Due to COVID-19, teachers across the world have had to find ways to effectively teach their students remotely.  Here at HHS, AP teachers can now teach remote students live during the school day.  For example, while group A is in their in-person class, group B can join that class via a google meet, allowing them to have a nearly identical learning experience to group A.  While the class is happening, no in-person students are in frame: the at home students can only see the board and the teacher for privacy purposes.  This new teaching method is very beneficial to both AP students and teachers, who have to cover a large amount of material in a short period of time.  By allowing the remote students to tune in to a live class, teachers can move through their material at their pre-pandemic pace.  This allows all the required material to be covered by May, when the AP tests are set to take place.  Furthermore, being able to tune in to a live class allows students to ask questions in real time, helping them learn more effectively and making the hybrid learning experience a little less stressful. 

However, these live classes do have a few downsides.  Technical issues seem to be the biggest problem.  During my experience of tuning in to live classes, there have been incidents in which the audio did not work or the camera quality was too low for me to read the board and take notes.  Also, a student who is experiencing internet or other technical issues could end up missing an entire class, putting them behind the rest of their peers.  It should also be noted that over the summer HHS ordered equipment for AP teachers to livestream their classes however, this equipment has not yet arrived.  Therefore, teachers who would like to take advantage of this opportunity must buy their own webcam and tripod to use for the time being.   

The benefits of live classes seem to outweigh the downsides.  Live classes add structure to hybrid and remote learning.  The biggest benefit is the stress relief; there should be no worry about teaching yourself difficult material and navigating through AP coursework alone.  Having the opportunity to join a live class, take notes and ask questions in real time helps to understand what’s going on and gives  confidence that success from home is possible.  Of course, the remote learning experience will never be as effective as a full in person learning experience, but the creative methods that teachers are coming up with help make learning during a pandemic a little bit easier.