Comic: How one math teacher broke through to her virtual students
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It's been a year since teachers were handed an unprecedented request: educate students in entirely new ways amid the backdrop of a pandemic. In this comic series, we'll illustrate one teacher's story each week from now until the end of the school year.
Episode 1
Jessica Peacock — On what success has meant for her while teaching virtually during the pandemic. Sixth-grade math, Raleigh, N.C.
![So, I am kind of a comedian. I'm a fun teacher. I get a lot of energy from the crowd. This has been rough.](https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2021/03/22/teacher-feature-jessica-final-1_custom-cec0f6b7f270032fa2f31e7e2db9dec3ddf08200.jpg?s=600)
LA Johnson | NPR
![The kids weren't turning on their cameras, their mics. Forty or so students, but there was just ... nothing. Little boxes with their names in them.](https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2021/03/22/teacher-feature-jessica-final-2_custom-0c380c7b3f135033ea396536b70603a9ad4e23b4.jpg?s=600)
LA Johnson | NPR
![So it had been about nine weeks of this, and I was mentally, physically and emotionally broken. I was tired — a different type of tired — at the end of the day.](https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2021/03/22/teacher-feature-jessica-final-3_custom-598685adfe4bd9f0f9e4d5e82c1720b79d48db7f.jpg?s=600)
LA Johnson | NPR
![I went to Chick-fil-A with another teacher, and we just ... cried in the parking lot.](https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2021/03/22/teacher-feature-jessica-final-4_custom-a677984576ba056d34e44f5dcb7644858c4caf83.jpg?s=600)
LA Johnson | NPR
![And so I broke down in front of the kids — these sixth-graders I had never met, some of them I had never even heard their voices — and I said, "You know, y'all, it really feels like I'm teaching in an aquarium!"](https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2021/03/22/teacher-feature-jessica-final-5_custom-9396bb33e0798e4040bef1dcf1d66adb1a624d14.jpg?s=600)
LA Johnson | NPR
!["It's like, you can look at the fish, you can talk to them, but they're just gonna do what they do!"](https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2021/03/22/teacher-feature-jessica-final-6_custom-e71f4cd93b443e5ef90aa7dfbacc5c1153dfb750.jpg?s=600)
LA Johnson | NPR
![And as soon as I said that, it was — Pop! Pop! Pop! The cameras started turning on. And they were giggling. And I'm like ... "Yes! Yes! Thank you! I didn't know what you looked like! Did you have glasses? Or purple hair?!"](https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2021/03/22/teacher-feature-jessica-final-7_custom-af05d970d20d6abbb89f84206f788c8ada59b7d8.jpg?s=600)
LA Johnson | NPR
![So I started thinking of other ways to engage the kids. I had them start sharing their screens, and that changed everything. By the end of the next class, everyone was talking and sharing their screens.](https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2021/03/22/teacher-feature-jessica-final-8_custom-8e9b46e52d7145db415e90be5d3bc9c2ed3e2003.jpg?s=600)
LA Johnson | NPR
![So really it was me modeling that vulnerability that I usually don't have to when we're face-to-face.](https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2021/03/22/teacher-feature-jessica-final-9_custom-d451bd634ed119989e2277ba70e3f9612e4e42e1.jpg?s=600)
LA Johnson | NPR
![And now there are days where I hear from every student more than once. That is success to me. The End.](https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2021/03/22/teacher-feature-jessica-final-10_custom-6e4dcab1f5a0fa6d61601300fe478d7640de381f.jpg?s=600)
LA Johnson | NPR
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