Skip to main content

Guest Blog by Symphony (My Niece)

                                                 
             
                 Distance Learning
                        By Symphony, age 10


Distance learning has flaws, but it’s kind of the best we can do right
now. I’m in fourth grade, and I go to a French school. My class only
has three and a half hours of school each week, and this is a problem.
I’m not saying I’m a superfan of school, which I’m not, but because
my teachers don’t have enough class time, they give insane amounts
of homework. That may be a bit of an exaggeration, but just yesterday
I had to do 6 or 7 things for school. (Some things I did procrastinate,
but still.) It took over an hour. 

I’m okay with the balance between class time and homework, but it’s
still sort of a problem. I understand the teachers’ job is to educate us kids,
but they don’t get the time to do so, so they give us a whole bunch of
homework instead! Just this week, I probably did over ten things for
homework! I can’t imagine the horror college students must be going
through. In high school and college, they already have about 3 hours of
homework a day, and with less time for class it must be around 5 hours!

My class had nearly 6 hours at school every day, and now when we’re on
Zoom with my class, it’s only 1 hour of French per day on Wednesdays and
Thursdays, and on Tuesdays I have 1 hour of English, and then on Fridays
I have half an hour of French reading. You’re probably asking yourself, “Why
is she listing her class schedule? I don’t care about that.” Well, I know that, and
I don’t mind. The list of my classes looks long, but it’s really not. If you do the
math, it’s only 3 and a half hours.
 
There’s not even really a website designed for distance learning, I mean there’s
Google Traslate and Zoom, which is what my class uses, but there is not
really one designed to video chat with your class. But most people use Zoom,
so it's a good enough platform.
 
In conclusion, distance learning has its flaws, but it’s doing okay. Sort of.




                                                                           Note: this is an opinion.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Volunteers

I had some of the most overqualified volunteers ever in my third grade class.  This may have had something to do with the fact that I shamelessly begged my friends to help in any way possible.  I think there were a few friends who I asked to come as soon as I met them, before I was entirely sure of their names.  Some of my volunteers included: -Someone with an MFA helping kids read -a PhD candidate in chemical engineering from Stanford helping with math -a PhD candidate in civil engineering from Cal helping with math -several PhD candidates in engineering from Cal teaching about construction (several years in a row) and helping with a field trip -my extremely talented brother bringing his drums several times -a friend from Pixar who got us tours three different years, once when they were no longer giving tours - and came to the class to sign the kids' toys from Cars . -a physical therapist (who I think has a masters') who helped the kids with reading -many athlet...

The Best Mistake

I recently wanted to get a pedicure (I promise this will be important) and was looking at nail salons nearby. I knew there was a place called Kim's Nails near my exercise class, so I quickly googled to see if I could make an appointment online (I hate calling on the phone) and it let me, so I made an appointment for a few days later and went on with my day. Later that day, I got a text confirming my appointment and I realized that I had made the appointment at the wrong Kim's Nails! I meant to make an appointment for the one in my city and I made one at a nail shop in the next city over (Kim's Nails is a common business name). Because I had already made the appointment and they had taken the time to text me, I figured I'd just go with it. OK, if you're still with me, this is where it gets exciting! A few hours after I got the confirmation text, the owner of Kim's Nails texted me again. the text just said, "Are you a teacher?" I didn't know why they...

The Endless Cycle of Teacher Strikes

 As I write this, teachers in San Francisco Unified School District are on strike for the first time in almost 50 years. Principals and custodians are also striking in solidarity. I looked up salaries to see how bad they were and... they're bad. If you're reading this from outside of the SF Bay Area and thinking "oh, this isn't this bad," please remember that San Francisco is one of the most expensive places to live in the United States. I think it may be number two after Manhattan. The average rent for a TINY studio apartment (400 square feet) in the city is $2,415 per month. The average rent for a three-bedroom apartment is $5,637. A month. (Teachers can't afford to buy property without generational wealth or a spouse who makes good money, so I'm only talking about rent)  So when I tell you that a beginning teacher starts at just over $80,000 a year in SFUSD , Again, that may sound fine in many places. That is, literally, poverty wages in San Francisco. ...