The world has come to a complete stop as a result of the Covid-19 virus. Non essential businesses are closed, Americans are now being ordered to stay at home, and millions of students are now out of school.

The spread of Covid-19 has grown rapidly within the past month exceeding expert’s projections. This has caused Ohio Governor Mike DeWine and nearly every other governor to shut down K-12 schools in their respective state. 

DeWine originally ordered a two week extension to spring break until April 3. But recently extended the closures until May 1. The governor also stressed the possibility that students may not return to class until the 2020-21 school year.

The shutdown has forced schools to switch to online learning for the time being. The majority of GlenOak teachers now post weekly assignments on Google Classroom with set due dates. Other teachers record video lessons and push them out to their students.

However, some argue that without classroom instruction students are not getting fully educated, and won’t be prepared for their classes next school year. For example, forign language classes often build off of what was taught to students the year before. As it stands now, students may lose nearly one third of classroom instruction time.

Julie Filliez is a French IB World Language teacher and Gifted Intervention Specialist at GlenOak. She has adapted her lesson plans to accommodate online learning.

“I have had to alter my curriculum because it is impossible to do the same types of activities I would do in class remotely. I am trying to teach the same content, but delivery has been drastically changed,” Filliez said. “I believe we are all at a bit of a loss and the quality of teaching and learning isn’t the same.”

The main concern with online learning is that students are less likely to understand concepts without a teacher’s guidance and feedback. Because of this, some teachers are turning to services such as Google Hangouts to communicate with students. But the majority of teachers at the school only use Google Classroom.

Tara Cerrezuela is an Honors Spanish 1 teacher at the school. She has had problems switching to online lessons, and getting her students to turn in work.“75% {of my students} are completing the work. It is a lot more work doing everything online,” Cerrezuela said. When asked if she was concerned about her students not learning enough to move on to higher level Spanish, Cerrezuela said, “Yes, I’m worried. You can’t replace a teacher with a computer.”