Home-Teaching

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EduSpirit: Home-Teaching During the Time of Corona by Cristina Santamaría Graff, Ph.D. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at eduspirit.org.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at eduspirit.org .

vBlogs & Home Lessons

Week 1 (pre-Lessons)

  • DAY 1: First day of home-teaching and e-Learning, roadblocks, and a new “normal.”
  • DAY 2: Figuring out the overall routine with e-Learning, taking a nature walk, some reflections
  • DAY 3: Making birdhouses, taking photos, e-Learning
  • DAY 4: Family as Faculty – families in need of extra supports, finding out that school is closed until at least May 1st – having that conversation with the girls.
  • DAY 5: Spring Equinox – Family ceremony giving homage to Mother Earth – Four Directions

Week 2

  • LESSON 1 – Theme: “BEGIN” – Purpose: Discuss changes occurring in the home because of COVID-19.

Week 3

  • LESSON 2 – Theme: “FIRE” – Purpose: To discuss what it means to be a responsible steward of fire (and to learn about its properties – physical, chemical, spiritual).

Weeks 4 – 5

  • LESSON 3Theme: “PATH” – Purpose: To discuss what it means to be on a Path to Wellness. How are we taking care of ourselves and one another? What path are we following to ensure that our physical, emotional, mental, psychological and spiritual health are being nurtured, cared for, and attended to?
  • Due to illness, I needed to take out time for myself in order to get better. For this reason, the theme “PATH” spans weeks 4 – 5 and makes up vBlogs 8 & 9.

Weeks 6 – 7

  • LESSON 4 – Theme: “PROMISE” – What is a promise? And, what does it mean to follow through on a promise to yourself or to someone else? In this lesson, we explore these questions through different activities including “Because I said so” cards, using a board game with “Promise” questions/prompts, and creating an autobiographical map.
  • This lesson is inclusive of vBlogs 10 – 11. I will now be creating these lessons in 2-week increments since, within each lesson, are several mini-lessons that need to be developed, carried out, and uploaded.

Welcome to EduSpirit. Your presence here is important. I want to acknowledge you and your efforts at trying your best to be a parent/caregiver/family member and teacher during these extraordinary times. As an educator for over 25 years I have been blessed with many opportunities to work with and teach hundreds of students (pre-K – higher education).

During these times of COVID-19 I have committed to vBlogs centered on mini-lessons for you and your family. Though I have families in mind, first and foremost, I also offer these resources to educators who may be able to integrate some of the ideas presented in their own teaching.

The vBlogs may span beyond the time we, as a collective, are in safe sheltering. Each vBlog contains, within it, at least 2 detailed lessons inclusive of videos demonstrating how the activities within the lessons are carried out. That said, each Lesson Plan vBlog may contain several videos to support the implementation of each activity embedded within the lessons.

In this video (see above) I discuss the scope and sequence of the lessons (lesson plan + implementation). These lessons are meant to be simple and straightforward. I integrate my knowledge of Universal Design for Learning (UDL), culturally sustaining pedagogy (CSP), critical pedagogy – specifically ‘praxis’ (critical reflection + action), as well as mindfulness practices. These mindfulness practices are meant to center and remind us of the necessity to elicit the heart when teaching. It is my firm belief that children/students learn to view the world more compassionately and inclusively when heart-centered practices are integrated with academic learning.

Pat Berberich, Artist



Pat Berberich is the owner and manager of Santa Monica Healing Arts Center. She has been practicing the Rolf Method of Structural Integration or Rolfing in the Venice- Santa Monica area for several years. She now has an office in Ventura where she works two days a week. Her clients have included dancers, athletes, actors, musicians, doctors, teachers, entrepreneurs, parents, children. Many have come for help with chronic pain due to injury or structural imbalances, and many for help with transitional periods in their lives, an evolutionary process that this work supports. She also practices medical massage and light touch energy work.
Pat studied with Emmett Hutchins and Peter Melchior, the first two teachers that Ida Rolf entrusted with instruction in the method. She received her training at both the Rolf Institute and the Guild for Structural Integration. She has studied Quantum Touch with Richard Gordon and Matrix Energetics with Dr. Richard Bartlett, D.C., N.D.
Connect with Pat!

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