Welcome! This is the story of how Ruthie's Pod Began. Condensed Transcript Hi, everybody! My name is Ruthie, founder and creator of Ruthie's Pod Learning. Welcome to my Audio Open House podcast. I'm here to tell you all about my learning pods that are currently in Barrington, Rhode Island, in September, moving to East Providence, Rhode Island.... Because I like to create a vibe of a love of learning and an engaging environment, I began to wonder, "What else is it that I can do? I still wanna be a teacher, but I cannot see myself in public school. How can I do this?" That first summer of Covid, I had a summer camp at my house. Kids were not going to camp because camps were closed due to Covid, but we stayed safe, and we had an all outdoor camp that summer. And one of the parents from Barrington approached me and said, "You're a teacher. Would you consider teaching the kindergarten curriculum to six of our students: English, math, and science?" And I thought "That sounds like an interesting idea. Sounds like I could be a bit creative while still meeting the needs of the Barrington curriculum." And that's exactly what happened. I taught for a whole year in somebody's basement in Barrington. Very unorthodox... however, very effective! I [00:03:00] noticed that when I had six kids, a small group, teaching and learning was way more effective than it was in a class of 25, and these kids had to check in with their regular class teacher periodically, and the class teachers were like, "What is happening in that pod? These students are skyrocketing beyond what we're expecting for this level, for this time of the year." So something went off in my head. I had an idea, like a light bulb moment, and I thought, "I wonder if this could be a new model of teaching that somehow people could find out about and I could incorporate this and make this something that's really valuable for some community." I'm not even sure who would be available to be in this environment. And then it occurred to me: homeschooled kids. So homeschooled kids are home, learning curriculum from their parents, but they're not really getting that much socialization during the day, and they're [00:04:00] not really maybe getting the vibrancy and the relevance of what is being taught; they may be seeing it in isolation. So I thought, "I wonder if I could create a small group environment of homeschooled kids where what they're learning at home could be part of group situation, a group dynamic when learning a topic. Maybe they could choose their own topic, kind of like how they do in homeschooling. Maybe I could create lessons all across the curriculum areas that would be vibrant and relevant and extremely enjoyable and could be individualized for certain children's needs because of the small group dynamic...". And so that's kind of how the pod idea continued. Can you tell me about how your pods came about? Yes. So that first pod in that lady's basement with those six students was the genesis. This was where I saw that this could be really effective, but who would come to this pod? Because these regular school [00:05:00] students were going back to their regular classrooms. Who would I be able to teach? Who would benefit from this type of environment? .... We've had three pod years since then. Very successful. Children actually jump outta their cars and run to my classroom, so I know I've got something going that's valuable. And children say that they love it here. Parents say that they love it here. It's an extremely effective way for me to instill a love [00:06:00] of learning, in a really engaging environment. And the best part is the kids choose the topic. So when they choose the topic, they're buying into the learning even more. So I'm injecting curriculum into student chosen topics. So, take a look at our next segments, and I'm going to try to tell everyone everything they would ever want to know, as if you came to visit me here at the pod.
