Not only has the impact of COVID-19 led to all Frisco ISD students starting the first three weeks of school virtually, but it’s brought students from several district schools into the same virtual class as different schools have a different number of students doing virtual or face to face school. 

“We have students from other campuses because not all campuses have the same amount of students who want to do in person and face to face classes,” English teacher Chad Doty said. “We are really trying to handle that overflow especially of those students who want virtual environments so I think it is beneficial in that way. Working with other schools in the district, we  are able to kind of shoulder the load and help out our students and facility around Frisco.”

Although the mixing of students from different schools was done for the benefit of scheduling, it also opens the doors to have new classmates that students have never met before.

“I don’t think having students from different schools in my class really makes a difference since we aren’t socializing as effectively through Zoom,” sophomore Jiya Surywanshi said. “The good thing is that I now know more people from around the district.”

While some students find this as a chance to meet new people, some find it to be an awkward and uncomfortable experience.

“It’s difficult to connect with our teachers and peers, making it hard to socialize,” freshman Anushka Dwivedi said. “This can also lead to students feeling uncomfortable asking questions and expressing their opinions, making learning more difficult overall.”

The lack of familiarity amongst some students has been noticed by teachers such as Doty. 

“I think it is difficult because students don’t know each other and it makes class culture building a little more difficult than it would be normally especially in an online environment,” Doty said.  “Almost everything is different this year. Normally I have my students sit in small groups; they have a lot of conversations with their peers and some of those structures can’t work the same way. Pairing up and talking to the person next to you is not something that we can easily do in an online setting. There are ways to do it but it won’t happen as organically.”

As a result of mixing students from other schools, some classes have more students.

“I do not think having students from different schools is beneficial,” junior Aniket Joshi said. “It increases the class size which will make it harder for students and teachers to maintain a good student-teacher relationship.”

However, the blending of students from several Frisco schools can help students and teachers.

“One benefit is that it has forced me to use some tools that I’ve been thinking about, but haven’t quite implemented before,” Doty said. “Things like video recording, flipping the classroom, having students watch videos on their own, and take notes, just like some of those structures that I wouldn’t normally rely on are becoming more and more important. So I think it benefited me and my students by forcing us to try new things.”