Math teacher goes above and beyond to help struggling student with homework

• After Chris Waba finished a lesson he taught by Zoom, one of his students was still struggling with the Math problem.
• Chris emailed back and forth with the student to help her figure it out.
• When it didn’t help, Chris grabbed a whiteboard and headed to her house to work through the problem with her on the front porch.

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“He just went above and beyond… He’s such a good teacher and a great man,” a parent says of his daughter’s Math teacher Chris Waba.

Chris is a Math teacher in Madison, South Dakota for 27 years. When the pandemic started, he had to teach virtually.

After teaching a lesson by Zoom earlier that day, his sixth-grade student Rylee Anderson emailed him to inform him that she was still struggling with the Math problem.

Chris shared that he had been emailing back and forth with Rylee to figure out the problem. But when it didn’t help, he walked to her front door carrying a whiteboard.

My 6th grader emailed her math teacher for some help, so he came over & worked through the problem with her on our front porch. @Chriswaba9 , our neighbor, MMS teacher & MHS Wrestling Coach. #KidsFirst @MadisonMSNews @MarkOsports @dakotasportsnow @dakotanews_now @stwalter20 pic.twitter.com/aniqt2goPB— Josh Anderson (@DakSt8Football) March 27, 2020

“We had really tried to work through it digitally, but you can just tell when you need to do something else,” Chris told Good Morning America.” I had the whiteboard that I brought home, and I just said, ‘I’ll be over in a couple of minutes.’”

Chris lives a few doors away from Rylee so he just walked to reach her. Kneeling outside the front door, he started drawing on the whiteboard while Rylee stood safely inside the house. Chris was there for about 15 minutes.

Rylee’s parents captured every moment on camera. Rylee’s father, Josh Anderson, shared the story and photo on Twitter.

“He’s just a really good teacher and really good person,” Anderson said. “[Rylee] was shocked he came over, but she was happy to get it done and over with because she was very frustrated to not have the answers or the help that she needed.”

Both teachers and students still struggle with virtual learning. The adjustment is still ongoing.

“When teachers go into the business, it’s because they like to teach and be around the kids,” Chris said. “For us now to turn into a virtual classroom, probably the biggest love of what our job is about isn’t our job anymore. It’s not the same as being in the classroom and interacting with class.”

Chris noted that there are other teachers across the US going above and beyond for their beloved students in this pandemic.

“I’m not one on an island,” he said. “There are thousands and thousands of teachers going the extra mile for their kids.”

Source: Good Morning America