Classroom

While the classroom will resume for many local students soon, their life won't return to normalcy. Even the simple act of meeting classmates or hanging out with friends seems a pipe dream for them.

Before my daughter could return to campus, she has been "attending" interactive class via Google Classroom or Google Meet. What does it mean, specifically, to go to Google Meet? As my daughter told me, the key is to meet the teacher and learn. One hour or so in the morning. Work after class is often such a pleasure to have. One of her favorite tasks is answering "question of the day" put up by her teacher. What age would you like to be and why? Then the students would keep laughing at the replies posted on the online platform. Use three words to describe yourself. If you want to know the best answer to this question, that would be "minecrafty."

We're grateful for her school's approach to prioritize children's emotional and social health. For others, the virtual classroom can be much more inflexible and even at times boring.

Imagine sitting in front of the didactic computer screen for half day, and you can see why.

Instead of the hard-and-fast classroom schedule, my daughter can sign up at her own wish to have small group meet session, one time slot for each week, four students with teacher at one time. That's the best way to have social interaction in a virtual classroom. I can tell my daughter loves this. The way she picks different classmates each week is even more serious than choosing outfits from the closet.

One night after work, the first story my daughter shared with me is how much fun she'd had with the small group when they played the online Scribbl guessing game. A testament to the central role of social interaction when school is closed.