CLEVELAND HEIGHTS, Ohio — Tiffiny Underhile’s 16th year of teaching will be one she will never forget.

“I just remember hugging my students and telling them goodbye, and I don't know when I’m going to see you, but hopefully soon and then we didn't go back,” Underhile said.

The eighth-grade science teacher at Monticello Middle School has been teaching from home since the start of the coronavirus pandemic when the Cleveland Heights-University Heights City School District decided to go completely virtual.

“We've been following a full-bell schedule, so we are following a schedule as if we were in school,” she said.

Teachers along with healthcare workers and many other essential professions have been praised for their work during the pandemic. Underhile said she’s no hero, but the work she and so many others are doing to keep students engaged and progressing is not easy.

Although she’s doing the teaching, Underhile said she has learned a lot this year about herself as a teacher and as a mother of two children who are also in virtual school.

One lesson includes the importance of showing empathy.

“I try to go by the ruling of I will do my job as a parent and try to separate that as the job of a teacher, and I will understand that I do not know what they're going through each and every day. But I will support them. I will give them grace,” Underhile said.

She said being away from her students, physically, has also taught her the impact of small interactions.

“I’ve learned that words mean a lot. I had a kid at the end of class who typed in the chat, ‘You guys are some excellent teachers.’ I didn't hear his voice and I didn't see his face, but I read it and, it was just like that feels so good,” she said. “Number two, interaction means a lot in some way shape or form. I love interacting with students and a third thing I’ve learned is that you can never hug people like I just, I just want to go in and hug my students.”

Underhile said she and other teachers with the Cleveland Heights-University Heights City School District are planning on remaining virtual until told otherwise. In the meantime, she’s going to keep teaching and learning as much as she can.

“I want teachers to just reflect on this time, because I think that at the end of the day we can all realize that we did learn something,” she said. “I don't think that anybody's ever going to forget this time.”