As COVID-19 cases have gone down, schools in the Fresno Unified District are opening up slowly or in-person school after spring break on Tuesday, April 6th, 2021. This is a huge benefit for students who struggle learning online, problems with technology, etc. The district has planned a hybrid classroom model which is a mix of in-person and online learning where teachers can communicate with both online and in-person students. 

Luckily, there wasn’t a drastic change to the usual bell schedule here at Edison High School and included only minor changes. Masks will have to be worn by both teachers and students while in a classroom together. Before in-person school, a survey was sent out for students to fill out, if they wanted to stick with online school or in-person school. According to FUSD officials, about 40% of Fresno families that responded to the survey said they wouldn’t allow their children to return to school, which is surprisingly less than I thought. After more than a year of online learning, about 21,000 FUSD students are returning back to campus. 

It currently has been two weeks since this hybrid schedule has been introduced to us. As a student who is sticking to online school, this schedule has been the same as before, but there are a few changes in the mood for my classes. As students are coming into classrooms, I feel like teachers’ faces are lighting up as their students walk in which brings me joy. It’s so great to see teachers interact with their students more easily and have small talk with them. Teachers have been dealing with the burden of teaching online where they can’t actually teach like they want to. I feel like this new schedule will only suffocate teachers more because they have to focus on both in-person and online students, which is not easy.  

Sometimes you can put too much focus on one thing instead of the other, for example, teachers can focus too much on in-person students rather than online students or it can also be the other way around too. Throughout this hybrid schedule, I’ve noticed that there are times where some teachers focus too much on in-person or online, and can be hard to find a balance between the two. For instance, in math class where teachers do a live lesson and use a projector to write down notes students are supposed to copy (can vary based on the teacher’s teaching method). The projector can appear blurry for students online while students in-person can see just fine.

This can take time away from class as the teacher is trying to fix the problem for online students while in-person students have to just wait. This is not the teacher’s fault at all but purely just an internet malfunction. However, in my opinion, the district should have made school an only online learning or an only in-person school instead of mixing the two. The schedule can be frustrating for both teachers and students to deal with. 

In conclusion, I believe that there would’ve been a better option than this hybrid schedule change. Especially because there is only about two and a half months left of school, this change was a little sudden and pointless. Although, I do enjoy seeing smiles on teachers’ faces and being able to interact with students in real life rather than talking to students who are muted and scared to turn on their microphones. Even if I do not like this hybrid schedule, this will be a good learning experience.