The point of school is to learn in a classroom environment, but how can that happen when we are in the midst of a global pandemic? While things are getting somewhat better, the rate of Covid-19 cases continues to be a concern in Virginia, resulting in the transition to the hybrid schedule. The hybrid schedule allows at least fifty percent of the week to in-person instruction, while students spend the rest of the week learning from home. Although my initial reaction was the thought of more freedom, both my daily life and activities have been impacted in ways I did not expect. There are both pros and cons to the hybrid schedule that are unique in different ways. 

The best part of the hybrid schedule is being able to rewatch class recordings. This is beneficial since students are able to gain a better understanding of concepts and can review the content multiple times. This has been extremely helpful in my case because I am new to BASIS Independent Mclean and the curriculum is sometimes hard to approach. The ability to review the classes allows me to review the concepts I struggled with during class. Another positive change concerns deadlines for homework. On Schoology, most assignments are due at 11:59 p.m. rather than in class that day. This is beneficial to most students because they have more time to work and revise. 

Another pro is access to course material when I am at my best learning ability instead of the designated class time. This applies to asynchronous learning days when we have specific work that we can complete in a longer timeframe. According to Mr. Smith, one pro of our schedule is that each class gets equal class time over zoom and in school. Mr. Williams, says that another pro of the hybrid schedule is that students are learning higher levels of organization. I strongly agree with Mr. Williams’s statement because I know that I am becoming more organized by managing my different schedules and the immense workload. 

While there are pros to the hybrid schedule, there are also cons. For example, students are not getting as much attention as they were in the typical five-day-a-week on campus schedule. In upper grades, full attention is more important because of college and high school admissions and tests. Another con is that with the two groups within our grade, one might fall behind the other. From talking to the students in the other cohort, we are not covering the exact same material at the same time. According to Mr. Williams, a con is that it makes teaching and lesson planning fairly difficult. Mr. Smith says another con is that there are multiple calendars to look at, referring to the different schedules for the red and blue cohorts and the senior class, who attend campus four days a week. Overall, I think that the main con is that the schedule is very confusing for both students and teachers.

While this year is unusual, we should try to make the best of it and reach our maximum learning ability with the situation at hand. Personally, I think BASIS Independent McLean is doing a great job with safety guidelines while still teaching us a great amount. There are definitely both pros and cons to having a schedule like this and it is important to take full advantage of the fact that we are in person while most schools in our area are not.