Quarantine 2021-The daily life of 3 high schoolers the online learning experience
By: Zach Fischer, Hardik Mahashwari, Aadi Sudan
Times are changing and sometimes it’s good to take a look at what other people are doing to stay afloat. Here’s a closer view into the lives of a few high schoolers.
Zach Fischer:
7:00 Wake up and get ready — The King’s Academy has different students on campus every other week. For the days we are online, I can stay in bed for a few more precious minutes, as I don’t have to make lunch. Other than that I’ll wash my face, brush teeth, and eat some breakfast.
7:30 Go to school — It takes about 20 minutes to drive to school, or 20 seconds to log in to class.
8:00 Start school — The day usually starts with the 10 minute home group, where we meet up to discuss announcements.
12:30 Eat lunch — Lunch times vary for different days. Now is the time to meet with the various societies (National Honor Society, International Thespian Society) or clubs (Coding Club, Jesters Club). Otherwise, I’ll hang out with some friends or work on homework if I’m home.
3:05 End school — It’s time to head home or log off for the day.
3:30 Extracurricular starts — The high school musical Cinderella has gone on from January to March. Some days go over blocking, vocals, or dance. The small cast allows for the rehearsals to be in person, but the show will be recorded to allow people to watch without crowding the theater. Swim team starts shortly after the musical ends, which will consist of on land workouts and in pool practices.
6:15 Food time — By this point I could almost eat a horse. Time to head home and eat some dinner with the family.
7:30 Work time — After cleaning everything up it’s time to get to work. Eight hours of screens at school isn’t enough, so get ready to hop back onto the trusty old MacBook and pump out some emails and homework. Some of these endeavors include math practice sets, history notes, english essays, chemistry labs, and studying for various tests.
11:00 Finish up — After a shower and basic hygiene, I’m ready to call it a day. If I can’t fall asleep I work on Sell Or Be Sold by Grant Cardone. Tomorrow will be a great day.
However, not all days are equal. Most days follow a similar routine, but some days are a little different.
Wednesday — Late start day! School starts at 10:00 instead of 8:00. This makes enough time to record TKA Hot Ones, a segment I’ve started where I get to interview teachers while eating chicken wings with increasing levels of hot sauce. It’s worth getting up in the morning if it means seeing teachers’ faces turn red for the entertainment of the student body. Wednesday nights are also when Menlo Church films their sermons, and I have the opportunity to help out with the camera work.
Friday — Asynchronous day! Normal schedule, except all of school is online. Most classes assign work instead of having class, which lets all of us work as fast as we want to.
Weekends — No school (believe it or not). A great time to get ahead on schoolwork, study or hang out with some friends. Once school work is out of the way I can work on Premier Curbs, a curb painting business I started over the summer. During Sunday mornings the family and I eat breakfast and watch the online service. It’s a good way to end the week, as each day only gets busier.
Aadi Sudan
7:00 Wake up — Lynbrook High School has different schedules depending on the day of the week. On Mondays and Thursdays, school starts at 8:00, and on Tuesdays and Fridays, it starts at 9:00. I try to consistently wake up at 7:00 in order to get enough time to shower and eat breakfast.
8:00/9:00 School start — I log onto my laptop and join my first Zoom class of the day. Each class lasts 1.5 hours, and I attend 3 classes a day.
11:15/12:15 Lunch — I get a 1 hour lunch break to relax, take time off of school, and eat lunch. On late start days, I get an extra hour of free time, which I usually use to talk with my friends or do some homework. On Mondays I attend an online club at my school during lunch, which usually takes no more than 30 minutes.
1:45/3:30 School end — My final class wraps up and I log off my laptop. I usually go to eat something or take a break to enjoy myself. This is the time I use to unwind and forget about school, at least for an hour or two.
4:00/5:00 Homework/Studying — I usually take roughly 2–3 hours on homework. Most of the time I manage to speed through my homework, as it is usually not that difficult or long. However, after I finish and submit my assignments to the online portal, I take a few hours to study for any upcoming tests or review any school topics I am unclear on.
8:00 Dinner — At this point I am usually hungry enough to eat dinner. Some days I skip dinner in order to work more but I usually take roughly 30 minutes to eat my food and get back to work.
8:30 Final work check — After dinner, I usually take 10–20 minutes to look over my homework and make sure I did everything. After this, I usually talk with my friends and unwind.
9:00 Free time — I usually spend about an hour enjoying myself talking with my friends or watching YouTube videos. This is the time I enjoy myself the most, after a difficult school day with ample homework.
10:00 Sleep — I try to sleep early so that I can wake up early the next day. If I can’t fall asleep, I usually listen to music until I get tired, which usually takes 30–45 minutes, and then go to bed.
Some days are a bit different, and so my schedules vary across these days.
Wednesday — Asynchronous learning — On Wednesday, I have no classes. It is the closest thing to a free day that I will get. I have to attend homeroom for roughly 45 minutes, but after that, the day is mine to do whatever I need to. Homeroom starts at 9:00, and I usually wake up around 8:00 on Wednesdays because I tend to cram a lot of work into Tuesday nights and I need the extra sleep. My morning routine is basically the same. I shower, eat breakfast, and log onto my homeroom at 9:00, but after the 45 minute meeting is over, I usually just start doing homework or study for any upcoming tests. I usually jump on a group call with my friends during this time, as I have nothing better to do and I like the company while working on assignments. After I finish my homework and studies, I usually spend 2–3 hours just relaxing until 5:00 rolls around. At 5:00, I join a Zoom call where I volunteer in different ways for an extracurricular nonprofit organization. This usually lasts roughly an hour. After this, I just enjoy myself for the rest of the day and work a bit more on my studies until it is time to eat dinner and go to bed.
Weekends — On weekends I have no school, so I use this time to study and just relax. I usually bike around with my friends on Sundays but other than that, my weekends are pretty uneventful, as I just spend time either studying or enjoying myself.
Hardik Maheshwari
7:00 Slowly wake up and morning routine- Arguably this is one of the hardest parts of my morning routine. Listening to the painful ringing of my alarm, I slowly get out of my covers. I take a warm shower, go down for breakfast, and then brush my teeth. I also go to Lynbrook High School so the school schedule is the same.
8:00/9:00 School begins- One important step before joining online classes is removing all physical and online distractions. I close the door of my room and close all unnecessary applications and Chrome tabs such as Discord and Youtube. A key step to learning online is paying attention. My morning classes are literature on some days and Spanish on the other. Classes are 90 minutes long so it can get tiring.
11:15/12:15 Lunch- For lunch I never have a solid schedule. Some days I will eat lunch downstairs with my family. On other days, I will bring my food upstairs to my desk and eat and work. Most days I try to stay away from the screen but with how dependent our lives have become on digital technology it is very difficult. I join club meetings online. For example, I am part of the Economics Club.
1:45/3:30 School Ends!- This is one of the best parts of the day and I feel like I am done with the day, but I have a lot of work to do. I spend one hour away from my screen and get a snack and relax outdoors.
4:00/5:00 Homework Time- After a relaxing break, I get to homework and 2 hours of more screen time. This part is very important because it tests me if I actually learned anything during online school. Most of the time I grasp the material otherwise I will send my teacher(s) and email. I submit all my homework through an app called Schoology.
7:30 Dinner- Another amazing time of the day where I can eat a hearty meal. I eat dinner with my family and we all talk and relax. This is one of the few times during the day I actually see my parents. I do see them more each day compared to online but most of the time I am stuck in my room.
8:30 Additional homework Studying- I do not do all of my homework and studying at one time because I do not retain all the information so I do the rest of my homework after dinner. I normally do the longer homework (math and physics) at this time because I am energized after eating dinner.
10:30 Relax- Even though I daily try my best to limit my screen time on my electronic devices, at this point in time I spend around 30–45 minutes watching youtube and chatting with friends. We call on Discord and just hangout.
11:00 Bedtime- A tiring day just to do everything all over again tomorrow. At this point in time I brush my teeth and sleep. I browse through reddit for a little bit, but I sleep no later than 11:30.
However, not all days are the same. My Wednesday’s and weekends are vastly different.
Wednesday- I wake up just 5 minutes before homeroom. It is a class where you learn about more generic topics and socialize with others. It lasts about 30–45 minutes depending on the day. The rest of the day is all mine. I don’t have any classes to attend. This day is reserved for my extracurriculars and meeting with my teachers if I have any questions. This day is a free day. Nothing much really happens. I do the homework which I didn’t do on Tuesday, if there even is any left.
Weekends- The best part of the week. I have no school so I wake up at 9:30 and relax. I do everything very slowly and and relaxingly unlike the fast paced weekdays. I play video games, hangout with my friends sometimes, and get school work done. It is a great 2 day gap before the same stretch of tiring days.
