Teaching high school students is a challenging job in the best of times. Now with the COVID-19 pandemic, many teachers have had to make new adjustments to their everyday class routines. 

AHS weight training instructor Connor Larson said, “We have had to change the way we end each period by sanitizing all equipment that was used.” Unlike last year, students are not using the iPads that held their lifting information. Mr. Larson said to keep himself safe, he is trying to “social distance and sanitize” as often as he can. Larson also said, “I would rather be in school than online because I get to connect with the students.” 

 Websites like Zoom have been useful to the AHS teachers when reaching out to remote learners. After public schools were shut down in March, mathematics teacher Sheila Hayden spent every morning until the end of May teaching her calculus class over Zoom so they could finish the course. Since getting used to using Zoom, Hayden now feels schools should be fully online because right now it’s a “scary time with the pandemic.” During class, Ms. Hayden wears a mask and sanitizes regularly when helping students. This year every math class she teaches besides calculus has had to catch up to where they should be in their course. Hayden said, “We’re still trying to determine what the students learned and didn’t learn at the end of the last year.” 

On the other hand, Spanish teacher Daniel Vargason said, “Online learning is not the most effective way for students to learn, but we do what we have to.” Vargason said, “I try to keep my distance but personally I’m not overly concerned because there’s no real way to be safe in the school full of people.” He is “happy to be back in school and be able to get students learning Spanish again,” but has had to make many changes in his lesson plans. No textbooks will be used this year and almost all interactive activities had to be changed due to COVID-19.