Hybrid Helpfulness

It's interesting to see and hear the varying perspectives of students and how they feel about the hybrid learning format.  Recently I have heard a lot of students being grateful for this set up because they are thankful that they aren't in school every day and have the social distancing, but still get to see their peers and learn directly from their teachers.  For me though, I have been watching grades and I have to tell you that I am getting concerned as we draw near the end of the 1st quarter.  It worries me that so many students appear to be struggling to stay focused during your "at home" learning days.  I know that this is a change in format and perhaps it wouldn't be your first choice of how school would happen, but I want to remind you that there are some really helpful aspects of hybrid in preparing you for your future.

When you get to college, most of your classes will meet 2-3 days a week and you will have the rest of your week to work on your course content independently.  This is just like what you are doing with hybrid.  The ability to learn how to manage your time now, while you are still at home with the support of your parents and the free education vs when you are in college and you have to pay for your classes and your grades have even higher stakes, is such a gift.  For juniors and seniors especially, this is the time to be thinking about how you are taking ownership over your education and balancing your commitments so that you can learn effectively.  If, for example, you are struggling to focus when you are trying to read your textbook (which will happen in college at times too) then what are some strategies that you can try out to help you push through that block?  Perhaps it is switching to a different area for doing your studying/ reading.  That is definitely a common answer I hear from a lot of college students as they realize that they couldn't always study well in their dorm rooms because of the distractions present and so they had to go to a study room, the library, or a coffee shop.  You can do that too.  If you are struggling to keep on top of what all needs to be done in a day or a week, then this is a great time to experiment with different assignment tracking styles.  Maybe that is writing the assignments down on a dry erase board by date, keeping a to-do list, using a planner or app, or setting reminders on your phone, but there are countless ways that you can work to learn how to stay on top of the requirements for your classes.  Aside from losing focus or not knowing or forgetting what needs to be done for classes, the other big challenge I hear from students related to hybrid has been lack of motivation.  My feedback on the lack of motivation is probably not what you'll expect... but stop searching for the motivation.  Just start building in the discipline to get it done.  Having the self-discipline to get things done is easier to find than the motivation.  You are not always going to feel like doing your homework for class, but you still need to do it.  So rather than having the emotional battle within yourself just acknowledge that you don't really WANT to do it, but that you NEED to do it and then just suck it up and push through.  Usually, what most students will find is that the more you rely on the self-discipline to get things done the easier that process will become and often the motivation will follow because you will WANT to get the work over with so that you can do other things that you'd prefer to do later.  (And you won't do those other things first because you have cultivated that self-discipline to take care of the need to do's before the want to do's.)

Reframing the challenges of hybrid to think of how it is training you to be better prepared for college is a great way to be looking at this year.  I realize that college still feels a long ways away, but it will go fast and taking responsibility for your education now in high school will pay off for you in the long run when you have already learned how to manage these responsibilities before college!