Learning from home in difficult times
In normal times I would attend the Steinbeis Gemeinschaftschule (Steinbeis Community School) in my hometown, Ilsfeld. But since the school closed on March 16, I’ve been working on my own.
Recently we returned to our school again but as the situation hasn’t cleared up yet, we don’t attend classes as usual. This means that we go to school only for a few hours then work from home again.
The homeschooling situation during isolation was a bit difficult for me since I had no one to help me out beside my friends who texted with me. And that was difficult in itself. We didn’t have video chats with our teachers very often. We were given homework with only a few instructions, and sometimes not even that.
My parents weren’t able to help me out since we are foreigners and don’t know the language very well. My first language is Macedonian; I came to Germany with my family when I was 13 years old. When we first came here, it was really hard for me since I couldn't speak the language very well. I was able to understand more. Staying in a foreign country and having to learn the language isn't as easy as it might seem. You do have a lot of contact with native speakers but my friends were also foreigners, like me, so we often found ourselves struggling when trying to explain something.
Those were difficult times but I'm sure whoever is or might be going through the same understands me. You are not alone. There are thousands of people around the world struggling with what you are. It might seem like you're alone, but trust me, you aren't.
In order to do my homework, often I had to ask my classmates for help, or try and do the work on my own using the books we had been given at the beginning of the year.
I can't say that my academic life has gotten better during isolation. I've had many troubles with my homework and mental health. I feel like not being able to go out of the house for more than a week — let alone two-and-a-half months — messes with your head. Other than doing homework, all I’ve done was help around the house a bit or stay on my phone, watching videos and catching up with friends. It wasn't a very interesting time.
I hope the situation gets better and we begin again with school as we normally would.