By Katelyn Lam, Features Editor
As we return back to school and begin easing back into old routines, we as students haven’t been the only ones affected by a year of online schooling. Teachers have had to move entire classes worth of material online and reformat their plans to adapt to the new situation. From zoom difficulties to digital assignments, everyone has adjusted to the past year differently.
Regarding distance and in person learning, the differences between the two made for an unusual school year. With being online came the inevitable disconnect between students and teachers, and many found it difficult to focus in class online. It became easier to focus less in class and zone out mid-lesson. Mr. Hensley, one of Mills’ 9th grade English teachers, stated that he “tried to make it fun and engaging for the kids”, but without physically being able to see everyone, it was difficult for teachers to keep track of what everyone was doing. When asked how difficult it was to move everything online, Mills math department teacher, Ms. Dreyer responded saying it was “more a matter of how [to] make what I do in the classroom as effective as possible in a virtual situation” That was the biggest challenge many teachers faced. They had to adapt to an entirely new environment that they hadn’t faced before. Keeping track of the students became more difficult and while sending links and assignments became easier with the use of the chat, it was harder to make sure people were actually following along with the lessons.
Although all staff have varying opinions of last year, most agree that this year is already looking better. Dean Christian says that distance learning “caused [him] to be creative” with his job and find new ways to contact students, especially for those who don’t check their emails as often. Teachers ended up having to contact students through Zoom, and that led to more impersonal communication that took out that bond they have with their students. Many kids, especially freshmen, tended to have technical difficulties with Zoom or logging onto Canvas making it harder to teach and causing class time to be used helping them get in. With Zoom, interactions between the students and teachers became less frequent and more difficult to coordinate. Some teachers already had a live agenda, like Ms. Dreyer, and that made the transition into distance teaching easier than those who had to create an agenda online from scratch.
Between the past year and a need for new ideas, many adaptations have carried over, including more teachers using live agendas and finding better ways to execute group discussions. Mr. Hensley has decided to keep on using Canvas discussions to help students with their essays, and he isn’t the only teacher to make use of otherwise overlooked functions. Other teachers have started to make more use of the live agendas and putting more of their assignments online for students to access.
Dean Christian reflects on the past year, highlighting that being alone was both the best and worst parts; having time to yourself while also having to cope with being the only one there. For staff, some of the best parts of distance teaching included being able to stay at home along with zero commute time, but even that had downfalls. It blurs the line between work and home, causing even less motivation to work. It has had its upsides though, helping teachers finding new ways to teach and work. Mr. Hensley used the last year as a guide and is now having kids enter their peer editing on canvas, and other teachers have used it as a way to improve communications between everyone and make materials in class more accessible. Ms. Dreyer mentions that the convenience factor was a big plus but like for most others, the lack of connection was a big drawback. Overall, while COVID-19 may have caused an interesting past year with many changes, both teachers and students are excited to be back in-person this year, combining both new and old routines to improve on this coming school year.
