Canvas is another mountain we didn’t need
In this world where nothing is constant and everything could seemingly fall apart in a split second, why must we change something that we have used our entire school career?
Students and teachers alike have been thrown every obstacle possible this year. From learning how to take and teach classes through Zoom to having our sports and dances cancelled, we have adapted to hybrid, online, and back to full in-person school over and over and over. With each change, we attempt to take on these challenges with some dignity, but the district decided to switch our online learning platform from Google Classroom—a system that has been used and understood for years. It’s hard to stay motivated when it feels like nobody has our best interest at heart.
To say that I have an emotional attachment to Google Classroom might be a bit dramatic. However, the satisfaction and relief I get from pressing the submit button knowing I just turned in a hard assignment is unparalleled, and the easy access Google Classroom gives me to be able to see everyone in my class, or even scroll back to see past assignments in order to help me prepare for a test all play a major part in keeping my school life organized.
These things, along with many other features that I have become accustomed to, would suggest that I do in fact have an emotional attachment to Google Classroom, or at the very least, do not need any more change in my life.
Every one will tell me this is just another mountain placed in front of me so that you can move it, but this year I have climbed, moved, and broken down a whole range of mountains, and I am simply tired.
Tired of the expectation that I will adapt to this new world and all its new programs without any slippage.
Forgive me if I don’t accept change gracefully anymore. I have to put up barriers around my brain, heart, and, most of all, mental health, because if I lower them for just a second, I could once again lose a year of my entire life, and that, unlike Google Classroom, is not something I have grown accustomed to.
Canvas may have better features eventually, and maybe one day I will learn to like it, but this was not time to introduce it.
My online learning is as chaotic as ever because half my classes are on Canvas while the other half of my assignments are still on Google Classroom.
Nothing is constant, but this has added to the madness, and I am sick of feeling lost in the maze that is high school during a pandemic.