STUDENT HIGHLIGHT: KAMRYN SAYS, “DON’T GET OVERWHELMED!”
“When it comes to online school you need to have four things: persistence, push-through, time management, and a great attitude. It can be very easy to let the time slip away and procrastinate your schooling. Persistence is a key factor in being able to do school. You need to be able to not give up, and keep looking forward, even if the mountain in front of you is huge. Time management is key. There are only so many hours in the day and you want to maximize your time. You want to sleep in but stay out late. You may want to hang out with your friends but you have schoolwork laying heavy on your chest. Doing online school is all about maximizing your time. You can make the day all yours if you put your mind to it.
FIND YOUR DAILY ROUTINE TO STAY ON TRACK
In my experience, I have learned to get my schoolwork done as soon as possible. It leaves the rest of the day open for whatever I want to do. I start my school day anywhere from 8:00-9:00 am each day. I take a break around 10 to eat breakfast most days and then I have lunch around 12:45. It can be hard to stay in a routine daily and I don’t stick to my routine each day because life happens. However, I try my best to stick to it. It takes 21 days to create a habit. So for those 21 days if you wake up around 8 or 9 it will begin to be a routine. You may find yourself waking up earlier as well. Something very important I have learned to do is find joy in my school. When you feel excited to learn it makes all the difference. You want to be ahead in your classes because you are having fun, or maybe you just want to get the class over with. That’s okay as well, for me, I’m not a huge math fan. (sorry Mrs. Garner 🙂 However, I have learned to push myself to keep going.
…NOT A PERFECT STUDENT
Now I may sound like the perfect student, happy to learn, ALWAYS ahead, and inspired. However, I have had my fair share of mishaps in school. I can think of 4 specific times when I was behind and had to really push myself to finish on time. When I say behind I mean EXTREMELY BEHIND. Like 75 assignments behind, in 2 classes!!! I had to learn hard lessons along the way. I missed out on going to the Great Wolf Lodge last year because I was so behind and I had 50 assignments overdue and I had 5 days to get it all done. My most recent experience was actually a few weeks ago. I took some time off of school for personal reasons and I had just enough banked hours as well. But when I came back I was faced with a huge amount of schoolwork on my plate. I was in ELA 10 B and Geometry 10 A, one class I love and one class that requires me to watch the instruction video 3 times to understand. I was very overwhelmed when I saw I had a lovely 147 over-due assignments total. At first, I panicked. I was freaking out and planning to just get by to 70% so I could get an extension. I told myself that if I just got there I would be fine. I was ready to settle and use an extension for each class. But I knew deep down inside there was a way I could do it.
So I began tackling schoolwork. I worked about 7 hours a day and it was tough!!! My brain felt fried at the end of the day but by the grace of God, I did it!!! I pushed through, I planned out the amount of work I needed to get done, and I worked and worked and worked some more. I am beyond happy to say I finished my English class 10 days early and passed the class with a 90. And as I am writing this I am preparing for my math final this Wednesday! I chose to push through and not give up, I held on to every last bit of hope I had and finished both classes!”