Students at CHS have been faced with many distractions that the virtual aspect of school brings. As students are at home and meeting via computer video calls it can be easy to stop paying attention to class and finding something to distract yourself. Often, students find themselves with their cameras off and glued to their phones or video games. The main way to eliminate these is simply realizing you are doing them. This can be hard as students are in their own homes and it can seem like you can do whatever you want. It’s important to remember that we still have school and are in class and need to devote our attention to that. Some steps that have worked to eliminate distractions and do school when it is time to do so include putting your phone away from you and leaving a room that has a TV that can distract you. Sophomore Graham Morrison says “I used to sit in my living room and do school all day, often time I would get bored and start playing Fortnite and totally get off track and have no idea what was going on in class”. He went on to say he has since moved his location and has noticed he can focus better. If those things aren’t there you will pay your full attention to what the lesson or activity is. It can also help to turn your camera on. This way it won’t be so easy to scroll Instagram during class as the teacher can see you on the phone. Not only does this make it more realistic, but it also keeps you more involved and focused and prevents distractions from easily affecting you. It is good to try to treat online school like in-person classes, you can’t be on your phone in class all day and video games are defiantly not allowed. Senior Noah Boswinkal told me that he “turns off his phone during class so he is not tempted to look at”. This has helped him stay alert to what is going on in class the whole time.

Although we might not be in school, the times we have online meetings are very important. Students are meeting with teachers less each week than we have in prior years. If your attention isn’t on what the lesson is it can be really easy to fall behind. Senior Gabby Sifri said that “even if you miss 5 minutes of class it can seem like a lot more for how much little time we have”. This is a great point and one to remember. Don’t distract yourself with things you can do any other time during the 4 hours 4 times a work you are to learn. Being distracted during these crucial times does not benefit students at all. If you find yourself distracted, try to remove those and you may be happily surprised.