How should students prepare for the upcoming changes when schools reopen?

19th May 2020

Due to the outbreak of Covid-19, we all have to isolate ourselves at home, are you missing school days? It seems that we haven’t been to school for more than two months now. According to UNESCO, coronavirus lockdown measures have partially or fully closed schools across 186 countries and territories, and more than 90% of the world’s student population has been affected. So far, some countries and cities have started reopening schools, then the schools in the UK will be opening the earliest in June as well. What will differ after schools reopen, and how should students best prepare for it? This week, let’s have a look at the changes and challenges that are related to safety measures at schools, online learning mode in the classroom, as well as concerns on students’ learning progress after schools resume; and discuss the ways to tackle these issues.

Let’s start with the safety concerns of school reopening first. After this pandemic, many schools will redefine safety rules and its importance, for example, keeping 1.5-meter social distance between people to reduce the risk of infection. For the safety policy of reopening schools, the UK government published a document regarding measures such as limiting class sizes. There are possibilities that different year groups of pupils will take turns between studying in school and at home, or that they will be allocated in different small groups to go to schools on a rotational basis. Some pupils may go to schools in the mornings, and others in the afternoons. Classrooms may be redesigned to allow larger space between students to maintain social distancing. Pupils may take their breaks at different times to avoid the overwhelming free flow at peak hours. However, how will these new rules affect friendship and relationship building among students? Although we couldn’t give a big hug to friends as before, we could still wave and smile within the safe distance. Also, the current advancement of technology also allows us to catch up with friends through different online platforms and social media. As long as we all stay healthy, our friendship will not be cut off simply due to social distancing. Perhaps, once we go through all the ups and downs after the pandemic, our friendship may even be strengthened and deepened. All in all, it is still important to remember to wash your hands often, keep air circulation, have nutritious diet, protect yourself, so as to protect others around you.

In addition, most of us are now receiving remote learning and become more and more familiar with online learning platforms. Even teachers we used to meet every day will now appear on the screens only. Will our classroom still be the same when schools reopen, will students rely on the Internet more than ever before? In fact, some students may continue to use online/blended learning model, which is also beneficial for schools improving their techniques and resources in supporting remote/blended learning. In addition, the role of teachers will also be equipped with network-assisted teaching, with some even using cameras to record their lessons for students who are learning from home. Whether the learning model will be only face-to-face or online, it is just a platform for learning. The most important part of learning is still about our learning attitude, therefore the environment will not stop our enthusiasm for learning. Despite that fact that we might need to take time to adjust back to school life when we first return to schools – such as waking up in the early morning to get ourselves dressed, running back to the classroom when the bell rings, queuing at the canteen for lunch, with some continue to stay home to use the Internet for online lessons. Nonetheless, I believe we will eventually get used to it with time. After all, we have been missing schools and those worry-free days with our friends and teachers at school during the lockdown haven’t we? Regardless of the advancement and convenience of Internet today, the key element of learning is still the connection between people and the encouragement from our teachers at school, this will never be replaced by distance learning.

Moreover, the many benefits of distance learning still cannot guarantee the ongoing learning progress of the students. These can be also correlated to students’ self-motivation, the interaction via online platforms, as well as the arrangement of learning contents. For example, when students have questions, they may not always get a response from teachers immediately. On an online platform, students can also somehow lack the opportunity to communicate and learn from their peers. Furthermore, some students might not even have their own tablet or personal computer due to their financial condition. When some parents also need to use the computer to work from home, students will then find it even harder to access online lessons. Perhaps, the best thing we can do now is to cherish the opportunity that we have to take classes online and to study hard. At the end of the day, we still own the knowledge that we learnt. If we choose to give in and are not willing to keep up with the progress now, we might even find it harder to catch up with the progress when we return to school. With the resources provided online, we can then also review the previous learning materials to gain new insight, and in doing so we can then keep up with the learning effectively at our own pace.

Hope the sharing above can help students better prepare for the challenge of returning back to school, and also cherish great learning resources and opportunities that we possess. KnewSTEP Education wishes all students a happy return back to schools. After the pandemic, we will find out the COVID-19 experience is just a small setback in our life, there are more difficult challenges in front of us. Carpe Diem, let us cherish this moment and live a wonderful life even better than before. Good luck!

Photo Reference:
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http://we.sflep.com/resource/readingdetail.aspx?type=3&id=36827
http://news.fzg360.com/home/news/detail/id/486581
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