A Day in the Life of a Distance-Learning Student

I am a sophomore boarding student this year at George School. I am starting this year in the distance-learning program for the first semester. I live in Vietnam, so I am eleven hours ahead of east coast time at school.

One of my friends from last year lives in Atlanta. He is also in the distance-learning program and living at home for the first semester. We are both sad not to be on campus together and with our other friends, but we will still talk a lot.

I woke up around 6:45 a.m. this morning my time (and 5:45 p.m. yesterday his time) so that we could video chat, check in, and compare our weekend experiences. We catch up on our classes at the end of our conversation. Yesterday was the fifth week of classes and we now have our even-numbered arrangements in the mornings.

At 7:15 p.m. yesterday, I headed to my room to set up for my online classes. I logged on to Zoom around 7:25 p.m. to make sure my audio was working, and my camera was on before class began. Mostly I like to be early so I can catch up with my teacher and my classmates who join our online class early.

At 7:30 p.m. I had my Arrangement 2 class, which is English, and I reviewed some of my notes before class began. I want to ask my teacher to review a confusing part of the reading during today’s class. I think I might also schedule a consultation using Microsoft Bookings to go over my writing assignment. (Sample Daily Schedule.)

The class was an hour so by the time English ended it was 8:30 p.m. I needed a break, so I got up from my workspace, stretched, and grabbed a snack.

At 8:45 p.m. it is time for my math class. We started working on a math project and I know I will get to spend a lot of time with my breakout group. My other good friend is in this class and we have been talking a lot about the project. I am pretty confident that we are moving in the right direction, but I think we will try to get to virtual Math Help this week.

Math ended at 9:45 p.m. and then I checked Canvas to write down what I needed to do for the next day. I also read the “Aspire to do” work from my AP US History teacher. I am glad I have the Academic Planner to stay organized with my classes. At first, I was using the PDF version because with our access to Adobe Creative Cloud I can add text to the PDF, but I decided to print the PDF instead. The planner helps me organize and keep track of my class sessions, consultations, and homework for the week!

My friend in Atlanta has to wake up around 7:30 a.m. to get ready for school because his first class also begins at 8:30 a.m. He has IB HL English for Arrangement 2 and he is prepping for his oral commentary. He used Pear Deck for Google Slides, which he says is a good practice for his IB Internal Assessment. We talked about how nice it was to see some of our friends in class on Zoom from other time zones.

He also told me about his IB Psychology class he has during Arrangement 4. He says it is very interesting and is thinking of possibly majoring in it in college. He plans to meet with his English teacher and college counselor tomorrow to talk about that and his college essay.

After Psych, he attended meeting for worship via Zoom with the rest of his Collection. He also had his Gathering later in the day and his advisor brought her dog! He took some time off for lunch and a run and then did some homework in the afternoon. He is a tour guide and had a meeting with the Admission team after our chat.to plan for the upcoming Open House. Later that day, he had dinner with his family, did some more homework, and then had a family game night.

Even though we text each other all the time, it was really nice to be able to talk with my friend face-to-face over video chat. It was also interesting to see how his remote learning experience compares with mine and other students living in different time zones and in different areas of the world.

After talking to my friend, I plan to use some of the morning to work on my assignments before I take a break in the afternoon to get some exercise. I like the flexibility I have, and I definitely feel like I am learning how to manage my time with this schedule. I think back to my ninth-grade self and know I have come a long way!