amarkumar81

KaiPod Learning | Founding Engineer | Remote (US) | Full-Time | kaipodlearning.com

KaiPod Learning is building a brand new learning model by blending high-quality online education with in-person support. We are creating a network of in-person microschools where students learn at their own pace using a digital curriculum, get in-person academic support from an educator, and socialize with their peers.

We are looking for a Founding Engineer to lead the build of the technology platform that supports students, parents, educators, and our central team. You will be the first technical hire we make to take us on this journey.

Our priority is looking for full-stack engineers with early startup experience.

More details & app link here: https://www.kaipodlearning.com/founding-engineer

Thanks so much for your support!

Thanks so much for sharing this! :)

We may need to agree to disagree on the point about online school families. As a principle, I try not to judge any parents' choices on what school they select for their children. Education is an incredibly complex issue and we should all strive for all parents to make informed decisions about their families.

Online school families, as a particular example, have a wide variety of needs that draw them to the model of learning (e.g., a child being medically homebound; a child who practices/trains for competitive sports or arts; or a child who desires flexibility in where, when, and how fast they work on their academic courses).

The point about academic bonding is that students in any one of our learning pods will be from a range of ages (generally no more than 3 years apart at most), given the freedom to work on different subjects at the same time, and encouraged to work at whatever pace is best for them. In other words, I agree with you that academic bonding is a really good thing, but it is just hard for us to nurture given the flexibility inherent in our model. Therefore, we take extra care to make sure that the students build relationships over the other parts of the pod experience.

I can definitely understand your concern. Often, focus on equity can manifest as lowering the ceiling for all students, rather than lowering the floor so more students can access 'the room.'

In our pods, we have space for accelerated learners who want zero constraints on their progress (i.e., just let me go as fast as I want!). We do our best to match them with learners who are equally paced (so they may work together to challenge each other) AND those who may not be as accelerated (so they may learn to work with a variety of student profiles).

To continue the analogy from before, we are all about expanding the room so all types of learners can succeed.

Thanks for your comment. COVID reminded us how important a school's role is in providing a safe place for students to be & learn (so that parents/guardians can work or otherwise support their households). You may have seen the data on COVID's disproportionate effect on women leaving the workforce to tend to childcare duties that would otherwise not have been present if schools were open.

For many online school families, they have struggled with this for years before COVID and will continue to struggle with it after; we are designing this program precisely to address this challenge.

I also wanted to address the last part of your comment: all kids of the same age learning the same thing is indeed a disadvantage of today's traditional education system. I hope you'll agree that there's nothing biological about 10 year olds needing to learn the exact same thing at the exact same time. Children proceed along unpredictable paths of learning at unpredictable paces and our jobs as educators (or in my case, as someone who supports educators) is to enable as much of that flexibility as possible for the children.

I really appreciate your push for learning environments that don't constrain students and students can just be who they are. In other words, what are the absolutely minimum number of things that we insist on as rules, so that students feel the freedom to take ownership over the rest.

(And thanks for sharing that Sudbury example; I had never seen it before but I love the message.)

Right now, we are starting with 4th to 12th graders. The reason for this is that online learning is a bit more self-paced at this age group.

For kindergarten-aged students, online schools typically require heavy 1-on-1 support from a learning coach (typically a parent or guardina). Since our model typically has 8-10 students per learning coach, we haven't figured out how to support younger students yet.

In terms of which schools are an option, if you're in California, there are several options available to you to opt in to online schools (both public and private). The one I know best is called California Connections Academy (https://www.connectionsacademy.com/california-online-school). These schools are funded by the state and operate as charter schools.

Thank you for the kind words and good questions!

1.) We match students to pods after a family interview and spending time with the students. The dimensions we use for matching include geography, age, online program, extra-curricular interests, learning personalities, and other needs that students may have.

Despite our best efforts, we will certainly have situations where some kids may not like each other, but we train our Learning Coaches in building positive group dynamics and helping kids learn to work together (very much like the real world!).

2. We definitely don't ask our Coaches to be content experts; that would indeed be a really hard job as you point out. Instead, we ask them to be able to sit down with the student and figure things out using the course content. When the duo figures out a complex topic together, we hear from students that they enjoyed it a lot more (and learned more!) than someone just telling them how to do it. And in the situations where the duo can't figure it out either, the coach works with the online teacher to make sure the student gets the help they need.

3. Kids mostly build camaraderie around the enrichment activities we plan every day (e.g., music classes, building bridges with spaghetti/marshmallows) where they team up. We also have breaks for free play (e.g., badminton in the yard, Bananagrams with the Learning Coaches).

Academically, it's hard for students in the same pod to 'bond' since students can be in different grades (up to a 3 year age band in each pod), can choose which subject to work on and when, and can move at their own pace. Instead, students actually get that type of camaraderie with their online school classmates. Hope that made sense; but let me know if not!

Thank you for that insight about New Hampshire!

Thanks so much for your questions. To get started, we are talking to parents who have already opted into an online school or even an online homeschool program. Those families have already made the transition to the learning model; and many of them are looking for greater opportunities for socialization and academic support. When we describe the model to them, they see its value pretty quickly.

As you are pointing out, we do have trouble reaching the parents in a more traditional education who aren't actively seeking out alternative options. Our hope is that as we show the value of our model, the word will spread and more parents will opt in. In the meantime, we are doing whatever we can to lower the effort required for families to transition. Any suggestions are most welcome!

Homeschool co-ops are an excellent comparison. For those who may not know what those are, a co-op is a group of homeschooling families who come together (often on a voluntary basis) to support each other with their kids' education and other needs (e.g., meals, childcare, etc.). They've been around for years and, in the pandemic, they started to get mainstream as 'learning pods.'

In some ways, you can see us as making the concept of 'co-ops' more available to more people.