I strongly believe that finding motivation to learn online is an issue most students are facing, and I have seen firsthand how my peers and I are not as engaged as we were before the pandemic. I feel disconnected from my peers and teachers, which has led me to be less motivated to participate in class.

I entered the foster care system when I was eight years old. I have attended over seven schools, so I am familiar with changing environments and adapting to new learning.

While I do my best in navigating this new way of learning as a sophomore in high school, I feel that teachers and school leaders need to strategize how to keep students more engaged. I have three ideas for keeping students engaged that I’d like educators across the district to consider.

  1. Principals and teachers should implement a session for students to talk about how the pandemic has affected our lives. This would help teachers become more aware of what should be reasonably expected from us.
  2. Teachers should require students to turn on our cameras. This is important because as a student who struggles with focusing in class, having the option to have my camera shut off allows me to become distracted. It is very tempting to sleep, eat, or be on my cell phone because I know that the teacher and students cannot see me, which creates bad habits.
  3. Teachers should provide more hands-on learning projects and new activities to keep us engaged instead of having tasks that require us to look at a screen for so long. My school has created a schedule that is shorter than our traditional class time, which is something I have found helpful, but our screen time is still extensive because assignments outside of class time must be done online as well.

Read the full article about remote learning by Alexa C.P. at The 74.