This year’s art classes have been extremely stressful. Teachers and students are both having to learn new strategies to get through this school year. It is hard to teach both in-person and virtually at the same time, for example the in-person kids are limited to certain items and have to put them in a “dirty bin” when finished, and if the virtual kids need a material the teacher can not just give it to them, so they would just have to make do with what they have. Farrall Hilton is an art teacher at Athens Drive High School and she said that this year was one of the most difficult years to teach art.

     “Teaching art virtually is difficult, especially for students. The comradery and the bouncing ideas off one another in a live classroom is priceless. Yes, tutorials are helpful and can help in some ways polish technique and concept demonstrations…but the joy, value and insight gained from live collaboration is difficult to replace with digital learning,” said Hilton.

     She learned that teaching virtually this year has been helpful digitally and peer critiques can be useful with digital aids as well as posting peer feedback, but teaching solely virtually is isolating and kills inspiration and motivation. Not only is teaching live instruction difficult but teaching virtually is too difficult. Especially at the same time, but teaching hybrid is even more challenging. All are different and have different aspects which make them challenging, they also all have a set of joys associated with each teaching method.

       The worst part about teaching virtually is the students not doing their work or turning in their projects. She has many students who would have normally thrived in the traditional setting but have not been able to find the desire, motivation or energy to submit project work. They have had to make tough choices, but she said she is not passing judgment. 

       She has enjoyed teaching virtually, but prefers to teach in-person instead. She loves being able to get to know her students and interact with them. Now she has too social distance and can not exactly help them like she was able to before. pix