Imagine walking down the hallway and seeing no one on your way to class.

Or getting on your bus and your bus driver stopping at every stop for no one to get on.

What about walking into class expecting to see your friends, but instead only seeing cleaning supplies?

That is what H-F looked like for Hybrid Learning.

Some students, like me, made this fateful decision of going back to Homewood-Flossmoor for hybrid learning 

Admittedly, H-F has made hybrid learning as safe as possible. They separated students into four separate groups so the halls would be big enough for social distancing . You have to fill out a self certification form every single day and to start your day they take your temperature.

 Group A went two days a week and group B went the other two days of the same week. Group C went two days the following week while group D went the other two days of the same week. 

I was a part of group A so I was a part of the first group to return back to school. As soon as the day was done I immediately regretted my decision. 

Not only did I have to wake up an hour earlier to catch the bus, but the bus came late so I was waiting for the bus in cold weather. 

By the time I got to school, I realized how useless hybrid learning was. My first class was  English and all I did was open up my laptop and join the google meet, just like I was at home. 

Nothing else changed, I did not get any extra help or attention from my teacher because I was there in person, just the same thing I did from home.

My next three classes were the same experience as my first one more or less.

I will say, they did give some goodies at the end of the day that included; pizza, fruits and chocolate for free. That made my experience a little less terrible.

Those goodies at the end of the day still did not change that I had waited for a bus in cold weather, woke up an hour earlier, walked the path multiple times in cold weather just to be doing the same thing I did at home. 

This does not mention the fact that I had at maximum one other student in the class with me. It felt like prison more than school. 

H-F hybrid learning is safe and helpful to those who might not have a lot to eat. However, that is to say it is not effective for trying to learn. 

You lose more hours of sleep which can make you more unfocused, you have to wait an hour before you get home if you take the bus, time you could have spent doing your homework if you stayed at home. 

If you are thinking about enrolling in H-F hybrid classes, don’t. Just stay home.