By L. Zheng, E. Dujardin, and T. Lee, staff writers
Distance learning was an unexpected turn for Galileo teachers and students when the pandemic hit back in March, leaving everyone no choice but to stay at home. Now that distance learning is a way of life, the Galileopress decided to interview both a Galileo High School teacher and student to get a better picture of what school life is like during distance learning for a teacher compared to a student.
With the new distance learning schedule at Galileo, Mondays consist of 6 class periods each lasting 40 minutes, while the rest of the week consists of 3 classes a day each lasting a total of 1 hour and 20 minutes.
Every morning, Psychology teacher Ms. Ung, wakes up around 6:30-7 am. She starts her day off by cleaning up, eating breakfast, and getting her daughter ready for daycare. After checking her emails and reviewing her class agendas, Ms.Ung starts to get ready to start class. Although overall she prefers teaching at Galileo, Ms. Ung does feel there are some benefits from teaching at home. She says, “the positive [of teaching from home] is that I don’t have to worry about packing a lunch for myself everyday or looking for parking around campus.”
Comparatively, Junior Queenie Tran doesn’t start off her day off until 7:20 am, getting out of bed and going to brush her teeth and make breakfast. Queenie starts getting ready to join her classes at around 8:50. Before she joins her class, she sets up her bed table and grabs all her materials needed for that day. She said, “I feel like my mornings are very consistent because I wake up mostly at the same time and get my school stuff ready.”
During the day Ms. Ung’s schedule is extremely busy as she has to teach psychology classes in both the morning and after lunch. In regards to teaching over Zoom, Ms. Ung says, “ I don’t like it, but I’m managing. Ironically, I find that technology has slowed my efficiency. Less material is being covered and some of my interactive activities are falling by the wayside. It’s more difficult to read a room and play off of a class’s energy.”
During lunch, she usually calls other teachers at Galileo that she used to see on a daily basis during her lunch break and they would talk about the weather, T.V. shows, and just catch up with each other.
After her classes end for the day, Ms. Ung isn’t off the hook. She still continues to grade assignments, plans for her future classes and answers her student’s emails. After that, she usually picks up her daughter, goes on a walk or works out, cooks dinner, spends time with her family, then goes back and continues her work, and then finally goes to bed.
Compared to Ms. Ung’s busy schedule that lasts the whole day, Queenie starts off her school day feeling rather slow and tired going into her first class, U.S. History Honors. But as the day goes on she starts to feel more energetic and by the time lunch comes around she is ready to take a break.
Queenie’s rest of the day is spent doing homework since she gets out of school earlier than when she went to school in person. She usually spends 3 to 4 hours on her homework depending on what classes she has on that day. After she’s done with her work she’ll go rest on her bed for some time, take a shower, and if time, have dinner. She will spend the rest of the evening streaming shows and going on social media. She gets ready to go to bed at around 11:30.
Unlike Ms. Ung, she doesn’t call her Galileo friends to catch up, instead, she likes to get a head start on her homework so that she has less to do later on. Her first two classes after lunch usually go smoothly until she gets to her last class of the day.
Queenie Tran says, “So far online learning is okay. I guess I prefer to go in person but online learning is good too because of the amount of homework I’m given. And the school times.”
