Online learning

Year 7 

Our wonderful Year 7 students tell us about their online learning experience!

Tuesday, March 24th 2020

by Mikayla Khushaba

On Tuesday, March 24th, we started our first day of Online Learning. I woke up at 7:35 and I was excited as it was my first day. I was new to everything but I got the hang of it.  I got dressed as soon as I had woken up, washed my face and brushed my teeth then went and did my hair. Then I sat down on my desk and got all my books ready and ate a quick snack and I got my laptop and my pencil case.  I then logged onto Moodle and Google classroom. I was liking my day so far, I thought to myself it wasn't that bad… I had something to do all day which kept me occupied as I wasn't sitting there doing nothing on my first day of online learning. 

At first, it was kind of hard to keep switching classes at the right time but soon enough I got  used to it.  It was a long day but I enjoyed it. It was different to what I expected. I still kind of miss school but it had turned out better than I had imagined.  I managed to get all my work done which was a good thing and I handed everything that was due. It was fun, as I got to call my teachers and call my friends through Zoom and Microsoft teams and it was just like our normal classes because we worked together to get our subjects done which made my day a lot faster.

At the end of the day when school finished, I had made sure that I had everything done and completed. I was very excited and happy about how my day went and I was already getting used to everything and I couldn't wait till the next day to come so that I could continue my online learning adventure.

Wednesday, March 26th 2020

by: Grace Peters 

8:00am:  As my alarm went off, I was tired and exhausted but I got myself up and brushed my teeth in the bathroom.  As my sister Jessica yelled and me saying ‘’hurry up you're going to miss class!’’, I got dressed and headed downstairs and got my laptop ready to go on Moodle - which is the platform we have been taught to use during the Online Learning lessons. 

8:30am: As I was waiting for period 1 to start, I got some breakfast and sat on the couch waiting with my laptop. As time ticked by it was 9:00.

9:00am: To start off the day, we had Italian.  For Italian, we had these fun activities to do until the end of the lesson. I quite enjoyed this Italian lesson as it was also very different to the face to face lessons.

10:35am- Period 2, we had Maths. We had to go on a call, but it wouldn't work for me, so I had to do the work by myself. I was having trouble connecting to the online chat today but I’m sure that I will figure it all out eventually.

11:55am: Period 3 was Visual Arts, and we had to do some things on our new topic which is, ‘Mysterious Creatures’.  We spent the entire lesson doing introductory activities and I quite enjoyed it.

1:40pm: Period 4, we had my favourite subject, ENGLISH! We did some stuff on picture books and we had a lot of fun doing it. Even though I had a lot of fun this lesson, as it started ending I was happy because I got to spend time with my mum and relax. That’s the one good thing about Online Learning – I get to spend a lot of time with my family.

I’m slowly getting used to this whole new experience. I must say though, I do really miss being at school, seeing all my teachers and spending time with all of my friends. 

Tuesday, March 24th, 2020 

by: Briarna Nile 

I woke up in shock, remembering that today was Tuesday, the first day of our Online Learning. I have a habit of waking up at 6:00am so it was hard to remember that I had longer to sleep in. My nanna is staying home with me today until tomorrow, when my mum comes back from her school. We just started high school a few weeks ago, so this is a huge change for me, especially being in year 7.  I was really enjoying high school as well, which makes it a little difficult but to be honest, on some days, all I wanted to do was just sleep in and now it looks like I’ll be able to do this.

I do feel that being at school is more fun because sitting at home all day made me feel a little bored. Looking at a computer all day is definitely not good for a person!  By lunch time, I felt that I sat down on the couch for two minutes and then looked at my watch and it was already 1:40, which meant, last period!! Today really went by quickly… and I’m slowly getting used to this change in teaching and learning. 

Tuesday, March 24th and Friday, March 27th, 2020

Dominic Van

Tuesday:

When I started school online, it was a Tuesday. At first, I found it hard to do because I didn't really know how to work a computer. The subjects I had today were Health, Science, Music, Art and History. These subjects were harder to do online because no one was used to doing school online. Year 7 was really attached to going to school where the teachers could talk to the students when somebody need help, while online when students need help they have to wait for the teacher to reply to them. 

Friday:

The third day of online school was kind of easy because I got the hang of some things but still don’t understand all of it. Our teachers have started doing calls so that it would be easier for students to learn and teachers could help the students. The only problem is, some people had trouble getting on the call but then the teachers would post links on google classroom. 

The link the teachers post leads to a website where they can chat with their teacher and classmates. These websites include Zoom, Moodle, Adobe Connect and Microsoft Teams. The teachers are trying to make the lesson very similar so that the students can feel like they are doing the same work they would do in the classroom. The students then know exactly what to do for work and can do it in the work time they have and can turn in their work before it is overdue, teachers can then mark the students work and can start their next lesson.​​

Year 7 - thank you.  We are very proud of you!

Miss Cupac and Mr Wilcox, Year 7 Advisers

Year 8 

It has been a challenging yet exciting couple of weeks as Cecil Hills High School changed over to online learning. It has taken the efforts of our teachers, students and parents to come together to ensure that our students continue to have a safe and engaging learning environment. 

To ensure that our Year group was logged in and adjusting to their new way of learning, we created a Microsoft Teams account that allows us to video call the year group every morning during Connect (8:35am). This gives us a chance to touch base with everyone, answer any questions and keep each other updated. 

We also introduced new challenges to keep our students engaged and add an element of fun with the power of the internet. Since then, pictures of students' pets have been shared and we’ve even posted a paper plane challenge to our students to get them up and moving! 

It has been great to see a new side of our students and get to know them on a different platform. We have more challenges and posts to come! If you are in Year 8 and haven’t seen our Teams page yet, please ensure you’ve downloaded the program and sign in with your education account. We would love to hear from you every morning. 

Ms Phan and Mr Faga