After 2 whole years of learning remotely, our return to normality is nearing. Despite us being comfortable in our own humble abodes, face-to-face (F2F) classes have begun, meaning that we students who are able to return to campus will have to adapt. To show how that process is going, here are a few days in the life of a Grade 11 Student getting used to full F2F days.
Wednesday, Day One- Sean
6:30 am- Waking up. At 6:30. It’ll take a while to get used to this…
7:00 am- After showering, eating breakfast (Cornflakes), brushing my teeth, getting changed, and packing my stuff I was ready to head over to school for my first full day on campus.
7:30 am- Arrived on campus for Math AA SL (AA stands for analytics & approaches) because doing math is the best thing to do first thing in the morning.
9:10 am- Just finished my first 1 HOUR and 25 MINUTE class in 2 years by learning about finite integration. (which I surprisingly understood!) One thing I’ve quickly realized is that I need way more energy because classes this long are exhausting.
10:00 am- ELO is done. We went through some of the basic guidelines to follow so we can stay safe. Now it’s time for a quick snack break before I head over to English.
11:00 am- Midway through English doing a Kahoot on the sci-fi novel we are analyzing called “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” by Phillip K. Dick.
11:45 am- My team didn’t win the Kahoot despite me being the only one who has read the entirety of the book…. I blame the school WiFi. Anyway, it’s lunch time!
12:25 pm- Finished my lunch (it was cold roasted chicken and rice since we can’t use the microwaves), time for TOK (Theory of Knowledge) hopefully I can understand what is being said in this class today.
1:50 pm- Third block is done and I am worn out as full days on campus are very tiring. At least I only have one class left, which is Psychology.
3:20 pm- In Psychology, we went in pairs and started working on videos describing certain cognitive biases, errors, and fallacies. I managed to get a good amount of work done but class ended meaning we can finally go home.
5:00 pm- Passed out and took a nap to wake up and have an early dinner (Jollibee burger steak with rice if you were wondering).
7:00 pm- After dinner, I had some ice cream and watched a few sitcoms like Friends and Seinfield on Netflix just to relax after a long day at school.
8:00 pm- Before going to bed I caught up on some Mandarin homework I had to finish and a quiz I needed to prepare for the next day.
9:00 pm- Finished studying, so I decided to sleep now to hopefully have more energy than I did today.
Thursday, Day Two- Sean
6:30 am- Will you look at that? It’s another day where I’m waking up at the same time for my second full day of face-to-face learning. I followed my normal routine and started my day with some Froot Loops.
7:15 am- Made it on campus earlier than usual giving me time to socialize, check social media, and prepare for the first class of the day, Biology.
9:00 am- My first class for today is complete! We had a review of what we learned last time with a game of Hangman and discussed some more evidence for evolution which was intriguing.
10:00 am- Our ELO session was used to study so I practiced a few suggested Math questions on integration and reviewed the vocabulary in the quiz I have for Mandarin today.
11:30 am- In Business, my second block, we continued our work for the Business IA (Internal Assessment), where we decided on a research question and the problem that will be looked at in the IA.
12:15 pm- Just had my lunch (4 ham and cheese sandwiches), and now it’s almost time for Mandarin… let’s pray I don’t forget the dictation vocabulary for the quiz today.
1:30 pm- Phew, I think I managed to do ok for the Mandarin quiz. After the quiz though, we played a drawing game where we had to draw what the person was describing in Chinese (sorry no photo evidence here my drawing is shameful). We also tried to make sentences with random words that were presented to us and none of us really made much so we laughed at our failure.
3:20 pm- Study block went by quicker than I thought it would as I started analyzing a text for Mandarin and worked on my Psychology video for the Dunning-Kruger Effect.
3:30 pm: Unlike yesterday, today I actually have a club so I couldn’t go home and rest instead we had our first ever in-person Student Support club session in 2 years.
3:40 pm: My time in Student Support club didn’t last long however as I was summoned to do line reading for Production.
4:30 pm: Line reading actually wasn’t too bad it was funny acting in front of others since we really haven’t done that together in a while. Anyway, it’s time to finally go home.
5:30 pm: Had dinner again around the same time (It was 2 slices of pepperoni pizza).
7:00 pm: No ice cream today sadly but I still enjoyed relaxing by watching the President of Ukraine’s comedy series called “Servant of the People” which is about a history teacher suddenly becoming president and coincidentally, he became president a few years later and is president today.
8:30 pm: I did my Wordle variants (I recommend Globle, Flaggle, and Wordle for geography geeks and Quordle, Octordle, and Sedecordle for crazy and longer Wordles). Afterward, I studied and then called it a day.
Friday, Day Three- Sean
6:30 am- It’s Friday the last day of the week till the weekend! I did my usual routine, had a bowl of Cornflakes, and got ready for another day of face-to-face.
7:30 am- Arriving on campus with a bit more energy as I am excited for the weekend so I did my Wordle just before I started with Research Skills (Extended Essay class).
9:15 am- Research Skills wasn’t too bad as we got into groups to learn about how to include context in our Extended Essay, and watch people do non-dominant handwriting battles on the whiteboard as our “brain break”.
10:00 am- ELO was another solid study session where I managed to finish my Mandarin text analysis and start reviewing for Biology. Next up is Psychology!
11:45 am- Psychology was decent as it was a solid lecture on Loss Aversion Bias but now it’s lunchtime where I have the same sandwiches I had from yesterday.
1:00 pm- Midway through Math learning how to use the calculator for a certain integration technique and now he’s assigned me a special mission I have to unpack and understand… yay.
1:50 pm- It’s English, the last class of the day and how could the week be capped off any better by watching the movie “Ready Player One” in class to help us be aware of the similar themes seen in the movie, and the book we are reading.
3:30 pm- Class may be over but my extracurriculars aren’t because I’m attending my first ever in-person Advocacy in Action meeting.
4:30 pm- That was fun we discussed Gender Roles and Double Standards present in our society which was fascinating. After going back home I realized that I missed my Virtual Assembly Team scriptwriting call (Sorry Ms. Basa and the others). This is most likely why I have to record myself emceeing this script tomorrow morning…
6:00 pm- Just had dinner (Chicken wings and rice) and I ended up seeing my Quarter Three report card… Because of how exhausting it is to think about my parent’s reaction to my report card I took a break to watch some Youtube.
8:00 pm- After my Youtube catch-up was over, I the introduction to this article and did some Mandarin work. While doing my Mandarin I remember that I almost ruined my Duolingo daily streak. So after continuing my streak, I settled down and went to bed.
Well, there it is, after two years of remote learning the adaptation to regular classes has been a captivating process. With this return to some form of normal, I’ve personally been trying to get back to maintaining a healthier lifestyle and routine while truly manifesting the benefit of learning at the campus. Just seeing everyone actually in person being able to come to school like we used to, and not have our faces pinned to a screen the whole day has been super refreshing. Overall, I’m very grateful that we are back to full face-to-face classes, and those who aren’t on campus yet you are really missing out!
Stay safe but also have fun everyone, we are almost through this!
Article by Sean, K. (Grade 11); Feature image by Anya, C. (Grade 11)
The views expressed in this article represent the personal views of the author and should not be taken to represent the views of Dragon’s Print and Cebu International School.
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