Due to the recent pandemic given the name Covid-19, many schools have been shut down and students are now working online, including McAuliffe Middle School. This is not only affecting how the students are learning, but it is also requiring teachers to develop new ways to teach them.

School at McAuliffe has traditionally been an interactive and visual in-person learning experience, but for the first three weeks, it has been all virtual. According to Mr. Lynes, a McAuliffe Middle School eight grade math and science teacher, “the hardest parts of teaching online are connectivity and the delays when presenting, not being able to check work, and no interacting, or demonstrations.” This makes it harder for some students to learn and most teachers to teach because of the technical difficulties and the shorter amount of time. Plus, the many times of getting kicked out of meetings, the work not getting posted, and computer glitches.

Although most of the responsibility is on the students and school staff, parents are also having to help out their kids when the teacher is unavailable. Sometimes parents don’t know the subject that the student is learning about, and this can make everybody confused and stressed.

Because most schools are closed there is an excessive amount of online traffic leading to the disruptions during classes. According to Juan Lozano, Adriana Gomez Liconand, Rebecca Boone from AP news, “Websites that track internet outages like downdetector.com also recorded spikes in reported problems for services like Microsoft Teams and Google Drive, many spiking around 9 a.m. Three of Texas’ largest districts — Houston, Dallas, and Fort Worth — were hit with technical problems, as were school systems in places such as Idaho and Kansas.”

McAuliffe Middle School began hybrid learning this week where students are working from home and also at school distanced and in masks, allowing students to enjoy learning both digitally and in person. Having two cohorts will allow the school to be kept clean due to the breaks between each cohort. 

All in all, working during these tough times is difficult, but is necessary for the growth and the development of students. We all have to remember how this will make us stronger after we overcome these struggles.