Pandemic Pods: Set-up, Hiring an Educator, Support Structures
Helping Parents Figure Out Remote Learning During School Closures
This course is taught by a veteran public school educator who was hired by a group of four families to teach their remote learning pod (aka "pandemic pod") during emergency school closures from COVID-19. Learn ways to proactively design your learning pod, including considerations for structures, agreements, and communication. By thinking things through in advance, families can avoid unexpected surprises and frustration.
Pandemic Pods covers:
1. How to get started: The negotiating process, agreements, use of space
- Allowing for breaks
- Not a babysitter - an instructor --
- How will teachers / tutors be paid
- Medical Waivers, social media sharing, exposure to the virus
- Consider the space and how it will be used
2. Communication with Families
- Introducing your child to the teacher
- Feedback about student strengths and areas for improvement seen during
- End of quarter logistics
- Ways to give feedback to the teacher -- sentence starters.
- Ways to ENRICH learning for the student and bring / keep JOY in their learning!
- A RESOURCES LIST with lots of links!
3. When “School” Starts - To Work Out with Kids (and these are traits parents should be looking for in the educator who they hire / engage in the “Teacher” role) --
- How can we make sure that we’re all safe and healthy?
- Understanding the value of relationship building, play, and SEL for the kids.
- What will we do when we run into problems?
- How can we structure our time together?
- Routine
Your Instructor
Erin Gannon is a passionate educator with 22 years of classroom experience in grades 2-5. In early August 2020 she launched a "pandemic pod" to support four families (8 children) with remote, at-home learning. She trains and mentors other educators and parents on a local and national level. She contributes to the development of curriculum and assessments for Discovery Education and serves as National Faculty with PBLWorks.
Course Curriculum
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StartWays CoLearn Can Support You (5:57)
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StartMeet Erin Gannon (12:05)
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StartGetting Started: The Negotiating Process (30:21)
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StartGetting Started: The Agreement (40:58)
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StartGetting Started: The Space (36:25)
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StartCommunication (33:27)
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StartEnrichment: Project Based Learning (28:13)
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StartEnrichment: Design for Change (13:24)
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StartEnrichment: Environmental Education (28:21)
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StartReflecting: The First Week (38:12)