Marion keeps students on schedule through e-learning

Despite freezing weather last week, Marion Community Schools kept their academic year on track with the help of their e-learning system.

Under the current system, students attend 15-minute class meetings via Google Meet in addition to any work that teachers assign for them on Google Classroom. According to students and staff the virtual workaround doesn’t come without trade-offs.

“I would say that I feel like e-learning lacks a lot the structure that in-person school has,” Alyia Cruz, a junior at Marion High School, said. “I feel like it’s a lot of just busy work on e-learning days.”

“It’s not a substitute,” Doug Porter, a math teacher of 31 years at the high school, said. “I think
it’s something that, because of technology and how we’ve kind of evolved with that, is a natural thing.”

Porter said that he sent pre-recorded lectures to students in his AP classes throughout the week,
using the 15-minute Google Meets to check in with his students.

“Nothing replaces that face-to-face contact, but I do think there’s something to be said for checking in with your kids, making sure they’re doing okay mentally and physically and everything like that,” Porter said.

Nate Larson, a visual arts teacher and head track coach at the high school, admitted that the e-learning days are challenging for the fine arts department to get as much use out of. Larson said he’s found alternative ways to help his students make the most out of the days at home.

“What we’ve tried to do in certain classes like ceramics is we’ve just moved forward,” Larson said. “So if they’re working on a particular project now, we’ve started to try and plan for the next project [during e-learning] so that when we come back, we don’t have to use those days for planning—we can use them for actual studio work.”

The school district will continue to use e-learning days for winter-related closures, providing students with a way to continue their education on snow days.