CORVALLIS, Mont. – While the online school swept the country last year, a Montana teacher took an even bigger virtual leap by going to South Carolina.
Lauren Sidoruk lives in Corvallis and teaches high school English to students in Bennettsville, South Carolina. It is through a program called Elevate K-12.
Sidoruk said he was having trouble finding a teaching job at Bitterroot, specifically in his specialty in English. She said she applied for a position that had more than 40 candidates for just one vacancy.
Meanwhile, according to Elevate, other pockets in the country face a shortage of teachers for specific subjects such as English and a foreign language.
Some of Sidoruk’s students are remote and some go to school in person. She shares a screen with a teacher who is in the classroom with the children. Although she is unable to see her students on the screen, she can connect with them through online chat, polls and assignments.
She said it is difficult to miss the “aha moments” and assess her level of involvement, but she still finds ways to relate.
“I really learned to have relationships with them and connections,” said Sidoruk. “It was very evident at the end of my first semester when I had to say goodbye to those students I was teaching. It was a really sad day for many of us, we would really miss each other. It was the bittersweet end of an academic year just as it would have been in a classroom. “
Sidoruk added that it has been fun to show his students the snow, the mountains and the cow pastures through the front window.
She said she loves having an influence on these students from all over the country and is happy that they are able to have a real English teacher instead of just substitutes or someone with a different specialty.
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