit and hanging up some pictures in our room. Changing our environment up and decorating our workspace a bit can be really important and helpful to make the process of taking online classes a bit less boring. When we're looking forward to sitting in our pretty and decorated workspace, it can even make the whole process more enjoyable! In short, it's helpful to make the less-exciting tasks like online-school more exciting and we can do so by mixing our workspace up.
Remember to stay organized! Although I haven't taken online school for the longest time and am definitely no "expert" on how online school works around the world, it's always helpful to stay as organized as possible. Keep your notes tidy in a folder or create different Google Drive folders if you choose to type your notes! There are tons of YouTube videos on how to stay organized with online school to watch as well along with many different online productivity systems to try out. For me, I'm going to try and set up a Notion page to keep track of all my online classes for school and all of my extracurriculars.
Last but not least, self-care is especially important during these times. In times where there is just so much happening around the world, it's important we're actively taking time out of our days to do things we enjoy doing. Whether if that's doing things like yoga or exercise that are more physical self-care activities or doing less physical activities like art or meditation, I think self-care is crucial in our schedule both in and out of online school to keep our minds healthy! So don't forget to add self-care to your list of things you do while you're taking online classes!
Discussion questions:
1) What are you nervous about for this back to school season?
2) What are some things that you need to get together before school starts again?
3) What makes you laugh the hardest?
@AddictedTealover98 @AnastasiaSmith @AveryLove @betterchoices @BlackRose1832 @BookChunky @calmingSummer5564 @captainmajesty @charmingOrange5817 @dancedance @DayDreamWithYou @Dinoprincess12 @Domae @DreamTouch @dynamicHemlock1736 @Hashib22 @herealways27 @honeypie720 @Hydrangea03 @ItsJoel @iwishuwell @izu201ph @jKempy @Kassy7cups @Listeningsarinn @lyricalAngel70 @MariWhale @Memisse @mistke @Oxymoron6demon @parisayano @playfulPink51 @rosymaplemoth @SmolBurrahobbit12 @SparklingSnowflake15 @StanDaMan78 @TheAtticusFinch @TheGoldenHand @TheGoodFairy @theheartproject @tranquilSunshine07 @TreatYouBetter @wohooradhika @wonderfulMango5023 @Yourlifeisworthy
Discussion questions:
1) What are you nervous about for this back to school season?
I'm nervous about whether i'll be able to focus at my classes since it's most likely that they are all going to be online for a whole semester. It's very easy for me to lose my ability to focus when i'm studying home.
2) What are some things that you need to get together before school starts again?
I need to find all my course materials before classes start. Although the classes will be online following the lecture from the textbook and taking notes on my notebook really help me concentrate.
3) What makes you laugh the hardest?
A very simple answer but listening to my friends' jokes i guess
@focuslife
Hey focuslife <3 Thank you for responding to the forum post 🥺I get where you're coming from with being nervous about focusing in classes. I feel like it's hard for me as well and it definitely takes some time to get used to. I'm sure you'll be alright though and I'm truly wishing you the best of luck with running that 🥺Some tips for focusing I have is just to put away all distractions, as hard as it sounds, and reward yourself for concentrating! <3 I hope you get the chance to find all your course material and things you need to get started and that you get to have a laugh soon <3
Good day! When I write an essay, I always have the task of writing the original text, but I think many students know how difficult it is. I always use https://typemyessays.com/paraphrasing-tool, which helps me rephrase my text and get 90% originality without too much difficulty! Save to your notes!
@Lavardia
Thanks for sharing that! :D
So, I was lucky enough to still have the time to register to get into the Diploma Program. But, I guess I was too late in registering for online courses. I've been on the wait list for the past 10 days. I've looked at the course details and it now shows that there are no more seats available. So it's likely that I won't be able to start those two courses for the first semester.
On the other hand, I paid for another Program, aside from that Diploma, that can be completed online. I used about 4 hours to decide to do this TEFL Program, as they had a sale that lasted until midnight of August 31st. I finally made the decision just before bed. It was such a great deal, original price was about $1300, and it was on sale for $339! So, I have until May 9th, 2021 to finish the course and earn a Certificate. At least with this program, I am still working towards my goal. At first, I thought I should get a Diploma first, then, do this Certificate one. Just so that I would be all set to meet the requirements to get a work visa and can look for a job right after. Now, that I'm doing it the other way around, I might need to end up waiting a bit longer until I finish that Diploma. Or if lucky, I could find and experience this teaching job overseas that does not require a Diploma/Degree and is fine with only that Certificate. Maybe I could get a short contract position somewhere to just try it out to see if I like it. I figure, I can't leave my current job for too long, or else I will be terminated (that's what happens in the hospital, to keep my position, I'll need to have a certain amount of hours per year). When the time comes, I'll need to re-check the number of hours required.
So, since I'm working mostly afternoon shifts, I'll be using the mornings to learn and study. I've also requested that I can only take evening shifts for my home department, that way I can have all morning to do the online course. As for working up in the OR (what I've been doing all summer), I'll still take shifts if offered, even if it's a morning shift, or cover sick calls. As I know that there is not another person to do the shift, as the other casual has been covering a sick leave since early this year and is most likely to continue as it doesn't seem like the other person is returning. So, I'm the only option to cover sick calls and vacation, if not, then the other staff would need to do OT. As for my home department, there are many other casuals below my ranking that can work any shift, if I can't do it!~