Ashanti Cherish M.

Hernandez
Grade 8 SAPPHIRE HA

Throughout the school year 2020-2021 that was situated on virtual platform,
many students have encountered difficulties that lead them to adopt the new normal
way of life and learning. Lessons from the previous school year were discussed in
different ways as possible. In my perspective, I have adopted to this situation in various
ways that have provided me with both advantages and disadvantages and I learned a
lot from it.
Technology and Livelihood Education was one of the subjects in which you had
to perform a specific activity in front of the class, either with a group or by yourself, or
submit an output to your subject teacher. The first quarter of TLE 8, Shielded Metal Arc
Welding or SMAW, was quite difficult because I was just starting to adjust to the new
way of learning and most of the areas discussed in TLE in previous school years were
mostly done by girls, such as dressmaking, housekeeping, and food preservation but I
learned that just like the other areas, girls can learn or study SMAW. Next quarter,
Bread and Pastry Production was discussed and I became interested in it but sadly
since its new normal we did not have the opportunity to perform or bake a certain pastry
or bread. Baking is always one of the things I wanted to do as a hobby during this
pandemic however I don’t have enough equipments to bake. Then in the third quarter,
Handicraft Production was discussed and it gave me a hard time. I'm not very good at
sewing or making things, but I have a lot of creative ideas in my head, so I did my best
to complete all of the tasks. Finally, in the fourth quarter, Nail Care Services was
discussed. I’ve seen a lot of Tiktok videos of Nail Technicians doing their clients’ nails
so I’m aware of what topics might be covered in the fourth quarter. However, performing
the outputs was difficult for me because I was only used to doing simple nail care
routines.
As a whole, the new normal way of learning is still hard for me as a student to
adapt but I am grateful for having teachers that are flexible enough and obviously doing
their best to provide learnings to their students. As for me, TLE is one of the hardest to
learn not just on a face-to-face classes but also on the virtual platform, as the mode of
learning adds to its difficulty. However, with the assistance of my teacher, I am able to
understand that I can only do things myself if I pay close attention to the instructions,
which is a benefit to me. The only disadvantage I got is that I didn’t experience some
activities like in SMAW because I needed someone to guide me and I also don’t have
equipments in home. I was sometimes afraid of being late for class because the internet
signal would go down but the teachers always assured me that it’s okay. It was
challenging for me to submit activities on time but with proper time management, I made
it through the new mode of learning this school year.