This past couple weeks has been very obscure, maybe even more so for our teachers. I interviewed two teachers, Mr. Poleto and Mrs. Danver, to get their thoughts on the week and a half we spent doing full virtual learning.

Mr. Poleto, as I am sure all teachers did, found some challenges in teaching virtually. When he was asked what some of the main difficulties, he faced he responded: “I think that it is a challenge to keep students engaged.  In the school setting, all students are in the classroom environment, which is created by the classroom teacher to foster learning.  When students are at home there are much more potential disruptions to learning, and I feel as though we as teachers need to be cognizant of that and find ways to keep students engaged.”

However, Mr. Poleto, a Spanish teacher, also found some pros out of the situation. One main pro Mr. Poleto stated was it was good that some students who may be too shy to answer in class, could message him via teams’ chat. \

Another thing that could be difficult with virtual learning is interacting with students. Mr. Poleto did not see this as much of a challenge though stating: “For the most part, I am able to interact with them as I normally would.  I do think that I have been able to help more students when they are outside of the classroom due to Teams.  I have noticed that students are much more likely to reach out to teachers via Microsoft Teams than they would through email.”

Mrs. Danver, Freshman English teacher, saw the school’s shift to all virtual learning before it even happened stating it did not surprise her at all, she already saw it coming. However, Mrs. Danver does find challenges with the A/B hybrid schedule: “I wouldn’t say I’m elated about the A/B schedule. It makes teaching very slow and repetitive and—in some cases—double the work. At the same time, though, I do think our hybrid schedule is important for everyone’s safety, even if it’s more challenging for me.”

Clearly, there is going to be quite a challenge ahead of us and, although the one week all-virtual learning was not perfect, it was effective enough to have us back today.