It has now been almost seven months since the COVID-19 pandemic hit the United States. In that time, teachers have had to adapt to a new form of teaching: online.

Although most teachers have had to learn something new, they have powered through and persevered.

Technology Director Kevin Pennekamp was the one in charge of this change. “When you completely change the learning platform to include in person and virtual online learning, there is a learning curve, and it takes a considerable amount of time to understand how to use the tools but also support student learning in the process,” he said.

“Our staff is very resilient and I give credit to all because everyone was at varying degrees of comfortability and knowledge of how to use the tools available,” Pennekamp continued. He believes the transition was extraordinarily successful.

Janene Murphy, a business teacher at PVHS, has had her own struggles and successes adjusting to online teaching. Before the pandemic, Murphy was a substitute teacher for six years. As a sub, she did not have to do online teaching, but she was (and still is) taking online courses through Morningside College and earning her M.B.A. through Western Illinois University.

“I am hoping I’ve been able to take my experience as an online student to make things easier for the online students I have now,” she empathized. “I know it can be challenging.” She hopes she has been able to find a balance between what to do inside and outside of class.

As a teacher, Murphy had to learn how to use Google Classroom for assignments and draw electronically for her accounting class. The online classroom has been a struggle, as she now has to determine due dates for assignments and whether or not the post should be an assignment or a resource.

On the other hand, Murphy believes her greatest feat throughout the seven months was learning how to use the drawing feature on a tablet. Her next challenge is to make her handwriting easier to read.

Murphy is not the only teacher to learn so much in so little time, though. “Besides the countless hours each individual teacher has put in, the staff’s professional development calendar was modified to support 20 hours of virtual learning this summer,” Pennekamp noted. More emphasis was placed overall on holding online meetings, drawing electronically, recording videos and managing Google Classroom.

Murphy acknowledged the struggle for students as well by advising everyone to communicate. “Students need to let teachers know what works for them and what doesn’t,” she recommended. “Teachers need to do the same. Silence is the enemy here. We’re in this together!”

Education has proven to be the most successful when the teacher teaches and the student learns. The format may be different, but teachers are willing to keep teaching. In return, students must be willing to learn in order for school to be the most successful.

The COVID-19 pandemic has made technology a necessity for Pleasant Valley High School’s students and faculty. It has provided the means to communicate, accomplish schoolwork from remote locations and has minimized the amount of shared materials in classrooms.

However, there are also disadvantages to relying on technology. There is a wide variety of devices being used by students and teachers-some of which are not compatible with one another.

This year, PVHS checked out Lenovo Chromebooks to every student to complete their work at home. Many students have since said these devices do not possess the ability to run the apps teachers require.

Matt Stutenberg, an engineering teacher at PVHS, shared the engineering department’s experience with utilizing school-provided chromebooks in classes.

“So, it presents us with a not great, but could be worse, situation,” Stutenberg said. “All the Autodesk software we use is free to download, which has allowed students to utilize the software from home if they have a computer capable of running the software.”

Chromebooks aside, some students are also required to own devices along with the school provided devices. In web designing and advertising classes, for example, students are required to use Adobe software, which is not available for Chromebooks. However, PVHS is working with students who need an extra device to provide for those individuals.

Ahmed Baig, a senior at PVHS, talked about how he has adapted to the schedule this semester and his thoughts on the hybrid model.“I think online learning is a lot easier this year because I had a whole quarter of practice last year and the teachers are also helping structure online learning as well so that makes it easier because I have some guidance on what I am expected to do each day,” Baig said.

Online learning, whether hybrid or 100% online, has also given students an unprecedented level of independence, which some believe to be too much. On the other hand, some students prefer taking their education into their own hands. 

Senior Spencer Weyrick talked about how he feels regarding partial online learning.“I feel like I was more worn or stressed out with 100% in person, but I definitely feel, at least for me, that it provided a better learning experience,” Weyrick stated. 

He went on to talk about his daily life in the reality of hybrid learning.“With hybrid learning, it’s nice to be able to choose when you do your schoolwork, but it leaves a lot of time for procrastination. As to how I’m dealing with it, my friends have very similar classes to me, so after checking what needs to be done, I make sure I don’t miss anything by asking them what they saw and did,” Weyrick said.

There is no doubt that PV has made their best attempts to make at least some form of technology available to every student in order to make hybrid learning more manageable, but it does not come without complications.