It’s been a week since schools and colleges have transitioned from the classroom to online.
Professor Heaton and Ms. Ditty both teach math in the state of Utah.
Ms. Ditty teaches secondary math at Riverton High School and finds that her students have mixed feelings with online school.
“For some students, it’s really kinda helping to have this online format. Others… the ones that didn’t necessarily spend a ton of time at home working on it…this is definitely becoming a lot more of a struggle for them,” she said.
Professor Heaton teaches college algebra at Utah Valley University and recognizes that math can be a difficult subject to teach online.
“It’s really hard in an email to describe how to solve a math problem,” he said.
Despite the challenges, there is a positive to this negative situation.
“The cool thing that’s happened with the coronavirus — probably the only positive here — is the amount of collaboration happening between teachers right now,” Ditty said.
For students, online schooling also provides some flexibility.
“Every student will be able to go at their own pace,” said Heaton.
With only a few weeks left in the semester, teachers are going the extra mile to provide additional assistance for their students.
“You can’t always control, what happens in a student’s life. But you can control what happens in your classroom,” Ditty said.
