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Teacher improvises to help with math

Editor's note: This is the final in a recurring series on local teachers trying to maintain normalcy during the COVID-19 pandemic.

CLOVIS - The coronavirus' effect on teaching has shown how far the profession has come, with educators able to reach their students through the internet.

In some cases, though, the best way to communicate can be old-fashioned. Take Elizabeth Hita-Ledezma, for instance. Before school ended for the summer, the Yucca Middle School math teacher was able to utilize computer technology, but there was one child she managed to help with no technology at all.

Just a white board and her vocal chords.

One-on-one classroom instruction wasn't allowed this spring because of school closures and COVID-19 restrictions. But when Hita-Ledezma discovered that one of her young neighbors was in need of some math instruction, she found a way to help.

"I took a white board outside," she recalled. "He was having a hard time with some fractions. ... We were yelling across the street, and that kind of eased him."

White board? Yelling across the street? So much for 21st-century technology. But if it worked, it worked.

No Zoom, just clever improvisation.

"Yes," Hita-Ledezma said. "That's what teachers are good at, though."

Hita-Ledezma didn't always want to be a teacher. After graduating from Clovis High in 2001 and serving time in the military after 9/11, she earned her bachelor's degree in business accounting from the University of Phoenix and her master's in education from Wayland Baptist University. That gave her options, and she chose to utilize the accounting side of her education first, working for Larry Seefeld, a Certified Public Accountant in Clovis.

"I realized really quickly that I was not the type of person to sit down at a desk all day," Hita-Ledezma said. "And I wanted to do something that was going to change people's lives. ... And I felt that teaching was the better choice."

She had worked as an educational assistant teaching pre-kindergarten at the Lincoln-Jackson school while earning her master's, so she decided to pursue teaching further. She has since taught at Highland and Zia Elementary Schools, has taught algebra II at Clovis High, and is now a seventh-grade math teacher at Yucca.

She is married to Rudolfo Ledezma, an Afghanistan War veteran, with whom she has four children. Hita-Ledezma has gotten to spend more time with those children over the past few months, but has been separated from her classroom children since March.

"It's sad to not be able to see the kids," she said, "because a lot of the kids won't advocate for themselves and tell you they're struggling. You see them have a problem on their desk and you can help them out."

Not the case with distance learning.

"The biggest problem I'm having is reaching all the kids right now," Hita-Ledezma said.

But, online education does have its advantages.

"There are some kids that are thriving," Hita-Ledezma said. "They were kids who were very distracted in the classroom and are doing great now. But there are kids who need that one on one."

 
 
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