Sarah Johnston, senior at Saint Francis High School

Since many schools have closed due to the coronavirus pandemic, many high school students are going to school online in what is called distance learning. Some of them communicate with their teachers via email or websites, like gClassroom and Schoology. Others participate in online classrooms via video conferencing apps, like Google Hangouts and Zoom. The Catalyst interviewed Sarah Johnston, a senior at Saint Francis High School in Mountain View, about her experiences going to school online.

Ally Lawrence, Staff Writer

The Catalyst (TC): What is a typical day of school like for you?

Sarah Johnston (SJ): Before online school, we had classes every day from 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Now that it’s online, we have each day of the week being devoted to a different subject, and we have drop-in hours on Zoom. For me, it takes about an hour to get the day’s assignment done, and then I am able to just do whatever I want or get ahead on things, such as essays or projects.

TC: How are you coping with social distancing and shelter in place, yet keeping in touch with your friends and significant other?

SJ: It’s been pretty hard keeping in touch, but I think that technology has helped me a lot. As far as my friends go, we’ve scheduled different Zoom’s, and we all play an iMessage game which has been nice. As far as talking to my boyfriend, we’ve just been texting and FaceTiming, but it’s been hard not being able to see him. The shelter in place has been tough because I can’t leave my house. So, my days are a lot slower, and I’m finding myself to be super bored all the time.

TC: How do you feel about online school? What do you like or dislike about it?

SJ: I really like being able to work on my own schedule and being able to get up a little bit later in the morning because, on typical school days, I do have to commute about 40 minutes to school. So, I’ve been saving a lot of time just being able to do stuff from home. What I don’t like about it is that, oftentimes, I don’t know when assignments are due and it’s been very confusing trying to keep up with six different classes. We are getting a lot less busy work and a lot more big projects. I’m predicting that this is gonna last until the end of the year, so I just think it’s going to get a little bit harder, especially with finals and trying to do testing and stuff.