The First Weeks at Arrowhead 2020
Arrowhead High School students have been given the choice this semester of the 2020-2021 school year, to learn in either in-person or online schooling. This is happening as COVID-19 has still not been extinguished and precautions rise while still allowing for some option for face-to-face interaction.
Students that enter school in-person have been and are still required to wear a face mask at all times. Some teachers have also been wearing a face shield so that coughs or sneezes will not spread. Social distancing is also in action while the virus continues to exist at such a large scale.
If the virus were to spread throughout the school, all students would be moved to online schooling through Zoom, and because there is already infrastructure there for the students that have chosen online schooling, the students will be able to move right into online as the assignments, schedules and assignment submission links will already be there for them.
Although there have been some possible cases of coronavirus, as students were either in close contact with the virus or have actually contracted the virus, Arrowhead High School, as of September 25th, 2020, is still open to in-person for students who are not speculated to possibly carry the virus or outright have it.
The students that are found to possibly have the virus have been moved to online schooling for a set period of time. If they are found to be negative in testing for the virus after that set period, they will be allowed to come back into in-person schooling, at least as of today. Although, if they are found to be positive then they will be required to learn online, in order to halt the spread of COVID-19.
Some teachers use the “Zoom method” (online students join Zoom as the in-person class is taught) while others create pre-made videos for students to follow along with. To understand more on this topic, Ms. Danay, a teacher at Arrowhead High School, was contacted.
Mrs. Danay is a business and graphics teacher at Arrowhead. Her response to virtual learning has been making videos giving instructions to students on what to do. When asked which system she prefers, between streaming and pre-made videos, she said “I think I prefer video making so that I do not feel like I am wasting students’ time or causing frustration with the technology. I feel like it is hard for me to make connections with virtual students this way, but with four different courses and a lot of virtual students, I am hoping that it provides students in my classes the flexibility that they also experience in person from me.” She was also asked what the biggest challenge has been so far, her response was “The biggest struggle/challenge for me has been with attendance for virtual learners and determining if students are there and just not submitting work OR not showing up at all, so this week I started utilizing the google form for attendance.” With more and more students being sent home everyday, teachers and students alike are growing more concerned about virtual vs in person learning.
