The impacts of Covid-19 are obvious and have pushed schools around the country to online platforms. 

Liberty High School decided to put its trust in the website Canvas with hopes that the centralized program would make it easier for teachers to upload assignments and grade them.

“My own impression of Canvas is that it is an improvement over what we had last spring and that it has a lot of potential.  As we have adjusted, there are many things that have worked well. Still, there are still other areas where we can all become more consistent and do better,” principal Sean Martin said.

Along with learning how to make classes fully remote, teachers have had to follow a school-wide set of rules. The expectations come as the following:

1.         A calendar, list, or clear section for due dates and assignments
2.         Easily accessible  materials for students
3.         A clear link for students to access the live section of the class (Zoom, Teams, etc.)
4.         An archive of recent lessons so that students can access the lesson asynchronously

Teachers have also voiced their opinions on how they feel their classes are operating during the pandemic, multiple teachers have praised for the website, including English teacher Henry Level and Spanish teacher Erica Garcia. They appreciate how students can access information all in one place and how it is easy to upload assignments for students to complete. 

Even with the pros of Canvas, teachers have still faced multiple problems. For example, teachers rely completely on their internet and technology, despite the threat of technological difficulties.  Also, all curriculum must be transferred to an online format.

Furthermore, many teachers have had opposing views on teaching in their classroom during Zoom versus teaching from home. 

Some teachers, like Garcia, feel more comfortable teaching from home due to the pandemic or have decided it is the best for their family, either having someone high risk at home or being high risk themselves, like Garcia, who just had her first baby.

Others, like Level, find that being in their classroom makes them more focused and productive.

“I come to my classroom every day.  I find myself far more focused, and I enjoy having multiple screens.  At home my internet is spotty, my cats step on the keyboard, and my children derail my lessons by being so gosh darn cute. I can’t compete with that.” Level said.

Altogether, there are positives and negatives to students’ online learning and teachers’ online teaching, but we would all rather be together. Still, because there is no certain end in sight as of right now, please be patient with your teachers as we are all in this together.