Most Montrose High School students chose in person instruction for the 2020-2021 school year, however roughly 745 MHS students chose to take this year’s courses online.

Having this many students opt for online has been overwhelming for some teachers. There are currently 36 teachers at the elementary school level and eight middle and high school teachers helping online students. 

Shannon Campbell is an English teacher at MHS and is teaching the online courses. She teaches three classes a day while accommodating all four grade levels and a total of 136 students.“In 9th grade there’s a total of 27 within three classes, 10th grade has 44 students, 11th grade has 36 students and 12th grade has 29 students,” Campbell said.

While each student has his or her own personal reason for opting to take courses online, Kendall Noles, a junior, decided to participate in online learning all year due to family concerns and wanting to try to learn at her own pace and according to her interests. “I want to take things at my own speed and keep my family safe from this on going virus,” Noles said. “I just picked the ones that interested me the most.”

For online students each class is about “thirty to forty five minutes,” Noles said.  

Students still follow the same academic rules online as they do in person as far as what is school appropriate and what is not. There are also credit requirements that are standard for both in person and online. These are set in place because the guidelines don’t change, a high school credit is standard.

“Communication is the number one out of everything else, because of helping the students with their schedule, Ipads and just helping them manage their time and mainly just getting them the help they need,” Campbell said. 

Learning online is a new platform for most of the participants. Now everyone is doing everything in their power to manage the situation of helping everyone through the new normal.