With the coronavirus widespread both internationally and throughout the US, many schools are being closed for extended periods of time and virtual learning is taking the place of in-school education. IHA, being one of those schools, is currently closed for 2 weeks and is using a Continuation of Learning program for the students to keep up with their classes and not fall behind in the curriculum. 

This entails that teachers post assignments by 9 am. The assignments will average the amount of time spent and the material covered in a normal class, and students will have until 6 pm to complete them. There have been two days thus far that have been used to teach the teachers how to best tackle virtual learning and the problems that might occur with it. 

Courtesy of PrimaryLeaders.com

An example of a problem faced so far is Powerschool, IHA’s server for students to upload their assignments. Powerschool has not been working ideally the past couple of days and there have been numerous issues with viewing and handing in assignments. To combat this, many teachers have switched to Google Classroom for the time being, which acts similarly to Powerschool but has resulted in fewer problems. 

As a student, I can say it is a truly different learning experience with both positives and negatives. While it is tough to learn new concepts without the teacher explaining it to me directly, the teachers are working hard to explain lessons through video and have class documents to ask questions. It is also helpful for having a network of classmates to work through problems or understand concepts by talking it out over the phone. 

We are in unprecedented times, but the show must go on and I think IHA has done a good job in making the transition from school to home as smooth as possible. 

Katherine Conway ‘21 Local/World News, Features Editor