Hey listener, it's Mary.

Over the holidays, we are rerunning some of our favorite episodes from earlier in the year.

And today, I'm going to share a show we broadcast back in September.

That's when many kids were just heading back to the classroom during a

lull in the coronavirus. Back then I spoke to a teacher in Texas about how he was

managing to hold in-person and remote classes at the same time.

Little heads up, we did curse a couple times, only appropriate, given the subject matter.

We're going to get started, but make sure you stay

till the end. I'll give you a bit of an update on how our teacher is doing now. Christopher Pinto is a high school math teacher outside Houston, Texas. And these days, he's got this routine. He wakes up around 536 in the morning,

pours himself some green tea, and then he cranks up this song,

a good 80s power ballad.

Starships, nothing's going to stop us now.

You remember this one.

It's just the ultimate power ballad of like, nothing's going to stop us now and if this world runs out of lovers we'll still have each

other and we'll make it through.

This cheesy pop music, it's one of the few things that can psych Christopher up to do his job.

So it's like even if online learning goes to complete garbage,

it's okay because we still have each other and we'll figure it out.

Christopher is actually back in the classroom this fall, but he's also teaching online

at the same time.

During first period, which is 815 to 9 o'clock, I have 15 students with me in the room

who are as socially distant as possible, and simultaneously I'm running a Zoom call with

...