Asynchronous learning days, finally a school day where you can hit snooze almost as many times as you’d like. Asynchronous Wednesdays began this week featuring virtual assignments without logging into Zoom, and a lot of students could not be happier about it. Sleeping in later, doing assignments on your own time, hanging out with friends in the middle of a school week, and of course zero hours on Zoom, what could be better? The students of North Atlanta certainly agree. Many approved of this new Wednesday. Alast, a change in 2020 that was happily welcomed.

For the foreseeable future, Wednesdays will look somewhat different from the rest of the week. For the first time in a long time, there will be no Zoom for the whole day. Instead, teachers will assign work through google classroom. Students are expected to complete the work on their own time and submit it by the deadline. This change in schedule has garnered overwhelmingly positive feedback. “I wasn’t assigned that much work and I got to sleep in,” said sophomore Olivia Roth. “I loved it. It was basically like a Sunday.”

This change was made in preparation for a return to school (hopefully) in January/February. Teachers are expected to use Wednesdays to plan their return to school and what that will look like. APS is currently planning to return to in-person learning beginning January 25th. Like the attempt to return back in October, this is all dependent on case numbers. However, asynchronous Wednesday days will continue even with a return to in-person school. So, for those who love them, they are here to stay. 

Some students had mixed feelings about the day off from Zoom. Many enjoyed it, but some were unsure. Like everything, there are both pros and cons to this schedule change. But for many students, the cons are few and far in between, and the pros greatly outshine them. “I liked having a break from zoom school. But, I wish that it could be used as a makeup day instead of getting new assignments,” said sophomore Riley McCartney. “Having a ‘catch-up’ in the middle of the week would be very nice and helpful.”

Overall, response to this mid-week change has been positive, with few students suggesting some minor tweaks. And with asynchronous Wednesdays sticking around, even with a potential return to in-person learning, it looks like it’ll be the first time in months where students will actually enjoy being at home for the day.