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Midland College professors adapting to 'new normal' as virtual teachers

"It’s been a big adjustment for those face-to-face students and for me.”

MIDLAND, Texas — The COVID-19 pandemic has turned homes across the country into makeshift classrooms.

And it has been a learning curve for teachers and students alike.

For Lori Thomas, a math professor at Midland College, her classroom looks a little different these days.

Instead of teaching math on campus, like she has been doing for 11 years, Thomas is teaching all 100 or so of her students from the comfort of her own kitchen table.

“Online classes just kept doing what they’re doing but it’s been a big adjustment for those face-to-face students and for me,” Thomas said. 

And some professors are not just teaching their classes, they are helping "home school" their own kids, too. 

“Life is a little chaotic," Krista Cohlmia, Midland College math professor and a mom of two young boys, said. "As much as the boys want to sleep in, we are having them get up and do school.” 

Cohlmia says her sons are over "mom school."

Whether it is a conference call with the college administration, or a lesson with a few dozen students, for now, this is the new normal.

 “I mean I sit at the computer all day," Thomas said. "I have to tear myself away in the evenings because there are students that could still use help long into the evenings.”

Calculus comes easily to these professors. Adapting to a new platform to teach? That is a lesson they’re still learning to conquer alongside their students.

“We don’t want this to hurt any of our students, we just want to help them get through it.”

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