At last! Thanksgiving, the time to stuff ourselves with stuffed turkey (maybe even turducken, the disturbing concoction of chicken, duck, and turkey). Or, for the vegetarians out there, like me (you probably guessed this by my description of the “disturbing” turducken), the time to stuff ourselves with side dishes! Before, during, and after, this mass consumption I bask in the glory of my gluttony.  I lounge around for days, incapable of moving from my designated spot on the couch.

Before I know it, the break whizzes by like the popping buttons off of my full stomach. What happens to the promised free time? What about the massive break, which I depend on to catch up on school work?

Prior to the thanksgiving break, I blindly assume I will have all of this time to complete school work at my leisure. But, instead, my leisurely way of handling schoolwork means that I don’t accomplish it. At least, until the last minute. Of which, I blame my procrastination. This year I want you, and me, to go into the break with my eyes open and masks off! We can manage schoolwork, without letting the schoolwork manage us.

In an online school, we experience both the advantages and disadvantages of freely managing our own time. There’s a lot of pressure, sometimes, to set up a schedule to work efficiently. To relinquish a bit of this pressure, teachers recommend contacting them to set up a schedule (if you struggle to come up with one on your own). This extra help serves as an incentive to get to work. Especially because your teachers set up a realistic schedule, you can assuredly complete the task at hand! If you do not wish to seek help in managing your time, write down a checklist and determine which hours of which days you can realistically complete the items on your list. The key, realism.  I’m guilty of burdening myself with impossible tasks in impossible time frames. This leaves me feeling unaccomplished. No, Stephanie, you can not finish the entire semester of school in a day!

So far I have only mentioned the disadvantages of managing your own time in Online School. But, in Online School we get a longer break than most traditional brick and mortar students. Our break lasts a whopping nine days! Well, if you count the weekend before and the weekend after. That means we can make flexible plans! We can spend an hour two a day working a day, or leave all of our school work for the last few days. Personally, I try to tackle the overdue lessons in the first few days and leave the rest of the break to relax. If I feel in the mood (cackles), in the latter part of the vacation, I can work on additional school work to get ahead!

You can even use your homework as a means to opt out of superfluous family activities, that you may not feel too keen on joining. The good ole, “Sorry, I have school work to do. Got to go!”, works like a charm.

Additionally, even though it may seem like you are withering away your precious free time by doing schoolwork, at least you have the opportunity to catch up/get ahead! So break out those pencils, or in our case, computers, and knock out those overdues!