Written by: Janessa Mathai, Grade 6C, CLSP

When the Circuit Breaker was announced in Singapore, it was extremely disheartening to know that I will not be meeting my friends like every day in school. Then we received the news that the school will run virtually lessons will be conducted every day through Zoom classes. On one hand, I was disappointed at the thought of missing the fun at school but on the other hand, I got an awesome idea to transform this new situation into an opportunity.

Recording my own Vlog was something always on my mind, and I was tempted to share my exciting experience of attending the Virtual School through a vlog. Through my Vlog, I wanted to give a message that our school is trying the best to keep the learning going so we as students have an important part of participating well in this.

To convey all this, a 60-second message seemed too short and my biggest challenge was to come up with a vlog script that will be crisp yet convey the complete message. With the help of my parents, I edited the script to make it contextual and remove the part which did not make much sense.

Like a true Vlogger, I dressed up in my school uniform on the day of recording to make the Virtual Classrooms look exactly like a school day.

I wanted to end my Vlog on a humorous note and so I added my most favourite part of the Virtual Classroom towards the end - showing my bench-mate, my Dad, to my friends. I am sure many of my friends are sharing their desk with working parents and it’s fun to have an adult sitting beside you, but yes you can't chit chat with them.

I sent my recorded Vlog to my teachers and it was eventually posted on the school’s Facebook page. A number of my friends liked my Vlog. I was glad that I could share my positive experience of Virtual Classrooms at GIIS and to my surprise, all my friends resonated the same feeling.

The process of creating the vlog was a learning experience during which I learnt to work on the right message and document a strong script, I thoroughly enjoyed the process and look forward to recording more Vlogs soon.

Thanks to GIIS for providing me with the platform to publish my blog and building my confidence level.

In the end, I will say, whether you are near or far from your friends and loved one, there is always a time to learn and have fun.

Happy learning to all virtual learners!