CRISIS BREEDS INNOVATION - PANDEMIC PODS AND THE FUTURE OF EDUCATION

One in four of the families and instructors said their pods were expected to form a “bubble” that restricted contact with the rest of the world. [...] But as a pod leader with no formal role in the school district, she had to make recommendations to the child’s parents, who were then responsible for convincing the remote classroom teacher to reach the same conclusion and then relay it to the school to provide support. [...] In the words of one parent, “there has to be a similar goal because the pod is so small and the parents...expect to have a lot of influence on how the pod is structured. [...] And in school, yeah, I might’ve done that for five minutes, but [in the pod] we were all in.’ She added that “it’s so nice as a teacher to have that freedom to just have the gift of time.” Similarly, another instructor noted that the “freedom to be creative in how I present the material, even what material to present, that’s been the most fun for me.” One pod instructor said she felt more empowere. [...] And the only way to get that at this point is by doing the pod or finding a small private school that offers that.” 42 CRISIS BREEDS INNOVATION: Pandemic Pods and the Future of Education PART 4: WILL PANDEMIC PODS ENDURE? When we surveyed pod families and educators in early 2021, more than half of families and two-thirds of instructors expressed interest in continuing to pod after the pandemic (Fi.