As virtual classes continue across New Jersey, teachers say that they are having to get creative to keep their students’ attention – and this includes gym teachers.

Leigh Vogtman is the physical education teacher and girl’s basketball coach at Monroe Township High School.

“A lot of my students are athletes and those athletes right now aren’t able to compete, so, in some sense, this is helping feed that competitive nature that they have.

Inspired by the CrossFit community, Vogtman decided to modify certain workouts and offer them to her students as a weekly quarantine challenge. She posts new workouts every Monday that the students can do at home without any equipment.

“They have the week to complete the workout, then they will post a video of them doing the workout using the time-lapse feature on their iPad or phone, their score and whether they did it RX or scaled,” Vogtman says.

This week’s assignment was named the “Hero Fitness Challenge.”

“Workouts that were named after a specific fallen military hero, so to honor them with Memorial Weekend coming up. This week we’re honoring Army Sgt. Edward Laredo,” Vogtman says.

Vogtman is also helping her community. She is giving the weekly winners gift cards to local businesses in Belmar.

“They’re in a situation that nobody can really relate to, what they’re going through. So, if this could brighten their day a little bit, then I did my job,” she says.

Vogtman says that she plans to continue her Hero Fitness Challenge for a few more weeks. The school year officially ends next month.