A Day in the Life of an 8th Grader at a Laptop School

School-sanctioned Skyping?! Not bad, iloverhinos! —Sparkitors

You might see my school as your average K-8 small, private school in Texas until you sit through one of our classes. Every 5th-8th grader has a laptop that s/he uses to take notes, do video projects, use a stylus, and take quizzes. Here’s how life is at my 30-kid-per-grade school:

6:30 a.m.: My alarm goes off. It’s really loud, so I sprint across the room like I’m in the Olympics or something. Then I go back to bed for some snooze time.

6:45 a.m.: My mom comes upstairs and sings whatever country song she has stuck in her head at the moment to wake me up. I am now awake and have a country song stuck in my head… great.

6:45 a.m.—7:40 a.m.: I straighten my hair, brush my teeth, eat breakfast, and brush my teeth again. Then I pull on my plaid skirt, white polo, and white tennis shoes. Then it’s time to leave. My mom drives me to school—more country music. At least it's music. When my stepdad takes me, we listen to talk radio… ugh.

8—8:15 a.m.: Chat time! This is when everyone gets to school and talks or finishes 1st period’s homework that we forgot about, again.

Period 1, Honors English: My teacher is AMAZING. We get to read novels like Animal Farm and To Kill A Mockingbird, both of which SparkNotes helped me understand during class. Our teacher loves to give us 9-paragraph essays to do in class, and somehow we complete them. Often, though, we get off topic and talk about college football or Virginia Tech, where she went to school.

Period 2, Science: This teacher happens to LOVE her subject, so we are often doing labs. Physics was the best because she let us do labs every day. Other times, we take notes using our laptops or do online labs before we do the actual lab.

Period 3, Electives: We choose two electives, and each are two days a week. Mine are Debate/Mock Trials and Art. In Art, we typically go outside and color or just talk. The inside people are the focused ones… not me! My other elective is really fun because we get to Skype other schools to debate laws, or we just research and discuss topics like Texting While Driving.

Period 4, Honors Algebra: This subject is horrible. Whoever invented it had too much time on their hands. This class normally consists of people checking Facebook, playing solitaire, or actually taking notes. Dreaming of lunch is also a popular activity.

Lunch: Best 33 minutes of the day: Gossip, jokes, playing with a hacky sack, and stuffing our faces with muffins and fruit snacks.

Period 5, History: Whether we are taking notes on our laptops, discussing the long-term effects of Hiroshima, or reviewing history-related Jeopardy questions on our computers, American History can never be boring! Actually it can, but not for us.

Period 6, Spanish: I’ve taken Spanish since kindergarten with the same 20 kids. This by far my biggest class of the day. We pretend to know what we are talking about, but instead just look up Spanish cuss words on our computers. Webquests are also popular during this class, which are basically scavenger hunts with your laptop.

Period 7, PE: PE is required five days a week. This class is enjoyable because it's nice to take a break from the computer. We often play basketball or volleyball, but it’s really interesting when they let us do inline skating or DDR.

After School: Sometimes after school, we'll get froyo or go do homework together. It's nice having such a small, close-knit class.

This is my day, consisting of mostly learning, talking, and a lot of laughing. Being at a laptop school requires a certain amount of self-control, but I think it's worth it!

Would you rather go to a laptop school?

Related Post: Online Schooling: Like Homeschooling, Except Not at All