Fall 2020 - Spring 2021
When our local schools decided to stay virtual in the fall of 2020, a group of neighbors made a plan for their kids to join together as a pandemic pod. I was connected to them through a friend I used to teach with, and we decided we would do school together at my house. I would manage their virtual learning and care for them after the school day while their parents worked.
My hope for all of the kids was that we would be able to turn a strange and disappointing year into an opprotunity for creative and playful learning. I wanted to capitalize on the opportunities that the freedom of learning together in a small group at home created for individualized instruction, unstructured play time, sensory activities, art, and social emotional development.
Of course there were many struggles as we all learned how to do school on a computer. The kids were in two different districts, in several different grades, and had different schedules. The majority of the kids were kindergarteners who had limited practice using a computer. But it didn’t take too long before everyone was able to use a mouse, mute themselves on Zoom, and submit their assignments online. In addition, the kids got to learn from each other, negotiate a variety of social situations (including having a dog and a 3 year old in their classroom), and escape into their own imaginative worlds in between and after virtual school.
I had every intent to fully document this pandemic pod experience. But as it turned out, my hands were often too full for a camera and my mind too tasked to make interesting compositions. Still, I hope the images I could get tell a little bit of the story of how we spent our days together. I sincerely hope that some day these kids look back at this historical year with a glimmer of fondness for the time we had together.
