POD teachers must co-teach and co-plan to personalize student learning and drive their own professional development.

Each POD has upwards of 60 students and 3 teachers, including one special education teacher. POD teachers may take on multiple roles, including POD lead, SDL guide, small group facilitator, large group facilitator, interventionist, and mentor. Teaching Roles POD teachers work together to provide small-group instruction, adjust instruction based on student learning data, oversee independent student work, build relationships with students, and support other POD teachers. POD teachers learn daily from one another by observing each other across the POD and conversing informally about common challenges. POD teacher teams create internal capacity for teacher development when first-year teachers are strategically placed to co-teach with a veteran teacher. Although these newer teachers are responsible for different content areas, they benefit from sharing responsibility for students with a seasoned teacher.

POD teachers must have daily common planning time to co-design the flow of experience in the POD to meet the needs of all students. In addition, POD teachers have course team meetings biweekly with a coach to assess alignment of assessments and instruction and to identify and respond to gaps in student thinking. This includes data analysis, unit unpacking, looking at student work, and unit debriefs. Lastly, all teachers participate in professional development activities, including professional learning communities and observation and feedback sessions.

Block schedules are critical to enabling a deeper student learning experience for students as well as a regular co-planning cadence for teachers.

POD blocks meet for 85 min 4 days/week at the middle school level and for 90 min 4 days/week at the high school level.

Teacher schedules must have dedicated common planning and learning time for POD teams. The personalization in PODs is only possible with daily common planning time for POD teachers, so they can respond to real-time data. Intrinsic students have a shortened day on Wednesdays, which gives staff two hours to review student data and engage in PD.

Finally, student schedules must include mentoring/goal-setting time, either within instructional time or during other spaces (e.g., Advisory).

Open and flexible space will best enable the customization of learning to different student learning needs and goals.

The physical space of each POD is open and flexible: there are areas for quiet individual work, small group instruction, collaborative work, group projects, and large forums. Each POD is composed of 4 core parts: Ocean, Coastline, Shade, and Boards. POD Layout

• The Ocean features soft blue riser chairs that resemble waves, where teachers and students can engage in small-group discussion. A room for big ideas, connections, and discussion. 
• The Coastline wraps around the perimeter of the room and is where students complete independent work. Depending on the course, students have a menu of options for independent work on the Coastline. This is where personalization meets progress at their fingertips. 
• The Boards (there are at least two board spaces in every POD) are areas for teacher-led instruction for groups of 10-15 students. They support technology-enabled, teacher-led instruction.
• The Shade is a large orange shade that hovers above tables designated for students to engage in peer-to-peer and small group work or projects.

While open, flexible space is ideal for the physical layout of the POD, it is possible to make the POD model work by creatively using multiple classroom spaces.

PODs require 1:1 devices, internet access, and ed-tech platforms for self-directed learning.

Technology plays a critical role in PODs. Students spend a portion of PODs in Self-Directed Learning time (SDL), which requires access to a 1:1 Chromebook, a wireless connection, data tracking and sharing systems, and ed-tech partnerships and tools to enable students to engage in personalized learning activities, track their progress, and access resources aligned to their needs. It’s critical for teachers to have access to real-time student data during their daily common planning time so they can personalize PODs to meet the needs of each student. In addition, Google products and other tech systems are leveraged to ensure a smooth and streamlined experience for students and staff. While technology plays a critical role at Intrinsic, classrooms remain relatively low-tech (e.g., you won’t see smartboards) in order to be as flexible as possible in PODs to meet each student’s individual needs.

For Math SDL, Intrinsic uses: 

• Imagine Math 
• IXL 
• Khan Academy 
• Summit Learning

For ELA SDL, Intrinsic uses: 

• Independent Reading
• Khan Academy
• Summit Learning
• iLit for English Language Learners

POD’s co-teaching model may have budgetary and scheduling implications.

The POD model has two important budgetary and operational implications. With 3 teachers in 1 classroom – even with 60 students – there is a smaller teacher-to-student ratio than in a traditional setting. Intrinsic has solved this by having each POD teacher teach 3 POD blocks (180 total students), but this creates other ripples for master scheduling and other teacher loads.

There may be implications for different pay structures for POD teachers and singleton teachers or for teachers who play specialized roles within a POD (e.g., team lead).