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Katie Mead re-learned what education could be
7 Plays43 minutes ago
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katie-mead-6a95888a/
Hosted by Starr Sackstein & Crystal Frommert
Music by AudioCoffee: https://www.audiocoffee.net/
Contact us: Starr@masteryportfolio.com crystal@masteryportfolio.com
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Transcript
Podcast Introduction
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome to the Learner Centered Spaces podcast, where we empower and inspire ownership of learning, sponsored by Mastery Portfolio, hosted by Star Saxton and Crystal Frommert. In each episode, we bring you an authentic conversation with educators, both in and out of the classroom, that will hopefully encourage you to try something new.
00:00:20
Speaker
This podcast is created for educators who want to learn more about how to make the shift toward learner-centered spaces their students, schools, and districts or education at large.
00:00:31
Speaker
The learner-centered spaces podcast is a member of the Teach Better Podcast Network. Get ready to be inspired as we dive right into the conversation with today's guest.
Guest Introduction: Katie Mead
00:00:44
Speaker
So very excited to have Katie Mead on the show today. Star and I have worked with Katie and she's also a good friend of ours. She is currently a Mastery Portfolio school liaison and a homeschool teacher.
00:00:59
Speaker
Previously, she was a middle school STEM teacher. Her passion is and will always be education for all in a way that students need it. Some interesting facts about Katie. In addition to managing a military household and homeschooling three kids, she runs a small fiber arts business and works with Mastery Portfolio.
00:01:22
Speaker
She prefers a simple and quiet life. So welcome to the show, Katie. everybody. Hi. I always love talking to you about this
Homeschooling Journey
00:01:33
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stuff, Katie. So what we really want to dig into today is if you could tell us a little bit about how you decided to homeschool your children and how that's been going.
00:01:43
Speaker
So it started out as a very practical ah decision for us, honestly, or a very practical option. I was taking time out of work, had just had our youngest, and our middle child, who has some pretty complex health issues, was starting kindergarten.
00:02:00
Speaker
So we knew from, you know, the time he started school that it was probably going to impact his health and he would probably end up missing, you know, missing quite a bit. And we weren't sure how that was going to affect his education. And obviously that's a concern, especially with me coming from an education background, you know, when kids aren't able to be present, it affects what they're able to learn, like just sort of by extension.
00:02:24
Speaker
ah So we were talking about it off and on throughout the further we got into the year and the more he did have, you know, health struggles and he missed a lot of school, it became a more and more consistent part of our conversation. and actually my older son then heard us you know, talking about this and he had transitioned into a different building for fourth grade and was not enjoying it. Like it wasn't, his needs just weren't being met.
00:02:51
Speaker
He was um sort of getting, I guess the best way to say it would be he was getting a little bit like left under the radar with things um because he excelled in quite a bit. And so as teachers had to meet other students' needs, his were sort of getting bypassed.
00:03:07
Speaker
And he then came to us when he heard us talking about it after about half the year, talking about it with or about our middle. He came to us and asked. You know, that he was interested in homeschooling. He thought it sounded like something he would enjoy more get more out of. So by the time we reached the end of that school year, we were kind of looking at things. And my oldest ended up not finishing the year at school. He completed fourth grade at home. We thought we would kind of let that be a look at it for him and let him see if that's really where
00:03:40
Speaker
he felt better. and when we got to the end of the school year and he had thrived and we had managed to cover a lot of content that he had missed or that had been overlooked, um, while he was in public school and my middle child had fully missed almost half the school year due to like different illnesses and things, it kind of looked like homeschooling just made the most sense for us. Um, you know, it was something that felt like an easy answer when we had looked at those things together. um So we are going into our third
Customized Curriculum
00:04:12
Speaker
year. So we're looking at a third grader and a seventh grader. And in my household, homeschooling has absolutely been the right answer. My kids have been able to see and do things that wouldn't have been an option otherwise. And they've been able to handle content in a way that wouldn't have been an option um in a public school setting. So it's something that we're really passionate about and very enthusiastic about.
00:04:37
Speaker
So I want to dig a little deeper because, you know, I'm like always so curious about this. And I ask you all the time, like, what does a typical homeschooling, like, how do you set up your curriculum? Where do you get it from? What is that?
00:04:53
Speaker
I have to imagine the learners, like homeschooled environment is the quintessential learner centered space. It absolutely is. Yes. yeah' Right. So tell us about it. Like tell us some of the nitty gritty stuff about how you get started doing this and what the day looks like for your kiddos. So full disclosure, 100%. wouldn't recommend that anyone expect that they go in like with a plan and that plan is 100% what's going to work all the time.
00:05:21
Speaker
um You know, the version of homeschooling I had in my head when we first started is not necessarily what it looks like now that we're a little bit more experienced and we've been able to figure out what works for the two boys. um Because I mean, like you said, it is the quintessential like learner centered experience. And we've been able to really ah personalize my kids education, which has been really exciting. Like, you know, for me with what we do and everything, obviously, that's something to be passionate about. um a typical day, we start at the same time, like that's just about the only place that everything is kind of on par.
00:05:59
Speaker
We pull from multiple curriculums depending on which subject area and which child it is. My kids have very different learning styles. So the same thing that works in math for my oldest is not necessarily going to apply to his brother. Like we've been able to really create this like.
00:06:17
Speaker
individual plan for the boys that they're able to follow. um My oldest prefers to be very independent. So he has tabs of resources to pull from as he works through his content that he, bless him, he will do everything in his power to not have to ask for help if he can help it but he will kind of take his things and he has a workspace in his room and he'll go and kind of work through his school day and he'll come down as needed. But he prefers to be able to come down and be like, okay, I covered this, this, and this. And then we have like kind of a daily plan for him and he's able to just go and do and come down when he needs help or come down to check at the end of the day. And I can make sure that I'm seeing progress or seeing mastery in his different content. ah My youngest is definitely a much more younger, excuse me,
00:07:05
Speaker
is a much more one-on-one kid. He enjoys learning. Um, but you know, we struggle with some concentration or struggle with focus. And so for him, I'm able to really sit with him and work through his material. Um,
00:07:21
Speaker
It makes for a much shorter day when you homeschool because you're working with an individual child rather than a group of 25, 30, 35 kids. um So within, you know, usually by lunchtime, I would say we're we're finished or close to finished.
00:07:37
Speaker
And then in the afternoons, ed I try to find places for us to go, things the kids are able to do. um A lot of museums offer like homeschool lessons. So that factors in probably once a week or so, maybe every other week. like we go to a different lesson in a different location, or we go to a different museum to kind of explore something.
00:07:57
Speaker
We go to a festival, we go to, you know, a new place for my kids to just see something they haven't seen before or in a long time. I'm sorry. I guess there's not a good answer to that question because the days don't always look the same, which is kind of the beauty of what we're doing, I guess.
Challenges in Homeschooling
00:08:16
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Well, it sounds like there's a lot of variety, which is fantastic.
00:08:19
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And very diverse learning experiences. Are there any challenges that you didn't foresee that surprised you that maybe you could share as advice or just heads up for other potential homeschool families?
00:08:37
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So I think there definitely are challenges, I think, that just come from playing multiple roles. um You know, obviously you're your child's parent first. And so when you then have to kind of step into this teacher role also, there was a little bit of a learning curve for all of us, I think with that coming from a very structured place. And there was a very consistent expectation of what your day was supposed to look like.
00:09:02
Speaker
You know, there was a right answer for what every single day was meant to look like. I actually had to kind of relearn what education could be in my household compared to what it would look like in a public school setting.
00:09:16
Speaker
Would you have any advice for a family who is maybe considering homeschool and and what would be the first step they might want to consider?
00:09:27
Speaker
oh goodness. That's a good question. and um I mean, there's a lot of support out there and you can find a lot of people telling you that it is doable, but I don't know that you always find people telling you the way that they went about it. um It's easy to get overwhelmed and it's very easy to, I think, feel like you're a little bit underwater with all of this different choice. And we specifically were looking for kind of a more secular option with our kids' curriculums and things. And that took a little bit more in terms of just doing a little bit of background work on our part.
00:10:04
Speaker
i think my best advice is to kind of just get started. Like go in and see what works. Choose a curriculum or choose a couple of different places that are, you know, affordable that you might pull from and just kind of see what's sticking with your child.
00:10:21
Speaker
Because in in this kind of world, in this environment, you're really able to learn by doing with them and you're able to kind of walk through like, well what do we want our days to look like? And I know a lot of families that have kids close to my kids' ages and none of us run the same day.
00:10:39
Speaker
You know, none of us have the same day more than once in a row. And certainly none of us teach our kids the same way every day.
Homeschooling Requirements and Tools
00:10:48
Speaker
So, Katie, I just want to ask, like, I'm sure folks wonder when we think about assessment and whether or not they're getting equivalent education at home as they would in a public institution. and i I know that this is probably part of a stereotype, but is Are there a particular requirements you have to meet to make sure your kiddos are on target?
00:11:13
Speaker
So that's a great question, actually, because it's one thing that's going to vary really widely ah from one state to another. Like that's probably one of the least user friendly parts of what we're doing is making sure that you're meeting the expectations in your state.
00:11:29
Speaker
um So we live in Indiana and in Indiana, there is very little um guidance in terms of what's expected of us.
00:11:40
Speaker
We are required to um give our children an equivalent of education for 180 school days. But there's really not an explanation of what sort of qualifies as an equivalent education. So, you know, you have a lot of families where you're hearing them like, well, we baked today. And that was math and science.
00:12:03
Speaker
And, you know, we read the we read the recipe cards and that was that was, you know, an ELA requirement. And they kind of just follow these very, like, personalized ideas of what they want to cover. And that's kind of for better and worse. Like, there are definitely times that I feel like maybe...
00:12:20
Speaker
things are getting brushed away. i probably lean a little more to the opposite extreme. So I make sure that we are looking over state standards and I'm making sure that my kids are meeting ah the expectations and covering the content that they would cover. Like that's definitely something we take seriously in our home. And I know that's typical of of a lot of families that I um have met through just sort of this homeschooling process.
00:12:47
Speaker
um And as we've gone to different events and things like that, like that's something a lot of people take ah very seriously. But for us, yeah, there there wasn't a lot of guidance in that way. And that probably did make it harder. I think in a lot of states where there's a lot of very defined expectation, it's probably a little bit easier to frame your school year, frame your day. So it's a little bit of matter of having almost like too much freedom in terms of what we do.
00:13:18
Speaker
And I know we all met through Mastery Portfolio and um work with the tool, the Mastery Book. Have you been able to use that to help you track their learning and how they're meeting the standards?
00:13:31
Speaker
So I do, actually. um It's been a huge benefit for me because with my kids all using different curriculums and even from one content area to the next using different curriculum,
00:13:43
Speaker
it's great to have a way where I can keep track of everything that we're covering. You know, I can keep track of everything that we're pulling from these different places without having to manually log it into each different curriculum's trackers or trying to do it, you know, pencil and paper.
00:13:58
Speaker
So I do use, I use Mastery Book for both of my boys and I've been able to personalize it, which of course is wonderful. And because I do, um you know, I do take very seriously the idea of,
00:14:13
Speaker
using mastery based assessment rather than kind of a um, you know, a more typical like letter grade process with my kids, it's been really, really wonderful to be able to look at what they're doing and like, well, are we, are we going to take more time with this? Are we going to go ahead and move on? Let's see where we're doing and being able to show the kids their mastery and they understand, you know, it's a color coding system. So they're able to look and be like, oh, I really want to make sure I'm getting to green or, you know, like, oh, I think that one is still, that's still a yellow for me is what my youngest or younger one will say a lot.
00:14:52
Speaker
Yeah, that sounds it sounds really awesome. I'm glad it's been really useful. um To that end, as we're wrapping up now, Katie, can you tell us if there are any folks or organizations you'd like to shout out that is that are supportive of the work that you're doing with your kids?
Support and Resources
00:15:10
Speaker
So I did find um I was thinking about this before we spoke. I found sort of by happenstance a couple of really great homeschooling organizations that are near me. um And one of them we've actually worked with just a little bit. Her name is Jean Lee. And she runs a homeschooling academy called the Academy of Chaos, which any homeschooling parent or possibly parent in general knows like kids are chaotic by to default. So it's aptly named. But she does offer some really great homeschooling courses for your students and they're across age and content areas.
00:15:46
Speaker
And she also put on the Midwest Homeschool Expo the last couple of summers, which is an absolutely great resource. They focus specifically on secular homeschooling and they have really great speakers and they have tons of different like vendors and curriculum providers that you're able to just expose to and kind of investigate what you think would fit your family.
00:16:08
Speaker
So in our area, I would say that that is probably one of the best individual resources I've found. Thank you so much. This has been so helpful. I think there are a lot of families that will very much appreciate your advice and just some steps that you've given them and the resources. So Katie, thank you for being on the show.
00:16:31
Speaker
Thank you guys for having me. It was great talking. So great talking to you. Take care. You too. Thank you for learning with us today. We hope you enjoyed the conversation as much as we did.
00:16:43
Speaker
If you'd like any additional information from the show, check out the show notes. Learn more about Mastery Portfolio and how we support schools at masteryportfolio.com.
00:16:54
Speaker
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00:17:06
Speaker
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00:17:17
Speaker
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