In More High School Classes, the Teacher Is on a Screen

Tawnell Hobbs:

ne recent morning, about two dozen students walked into precalculus, took their seats, and began logging into school-provided laptops.

The voice of their teacher, Elizabeth Jacobsen, came over a speaker system. “Chat me a hello message. Please be sure to turn your cameras on,” she said.

Ms. Jacobsen’s face popped up via live stream on the students’ laptops and was projected on a whiteboard at the front of the room.

From her living-room-turned-office in Woodstock, Ga., Ms. Jacobsen walked students through finding the functions of an angle with a virtual pen, in close-up. An aide in the classroom helped students and made sure they stayed on task.

The teacher shortage is getting so bad across the country that tens of thousands of students nationwide now get lessons live streamed into their classrooms.

“It’s weird at first, but you get used to it,” said 17-year-old Desiree Ramirez, a senior here at Duncanville High School who is taking her second remotely taught class this school year. “I’d rather have it like this than with a sub. They don’t teach.”