PROVIDENCE — Step inside Kathryn Barr’s classroom and this is what you won’t see: Children wearing masks, sitting six feet apart, eating lunch silently.
That’s because Barr is teaching four students in what’s called a learning pod, one of the latest innovations spawned by the uncertainties surrounding COVID-19 and public-school education.
Around the country, parents with means are joining up to teach their children in these small-group settings. Some are taught by former teachers, others by adults who have experience with children — a theater coach, say, or an early-childhood instructor.
Katelin Kingman found Barr’s East Side Learning Pod on social media. Like so many parents, she was looking for a safe place to send her daughter, Sidney, a second-grader, and she wasn’t sure how her East Providence elementary school would be able to handle both online and in-person instruction.
“We originally committed to distance learning” at Waddington Public School, she said. “I wasn’t happy with it, through no fault of the teacher. It’s really hard to manage online learning at the same time you are teaching kids in person. It’s absurd.”
It quickly became clear that spending more than four hours a day online was too much for Sidney.
Kingman, who is a Portsmouth teacher, pulled Sidney out of the public schools and began homeschooling her three days a week with Barr. A babysitter comes in two days a week.
“I’m very privileged to be able to do this,” she said. “We’re living paycheck to paycheck but I had to make this happen.”
The end result? A much happier child.
“My daughter was not happy doing distance learning,” she said. “I think she is happier, more carefree and this is healthier for her physically and emotionally.”
How Learning Pods work:
Barr’s learning pod costs $675 a month. She said she is not in it for the money, adding that this is her way of giving back to the community.
Barr’s classroom is located on the third floor of St. Martin’s Episcopal Church outside Wayland Square. It’s a cheerful place, with colorful rugs, student artwork on the walls and a shelf full of books and puzzles.
Barr brings more than two decades of years of experience to her class, first as a teacher and then as head of three different schools, two of them Catholic schools.
It’s clear she knows how to run a classroom. Each of her three students (a fourth was absent Thursday) works at his or her own desk. While Sidney is doing multiplication, Barr has assigned 5-year-old Declan Murray to work on the names of shapes and objects. Max Rappa, also 5, was working on puzzles on the rug.
Learning Pods 1-on-1 advantage:
Barr is constantly in motion, getting one child to use his inside voice while helping another to figure out a math problem.
The beauty is that no child is alone for long. It’s clear that the children crave attention. When one student has a minor meltdown, Barr is able to soothe that child, putting a gentle arm around his shoulders.
The classroom has the feel of a one-room schoolhouse, like something out of “Little House on the Prairie.”
“It’s almost like a family,” Barr said. “It’s so much more than a class. I’m almost like their grandmother or their favorite aunt.”
One day last week, a child became very sad. Barr pulled him onto her lap and gave him time to recover.
“I started thinking about my very first class in Tennessee in 1989 and how I had 27 kindergartners and no assistance. That special transition would never have happened back then. I’m so thankful I could provide that safe space for him, to have a moment where we all loved him.”
Max, who still attends the Warwick public schools, spends some time on Zoom in the morning and then joins his classmates in activities that range from reading out loud to discussing the presidential election or the weather.
Each lesson plan is individualized, but the class is small enough to do things together.
On Thursday, Sidney sidled up to a visitor and whispered that she likes helping the younger kids.
Barr, meanwhile, says she is “having the time of my life.”
“I loved being in administration but it’s so nice to get back to the classroom,” she said. “I became a teacher in the first place for these ‘Aha’ moments when they figure something out.”
Learning pods, like children, come in many shapes and sizes.
A group of mothers in Cranston were talking one day when someone mentioned how great it would be to find someone to teach their five daughters, all of whom are best friends.
The parents began interviewing candidates they found on social media and landed on Melanie Miller, who runs several afterschool theater programs in town.
The girls attend the pod three days a week, and go to school in person two days. And they rotate among the different households. (The parents declined to say how much it was costing them.)
Miller, 42, of Cranston, sees herself as more of a facilitator than a teacher. The girls follow the school’s curriculum. Miller helps them stay on track, answers questions and serves as an informal liaison with their teacher. The girls are on a hybrid schedule at school.
“They get social time,” she said. “If you’re stuck at home alone, you’re not getting feedback from your peers. If someone needs help in the pod, one of them can jump in. It’s not just me.”
Selene Byron of Edgewood said her daughter “likes the pod better than school,” then adds, “I have to give so much credit to Rhodes Elementary School. They did a phenomenal job of getting the kids back safely with a lot of communication with parents. But having this smaller class is great.”
There are several perks. When Rhodes closed for a month in December, “we didn’t miss a beat.”
“For us parents, it’s a lifesaver,” Byron said. “Everybody I know is not only working, but working two-fold. Then add two kids at home. That’s them asking a half-dozen questions every hour. To have someone take that away from you …”
Linda Borg covers education for the Journal.
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