Amy Infanzon has roughly 100 young students to fret over this school year, including her own two children.
The Lake Forest School District 67 teacher and Gurnee mom faces a strain shared by countless parents as Illinois schools resume learning in new and varied ways in response to coronavirus concerns.
Infanzon’s employer has committed to a hybrid learning approach for the first trimester of the 2020-21 school year. Meanwhile, District 50’s Woodland Middle School, where Infanzon’s 9-year-old son, Owen, is enrolled, has opted for remote learning through at least Oct. 30.
“I knew I didn’t want to replicate the spring, which was a nightmare, so I thought, ‘How can I motivate my kid? What can I do?'” Infanzon said.
While searching for a solution, she came across rumblings on social media about pandemic schooling pods. A schooling pod is akin to pandemic “bubbles” in which individuals select exclusive groups with which to remain social while minimizing the risk of catching COVID-19.
Throughout August, Infanzon made arrangements, first getting her son’s class list, then reaching out to parents to see if they would be interested in a slot in the pod. On Monday, at Infanzon’s home, Owen and three of his peers began e-learning under the supervision of a caregiver from Sittercity, a network for child, pet and senior care.
While no one candidate on the site was readily listed as a “tech-savvy nanny,” Infanzon jokes, the site allowed her to find a proper supervisor who can fill in while she tackles her own class curriculum.
Amid back-to-school season, Sittercity has seen a 57-percent increase in sitter applications in the Chicago area, as well as an increase in jobs related to pods like Infanzon’s, according to information provided by Aubry Parks-Fried, brand and content strategist at Sittercity.
For the Infanzon family, the pod model seemed to offer the right mix of learning and socialization, but time will tell. And, just as would be the case at any school, the parents have committed to shutting down the pod for a few weeks if there is a coronavirus case among the children.
Infanzon’s 5-year-old, Ian, is enrolled in a private kindergarten with a modest class size.
In the spring, when teachers like Infanzon were told to, “build the plane while (they) were flying it,” the sudden shift to remote learning was anything but seamless for the teachers and students alike, she recalled.
“First of all, we weren’t mentally prepared,” Infanzon said. “So (I was) sitting at the kitchen counter next to (my son), mouthing, ‘It’s time to open up your Chromebook,’ because I would be in the middle of a meeting.”
“When Mom is telling you to get your homework done at the kitchen counter, it’s not necessarily happening,” she added.
Infanzon said she is optimistic about the new school year. The entire curriculum may not be achieved, she said, but a lot of social and emotional learning will likely take place in these unusual circumstances.
“We’re going to learn together,” Infanzon said. “I’ve actually already learned some tools because of e-learning (last spring) that I’m going to implement when e-learning is over. So, I think it’s going to be a positive experience, but I think it’s going to be a slow experience.”