An alarm wakes you up at 7 a.m. and you realize it is another Monday. Rolling out of bed and rubbing your eyes, you log into your school computer. Remembering the slew of missing assignments that you have yet to complete, you groan to yourself preparing for yet another week of virtual school.

Virtual school has been an option for quite some time, but recently because of COVID-19 everyone has been using a multitude of programs to go to school from home. Many schools have chosen to use Zoom, an online chat room program that can be used to teach people. Other schools have decided to use Microsoft Teams and Canvas. Like Zoom, Teams is an online chatroom that allows student to meet in real time with teachers the same way they would in traditional school. But since it is an entirely virtual experience many students have to deal with their home life and school at the same time. The sudden transition to at-home-learning may also cause some mental health issues with students.

“I had become more and more depressed because I wasn’t getting the help I needed when I was doing online classes,” Adel High school sophomore Tessa Spiegel said.

“I barely go out and I can’t see my friends,” East high sophomore Sofia Desantiago said. These issues could present real threats to a student’s performance in school.

“I did not get the help I needed, and I ended up failing my classes that semester,” Spiegel said. Students were not the only ones noticing these changes.

Teachers have also noticed the negative side effects of online school.

“I have seen grades decline. I have reached out to some students as to why. Some students say that they have a lot of issues going on at home, some are just are not taking the virtual environment as seriously, and others are very stressed that they have not been taught time management skills.,” Virtual Campus English teacher Alexie Mobley said.

Another thing that may be harder for student to do during online school is create relationships with their teachers the same way they would if they were doing traditional learning.

“In the virtual environment teachers aren’t always able to build the same relationships with students as we do in person.,” Mobley said. This could be caused by the isolation that comes with online programs.

Because of COVID-19, students must obey restriction laws that prevent them from going to in person school. These laws include social distancing, mask mandates, and some stores even restrict the amount of people allowed in at a time. There’s not much that students can do about these laws other than follow them. However, there are ways to make the experience of online school more bearable. Teachers can try to interact with their student through games or Q&As to get to know each other more. They can also be mindful of the stress that student may be facing due to online school or their home life. COVID-19 has put 2020 on hold, but there are still many ways for people to come together and lift each other up.