Educational “Pandemic” Pods
With instructional teaching on hold, parents are looking for ways to keep their kids engaged in their education. One of them is through learning or “pandemic pods”. We’ll give you insight on this new educational trend.
Parents realized the truth about the upcoming 2020-2021 school year. If it happens in person, then many families and students won't feel safe. If classes take place remotely, then the quality of education may be problematic. Parents may be unable to provide students with the level of supervision as they work from home. Desperate for a solution, parents around the country have organized homeschooling pods or Pandemic Pods, for the fall, where groups of three to ten students learn together under the tutelage of the parent(s) or a hired tutor. These pods offer parents a break from needing to be the teacher in addition to the parent.
So let’s discuss how these pods can play a role for families, how Link Educational Institute is providing parents and students with these pods in Claremont, CA, and how these pods can be efficient.
Pod Mania
Marissa Leitner, a school psychologist, and mother of three who lives in Culver City, California, is not enthusiastic about the remote learning environment. "I don't believe the Zoom experience for kindergartners is appropriate," she said. "Kids need that multimodal sensory learning."
Leitner and her brother in law, Daniel Zakowski, who also has three kids, are developing a pod involving three or four families. They are hiring a tutor during the mornings, and a college student to help out in the afternoons. Zakowski says this pandemic pod will provide kids with a predictable structure and schedule. They hope this will help the children feel anchored and safe.
In addition to hiring tutors, families are enlisting other parents to collaborate on the teaching the pod. Meredith Phillips, from Croton, New York, a mother of an eight and eleven-year-old, is hoping to assemble a pod with three other families that will rotate responsibilities. One of the dads, who owns a tech company, can teach coding, while Phillips, who's an editor, can teach reading and writing. The parents will teach "whatever they're good at or know and care about," Phillips said. Doing this will expose kids to a variety of different subjects.
Families are either pulling their students out of school altogether for the learning pods or using these pods as a supplement to their schools' online curricula. "From our perspective, it would be a complementary, rather than a replacement," says Adam Davis, a pediatrician from San Francisco. He wants to assemble a learning pod with a teacher or college student for his second grader and kindergartner in the fall. Davis added, "we're committed to our school- we're part of the Parent Teachers Association." Parents that pull their students out of school have to deal with homeschooling laws from their state.
Claremont Pandemic Pods
At Link Educational Institute, our mission is to assist students with their educational goals. This pandemic has affected families; especially, parents who have kids going to school. However, there is an alternative to this situation. Welcome to our school, in your community (or at your house) called the Claremont Pandemic Pods.
Whether elementary, middle school, or high school, they will be able to learn from our tutors in a safe, friendly, and efficient environment. Our tutors will be assigned a group of students based on the families’ needs and wants. Students' needs and wants can come from meeting with the parents. Parents can bring documents such as report cards, past work, and comments from their teachers. With that information we will match that student with the right tutor. You might be asking yourself, will guidelines be enforced due to the pandemic? The answer is YES- participants will have to follow strict social distancing guidelines. These guidelines consist of wearing masks, washing hands, and maintaining social distancing. Our team is working diligently to make the Claremont Pandemic Pods a reality for families during this unforeseen time. To learn about the pandemic pods listen to “All Things Considered” on this audio, to hear more about all sides to this trend.
Because of the coronavirus pandemic parents have had to adapt to a new learning environment. These tips are crucial, especially for parents who have high school seniors. Families that use Pandemic Pods can work on college applications together. They can learn about the various essay applications, plus which colleges will drop the standardized testing.
How to make pods safe, and effective
One concern about pods is that families don't know how to decrease COVID risks. Saskia Popescu, Ph.D., says that pods shouldn't have more than ten kids. When you add the teacher and the students' family members in the pod, the risk of spreading the coronavirus can increase.
Likewise, families in learning pods shouldn't be socializing with people outside the pod. If this happens, individuals need to wear masks and practice social distancing, Dr. Popescu said. Families need to communicate with each other and work on taking precautions. One conversation can consist of, what should happen if a student has an emergency. Additionally, what are the collective rules on wearing masks and washing hands within the pod.
If parents are teaching in a pod, educators say there are no 100% right ways of being successful. Mordechai Levy-Eichel, an education historian at Yale University, and a father of three who was homeschooled himself says, try multiple things, see how they go. Think of it has an experiment. Focus on projects and enriching discussions, he suggested.
