Locked In But Not Locked Out Of Learning – Articles By Grade 8 Students

“The world is changing!”

We often hear this statement in news, lectures, discussions, speeches, etc., but never in our dreams had we thought that the change would come in such a way! Yes, we do agree there have been many changes for the betterment of the people around the world. The change helps them live a happy and healthy life, to get educated, to get a good job, and the list goes on.

The advent of this pandemic dawn has pushed everyone indoors and made things virtual. Never would have we thought that almost everything we do would become digital. Working, teaching, learning, studying, practising a skill, etc., is all online. And this phase highlights the real importance of the Internet and what an important role it plays in everybody’s life, every day.

Since the beginning, Meu International School has been a school known to encourage the use of technology. Therefore, the learning here did not face any hindrance; neither did our students when the lockdown came into effect. They are at home indeed but not missing out on their lessons and studies. Having a vision of unstoppable learning and a spirit for striving hard always, we have utilised various online platforms to help our student continue their lessons from the comfort of their homes. Everyone has a different experience, and here is a glimpse into the little world of our talented students/writers, Prisha and Hansika. Read their award-winning piece of writing to know how are they coping up with their online studies and the new change.

Meru Virtual School  Prisha [VIII-C]    

As the world is facing the Coronavirus pandemic, the governments of all around the world have declared a lockdown to prevent this virus from spreading. In this difficult time, we, as the citizens of India, should contribute to making our nation healthy and relive from this unwanted situation. To do this, we should just stay at home and stay engaged in other things by reducing our screen time.

To do this our school, Meru International School has organized an online platform for their students so that they don’t miss out academics. This is a very innovative way to keep students busy and away from boredom. In this, they have created Flinnt, an online platform for students and teachers to interact. The teacher’s post content in the form of videos and notes which are extremely helpful. To check our understanding, we have quizzes and worksheets created by the teachers which we solve and if we have any kind of doubt or if we want the teacher to check our worksheet we send them in word files thorough Gmail in which our teachers give us feedback on how to attempt the worksheet better. This gave us a great experience in learning on online platforms. But this was not all.

To make our learning even fun, we had the face to face classes with our subject teachers which we enjoyed a lot. Talking to the teachers live and understanding concepts and interacting with them was a splendid experience for us. In Flinnt, we have not only scholastic things but also had extra-curricular activities like music, dance, physical exercise, art and much more. We also had fun competitions among us students, and we showed or talent in different aspects. This was indeed a wonderful experience. But this wouldn’t be as lively as it was without our hard-working teachers who keep working all the time for us without a break. Whatever is the situation, nobody can restrict us to receive an education.

I think that this idea of Meru International School was great because this not only is helpful to us but also inspires us that we can overcome any situation with the right approach and proper planning.

My Experience About Meru Virtual School - Hansika Chagantipati [VIII-A]

We are, at present, in a hectic environment with this dangerous Coronavirus (COVID-19). It’s now time to stay alert and safe at our own houses. This year 2020 was unexpected for everyone because of this crisis caused by Coronavirus, and it’s better to stay in our respective homes and practice learning in a more interesting and enjoyable manner.

So Meru International School came up with the concept of unstoppable learning as a high priority and decided to have an online platform which makes our learning more easy and comfortable! It has been a great pleasure for me to interact with teachers through online video classes and Flinnt. It is an opportunity for us to interact with teachers personally via mails and also through digital-learning. Teachers clarify our doubts when asked, and the videos and notes about a particular topic would be uploaded in Flinnt, and this has been a better way to understand concepts more clearly.

It also gives me great pleasure to come in contact with teachers and my friends in a more friendly environment through online video classes. This has been going awesome, and we get scheduled classes 12 hrs in advance, which has been so comfortable for us to plan for the next day of class.

Teachers have also been interacting with us so well, which increases our interest in digital learning! Meru International School did not only come up with curricular but also co-curricular activities which make us stay fit as well as active the whole day. I think Meru International School deserves a great appreciation from our parents and as well as others!! It is a great opportunity for me to attend these virtual classes, and I’m proud to be a Meruvian!!