Many students are finding that they are getting distracted during class or while doing homework since the school has transitioned into zoom school.
¨It’s hard to focus sometimes, like either doing homework or in class because when you’re at your house there’s a lot more things that can distract you,¨ 8th grader, Jack Diguesuppe said. ¨If the teacher is just lecturing on, sometimes it’s hard to stay engaged the whole time.¨
8th grader Luca Frank agreed but had a different reason for why he was distracted.
¨It gets a little loud because I sit right across from my dad. He sometimes has to make calls and is in meetings,¨ Frank said.
However, 8th grader Anna Bui said she was not getting distracted while doing schoolwork. A reason is she finds a good and quiet study space with her family all in the house.
¨All of us are spread throughout the house, sort of one person per room,¨ Bui said. ¨Making a good study space and trying to find concrete times for myself where I will come up and spend time with my family.¨
Shannon Salverda has been a learning specialist since 1997 and is very knowledgeable on the matter. She said that it is common for students to get distracted easily when not at school.
¨I think that it’s developmentally normal for students to rely on adults to help them manage their attention and behavior. And right now students are by themselves so they just don’t have that layer of support that they are used to having at school,¨ said Salverda.
Salverda thinks that it is very important for a student to be honest about their distractions.
¨If a student really knows and can talk honestly about what’s getting in their way it is a lot easier to figure out how to do it differently,¨ said Salverda.
She offered advice on how to deal with loud study areas.
¨Get over the ear headphones instead of earbuds… I think that’s a really good thing to just wear when you’re doing work, so that you’re not distracted by all the little things,¨ said Salverda.

She also gave advice on how to limit visual distractions.

¨Turn their back to the door of their space, you know, try to face a wall, being near a window but not looking out a window.¨
But Salverda’s biggest point was about how it is almost impossible to multitask.

¨If you are doing class and texting, if you are doing class and looking at something online, your brain is not gonna store your school work in your long term memory, and you’re going to have to work so much harder to learn it,¨ Salverda said.