by Gerardo A.

Over the past few years, AHJS has undergone significant changes. When COVID-19 reached our community and quarantine became necessary, we experienced a major shift. Not only did we begin relying heavily on technology for communication between students and teachers, but we also used it for almost all assignments. After quarantine, the AHJS community continued adjusting to how much we had come to rely on technology in our daily lives.

Eventually, the district realized that relying on technology wasn’t perfect, so they tried to balance it  with more traditional methods like pen and paper, creating a balance  of virtual and physical learning. This balanced approach has remained in place to this day.

Technology continues to be an essential tool in AHJS education. In a previous article, I discussed how students and teachers rely on Chromebooks and projectors in classrooms. These tools are necessary for accessing applications such as Google Classroom, Google Docs, Google Slides, HAC, ClassLink, and many others. Without these tools, we would likely return to using pen and paper for assignments, which would reduce our efficiency and take more time to complete tasks.

Technology isn’t just used in classrooms; it’s also used in other parts of the school, like the auditorium. The auditorium relies on many speakers for a better experience and a projector for important presentations and announcements. This just reinforces how essential projectors are.cf

Technology is also used to protect students and staff. One important piece of technology is security cameras. These cameras can help save lives in emergency situations. According to Campus Safety, in such cases, cameras can provide law enforcement with valuable information. Another important piece of technology is fire extinguishers. These can prevent significant damage or harm in the event of a fire emergency.

I interviewed a teacher named Mr. Morales, who shared that a lot of their notes and information are found online. He also mentioned that with technology, they create pages for students to write down notes. This shows that technology isn’t just for virtual tools but also for physical tasks. He said that a reason they use technology so much is because students are well-versed in it, but that they are trying to shift toward more traditional methods like books. One thing that Mr. Morales was firm about is that he doesn’t think technology has helped him save time; rather, it has just substituted one task for another. However, he did mention that technology has helped him make lessons more engaging and interactive. While he hasn’t used any new hardware in the past few years, he has used new software, such as GoFormative. Mr. Morales also shared something interesting: he built a webpage for students to use in order to practice for the STAR test.