As life has been turned upside down because of the Covid-19 pandemic, the world has resorted to online learning for education. Not being able to see each other in person makes school much tougher to teach all the material needed for the students. Teachers are doing their best to make the students comfortable through the current situation and working together to get through this period of time. 

Everyone is working really hard to make this transition as smoothly as possible. Teachers are working harder than ever now as they are ready to face the challenge ahead of them. Going from face to face to screen to screen is now the only option they have. Google classroom is a big help right now and something that is new to most of us, Zoom. 

Introduced to us is an online video conference for students and teachers called Zoom. Teachers are loving Zoom because they can see their students virtually with a few taps of a button. They can go on it and have a class with their students and help with any questions that the students may have. Some of the teachers may say that it’s a lifesaver to them because it allows them to see their students and talk with everyone being home. When there is no Zoom meeting and students are working on their assignments, teachers are hard at work making sure everything is set up for next week while the students work on the current week of work. 

From being in school to going to online school, it is a big transition in a small period of time. “There’s a huge difference from being in school to online school. When I teach in person there’s a dynamic that keeps me going. There’s a reciprocity of energy that is palpable. Online teaching had none of that. It’s gone,” said English teacher Ann Melim. The conversion from school to online school came very quickly as the teachers had to come up with a quick plan to make sure everyone could begin learning within a couple of days. Now a typical day that a teacher has is much different than a typical day for a student. “I can’t speak for all teachers, since I imagine we might have different schedules, but I spend the days 7:30-2:30 doing emails, planning lessons, grading, providing student feedback, and meeting with my department amongst all the other tasks that may come up,” said history teacher Jamie Johannson. 

Students however didn’t take a liking to the new way of learning at first. They had to figure out the time that they would spend each day on their computers and devices for the new day of school. Another thing is the way students are going to manage their own workload that is due for the week. 

“As a student I think that the transition itself was the hardest part. Taking the first few steps towards developing a strategy through which online learning became more manageable was certainly a hard obstacle to traverse,” said Cayden Plummer ‘21. Both students and teachers clearly miss the social interaction between the students and teachers. Students can miss out on key parts of their education because they aren’t in a classroom with the teachers for a specific amount of time each week. 

While students are on their screens doing work, behind the screen is a teacher continuously hard at work. While teaching isn’t the same as in the classroom, teachers help each other out and get through this like a team. They have to answer a lot more emails than usual, plan lessons for the weeks through online learning and do more than usual. Teachers have many Zoom calls to keep in touch with students and make sure everything is going well. Every day, teachers try to keep everything positive to make students feel more comfortable. Everything isn’t the same right now, but teachers are trying their best to make everything as smooth as possible during this transition.