Who knew that after spring break, we would never set foot back on campus for school. Due to the coronavirus outbreak, St. Andrew’s has moved all classes to online. While it’s been a big change for everyone, some faculty and students have found it beneficial, while others have not. Some of the pros that come along with learning online is feeling more comfortable and in control while working from home. English teacher Matt Luter and Freshman Natalie Orgeron agree that working at home has its benefits.

      “There is a comfort in doing things from home, for sure,” Luter said. “I have greater control over the temperature, when I want to eat lunch, etc. It also can be really beneficial for people who are comfortable with self-pacing their learning and who maintain good self-discipline about that.”

      “You have all of your work ahead of time, the days seem to go by quickly, you can sleep later, and you can work from the comfort of your home,” Orgeron said.

      While Luter and Orgeron felt that working at home to be comforting, they also found the downsides of being away from the SA campus.

      “Aside from the obvious answer of missing regular in-person interaction, when you work from home It becomes a little harder to draw a line between work and rest/leisure/not-work,” Luter said. “I do have to log out of my work email entirely and close my laptop when I’m calling it a day and ready to cook dinner.”

      From a student’s stand-point, some downsides include missing your friends, difficulty turning in homework/papers, or communication with teachers.

      “It’s not as easy to talk to your teachers, there are a lot of technical issues that could happen, you’re stuck in your house all day, and turning assignments in is more difficult online,” Orgeron said.

      Another big downside that students have found is how stressful online schooling can be. In the first week of classes, students found issues with having 5 o’clock deadlines, eighty-minute lectures, and loads of homework each night. However, due to all the students comments about it, Mrs. Chadwick has changed deadlines to 9 o’clock and encouraged teachers not to take up the full eighty minutes. As the second week is coming to an end, students are still complaining about the piles of homework they are receiving. Junior Dallas Ford has found the progress to be very stressful and wish teachers would be more considerate when assigning work.

      “I feel like I have more work than I did when school was normal,” Ford said. “Like teachers who normally didn’t assign a lot of work are giving us a lot and then teachers who already did give a lot are giving more. It’s very overwhelming.”

      Mrs. Chadwick, and other faculty members, are working hard to make this learning experience as stress-free as possible. As the next few weeks go by, more changes may occur to help ease the stress of high school students.