Virtual learning has brought many changes for students this school year including having online classes with teachers from other Frisco ISD schools.

“Coming into the classroom was a little scary because you usually go into a class with some knowledge about a teacher,” senior Alice Cai said via email. “I didn’t really know what I was walking into at first. But I really enjoy having new teachers this year since I get to meet new people as it is all online now.”

With in person classes having to be smaller in size due to COVID-19 restrictions and guidelines, virtual students have been placed with teachers at different schools (Heritage, Lone Star, Memorial, or Reedy) to ensure that in-person classes do not grow too large. 

“Having teachers from other schools isn’t too different from having Liberty teachers,” Salazar said via text. “Some of the teachers have different policies and rules. For example, some of my teachers from different campuses have different grading policies. But for the most part everything is consistent.”

Students aren’t the only one that must adapt to having classes with students from other schools. Teachers must also learn to adapt to this new situation. 

“What’s difficult is the classes can get really big,” AP Environmental Science and AP Biology teacher Richard Sabatier said. “Like my face to face classes, there are max 17 kids but my virtual APES is 55. It can be hard because you have to track them down if you need to contact them, like what campus they’re on. What’s good though is you get kids from all over so I get a lot of different perspectives from interacting with kids that I wouldn’t have otherwise.”

For many, including sophomore Samantha Natividad, having teachers from different schools will be an experience that has both its ups and downs.

“It can be nicer to have teachers from the same school because you can ask upperclassmen about how they teach or how to best behave or study in their specific classes,” Natividad said via text. “But it can also be fun to have this new virtual system where we get to sort of peek into the other schools that we never really think about and have this opportunity to work with the teachers there.”