For teachers and students, their first day back at school in San Diego County on August 31 was unlike any other they’ve experienced before.
Instead of seeing their friends and finding their classrooms, they went to class virtually, from home.
"It was good, but it was a little frustrating at first trying to get Zoom working and trying to find links," said Scripps Ranch Senior Ethan Nicholas. "It was good getting to know my teachers and finding out who was in my class."
News 8 also spoke to Sandburg Elementary teacher Kristine Weiner. She's the wife of a News 8 producer.
"The internet was all glitchy," said Weiner. "I don't know why it was all frozen. I quickly changed computers, and then we got back up and going. A couple of students were having problems. I had them sign out and sign back in."
But overall, she said her kindergarten students just went with the flow and got through it.
"I have a lot of empathy for the teachers that are really trying to figure this out," said Weiner. "Whereas, I spent a lot of that time in April, and then I spent all that time grabbing every single training I could in April and May."
Online classes also started for the South Bay Unified School District, as well as Chula Vista Elementary. Chula Vista offered in-person help sessions for people struggling with technology.
Meanwhile, Nicholas said he'll have three classes a day at Scripps Ranch. Each one will be 74 minutes long. He admits it's hard to stay focused.
"Yeah 100%," he said. "As long as my teachers have a requirement to keep my video on, I can't go on my phone or anything like that right in front of their faces."
Weiner said though online teaching is not ideal, she's going to make the best of the situation.
"Am I still going to build relationships? Yes, it's going to look very different. Am I going to have interactions with [my students]? Yes, it'll look really different. It's not what I want," she said.
"I haven't hugged my students. I didn't get to hug them goodbye last year so yeah I can either sit here and wallow in what I can't [do] or I can celebrate what I can do," she said.