On-screen boredom: My first-day experience with virtual learning in Prince William schools

The night before the first day of school is usually an exciting and sleepless one for me.

I’m pondering what I’m going to wear, what new friends I might make, and dreading or looking forward to the teachers I have. This virtual school year, however, didn’t give me that same feeling. In my mind, there wasn’t exactly anything to look forward too: I couldn’t interact with my classmates, I couldn’t have conversations with my favorite teachers, and I couldn’t have the often romanticized senior year everyone talks about. So I went to bed at a reasonable time, more filled with curiosity than anything else.

I awoke the next day at 9 a.m., the late wakeup time being of the blessings online learning had to offer, as my first class that day didn’t start until 10 a.m. I dressed with a bit of lackluster, as no one was going to see anything but my shirt anyways, and sat at my desk awaiting my first Zoom class of the day: AP Statistics.

The class, once it was in session, could only be described as two things: awkward and a bit boring. Awkward because of the long stretches of silence that often fell over us, as most of the students, myself included, refused to discuss their summers, and boring simply because I had to blankly stare at a screen instead of truly interact with my teacher.

I would have preferred sitting in a classroom wearing my meticulously picked first-day outfit, but, I didn’t complain, COVID-19 was worse than missing out on the first day of my senior year.

Once the class ended, a slight bit early to allow me and my classmates to begin our homework assignment, my one-hour lunch block began. It was a welcomed break, although one that felt a bit odd and misplaced as I hadn’t really done any real work yet.

When physically in school, lunch occurs after the first two periods, at varying times depending on the class the student was assigned during lunchtime. While that system makes more sense in my mind, virtual lunch was better. In-person lunch could occur as early as 10:18 am depending on the class, while my virtual lunch occurred at 11:20 am.

My next two classes flew by. They had the same awkwardness and staring-blankly-at-a-screen boredom, with varying levels of enjoyability based on the subject and teacher. They all assigned a small bit of get-to-know-you first day of school fluff homework assignments or pre-tests to gauge our knowledge of the subject matter.

At the end of the day, I felt odd, and like I hadn’t really done anything at all or even actually gone to school. Typically, on the first day of school, teachers don’t teach the course material, but I never felt like I hadn’t done anything with myself that day before. I didn’t even feel like an actual student on a ‘pursuit of knowledge,’ I just felt like I was watching something on my computer screen.

It wasn’t my favorite thing in the world, but, it’s the new normal, and I and my fellow students will simply have to adapt and accommodate to it.

The majority of Prince William County’s 92,000 public schools students returned to school today, using Zoom to learn instead of going to a school building, due to the coronavirus pandemic. 

Gianna Jirak is a reporter for Potomac Local News and a senior at Hylton High School in Woodbridge.