<\/p>\n
Eastern students studying to be teachers have had a unique perspective on the upheavals wrought by the coronavirus. They\u2019ve experienced pandemic disruptions both as students and as educators.<\/p>\n
This double whammy is an unfortunate but potentially profitable experience, says Carlos Castillo-Garsow, an associate professor of mathematics education at Eastern. Especially when it comes to the instruction part.<\/p>\n
\u201cTeaching online can be very challenging, but it\u2019s something I would recommend for everyone,\u201d Castillo-Garsow says. \u201cYou don\u2019t really get a sense of how important feedback is from students, and knowing how students are performing in the classroom, until it\u2019s hard to get that information.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTeaching online can be very challenging, but it\u2019s something I would recommend for everyone,\u201d Castillo-Garsow says.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
To help his students gain such insights, Castillo-Garsow partnered with local healthcare providers to pair EWU students with the children of their frontline workers. Eastern students started hosting virtual math tutoring sessions last spring, with many continuing through the current academic term.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are a lot of doctors, nurses and psychiatrists who are working in hospitals right now who can\u2019t be home to help their children with home schooling,\u201d says Castillo-Garsow. \u201cAnd we have a lot of math education students here at Eastern who need some practical experience spending time with students.\u201d<\/p>\n
The student teachers have received high praise from employees at St. Luke\u2019s Rehabilitation Institute, who say they are thankful they\u2019ve had the extra help during this challenging time.<\/p>\n
\u201cTeaching my son has been so hard; math is the only thing that is going well,\u201d wrote one parent. \u201cHis tutor explains things in an understandable way and works so well with him. I don\u2019t understand math. I wouldn\u2019t have known what to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Earlier this fall, Castillo-Garsow also got additional campus groups involved, such as the Women in Science at EWU (WiSE) club. He hopes to continue matching kids with math tutors as long as it\u2019s helpful to those who need them. \u201cIt really is a perfect opportunity for us to help out and provide support for the community in this time,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
An EWU program pairs mathematics-education students with the children of health workers. Eastern students studying to be teachers have had a unique perspective on the upheavals wrought by the coronavirus. They\u2019ve experienced pandemic disruptions both as students and as educators. This double whammy is an unfortunate but potentially profitable experience, says Carlos Castillo-Garsow, an…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":484,"featured_media":762,"menu_order":0,"template":"","class_list":["post-763","stories","type-stories","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","stories_categories-campus","stories_categories-research","stories_categories-science","stories_categories-students","stories_tags-spring-summer-2021"],"acf":{"featured_video":"","subheading":"","display_byline":false,"display_date_published":false,"Links":false,"Resources":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test-www.ewu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/stories\/763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test-www.ewu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/stories"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test-www.ewu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/stories"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test-www.ewu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/484"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/test-www.ewu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/stories\/763\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":767,"href":"https:\/\/test-www.ewu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/stories\/763\/revisions\/767"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test-www.ewu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test-www.ewu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}