About SchoolHouse
What's a microschool?
The microschool is the reinvention of the one-room schoolhouse, where class sizes are small groups of 5-8 students and there are mixed-age level groupings.
What is SchoolHouse?
SchoolHouse brings the best parts of education to your home with excellent teachers, small class sizes, and a personalized curriculum. We provide all the tools you need to ensure that your children receive an enriching experience with greater flexibility and more personalized attention than traditional schools can offer - all in a safe and inspiring home learning environment.
Why does the teacher matter so much?
Think back to the best education experiences you've had, chances are you're thinking of a teacher. Research supports that teachers have the largest impact on student satisfaction and educational outcomes. SchoolHouse enables parents to choose the teacher that is right for them.
Who are the teachers?
We hire only the best teachers using a rigorous screening process. For every 1 teacher that we hire, we interview approximately 20 candidates. Our teachers have on average 8.5 years of teaching experience, often have advanced degrees, and come highly recommended by colleagues.
Where is the school located?
Learning can happen anywhere there is enough space for the students and the teachers. So far, our pods have taken place in backyards, around kitchen tables, in playrooms, and in community spaces.
What curriculum do we use?
Each class is uniquely responsive and learns to match the learning style, pace, and interest of each student. We support for every type of curriculum and certified learning method. We work with families to help them find what method best suits them, whether that's a Montessori approach, project-based learning, or STEM focused.
Health and Safety
Safety is our highest priority, for your family, the students we work with, and the teacher. We ask all teachers to follow all CDC, state, and local guidelines as it relates to COVID. Beyond that, each pod creates its own health agreement prior to starting, which we have all students, families, and teachers sign-off on.
Madeleine J.
- Hands On
- Montessori
- Reading
- Spanish
- Mindfulness
- Drama
- Physical Education
- Project-based Learning
-
Grades 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8
-
Near Brooklyn, New York
Madeleine J.
- Hands On
- Montessori
- Reading
- Spanish
- Mindfulness
- Drama
- Physical Education
- Project-based Learning
-
Grades 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8
-
Near Brooklyn, New York
Hello! My name is Madeleine Joyce and in addition to teaching with SchoolHouse, I am a theatermaker and multi-hyphenate of the arts! I graduated from Vassar College in 2010 with a degree in American Culture and a focus on Playwriting. I have taught for over ten years and have set up my classroom all over the world being a travel tutor for jet-setting families. I am adept at creating lessons from the materials at hand--sometimes just the students’ own brainbox of wisdom and creativity. I’ve tutored in all the subjects, including test-prep, but most of all I enjoy sharing the practice of writing and the forever-gift of reading.
Qualifications
- BA from Vassar College
- 500 hr RYT YogaWorks
Teaching Philosophy
Children are the real geniuses around here. They have a natural intelligence and curiosity that should be celebrated and encouraged. Building confidence and self-esteem is my main priority as a teacher. Students need to read, write and discuss a lot to learn to be effective communicators. Volume and stamina matter, and as your child’s teacher, I take the time to provide a safe space for practice, practice, practice. Teaching requires a reflective stance. Every minute I must think, "How did that go? What could I do differently next time?" Teaching, like learning, is all about starting over and trying again with a more creative solution than before. Each day there are multiple opportunities to outgrow our thinking and do better. I model question-asking for my students: be bold enough to ask the question, be brave enough to listen to the answer, then be courageous enough to ask again. I believe students should vary their modes of inquiry and attain knowledge through experiential sources and creative projects.
Upcoming Classes
Shakespeare Club
Monday - Friday, 3pm - 5pm
If “all the world’s a stage” applies to the way your student interacts with the world, then maybe it’s time for them to meet the Bard. William Shakespeare’s plays and sonnets are considered some of the most important literary works and yet remain mysterious to so many of us. This Shakespeare Club Pod demystifies the language in exuberant, boisterous, child friendly ways that Old Will himself would approve of...
Fan Fiction
Monday - Friday, 3pm - 5pm
Does your student love listening to stories? Do they ever spin a tale themselves, maybe about how the dog, well, ate their homework? If you’re looking to help nourish your student’s creative energy and love for reading, this Fan Fiction Pod is the right fit!
Part-Time Pod
Monday - Friday, 3pm - 5pm
After a full day of school and learning students can sometimes feel like anything after school is a chore but that doesn’t have to be the case! During my enrichment we will do a combination of things that are both academic and fun. I will get to know each student to determine where they need academic support and what their interests are. I will then design an afterschool experience that is specifically tailored to the group of students. I will keep families updated with daily pictures and a bi monthly progress report for your child. Students will leave wondering how the time went so fast!
Writing, ELA, Spanish, or Standardized Tests
Available Weekdays 4pm - 6pm. Minimum commitment 2 hours per week for 4 weeks.
Would your child benefit from extra academic support? Is there a particular content area that your child doesn’t quite grasp? Or perhaps your child is especially excited about a certain content area that they would like to explore more deeply. During a SchoolHouse tutoring block, your child will receive individualized tutoring led by a best-in-class SchoolHouse teacher. Our tutoring blocks begin with a review of current class material in order to get a sense of where any learning gaps may be occurring. From there, the tutor will spend time remediating those gaps. After this, the tutor will preview upcoming material so that your child can enter class feeling confident. We end each tutoring block with some type of activity or game, in order to reinforce lessons learned earlier in the session.
How it works
What is Schoolhouse?
We started SchoolHouse with the intention of helping people start microschools because we saw that it was a better way to learn. That’s been our focus from the beginning and we’ve built the team with that purpose.
We are a team of teachers, school leaders and parents who are simply school nerds. We want to build the best schools in the world, only smaller and in your home..
Teacher Screening Process
We screen and vet every teacher thoroughly and accept between 5-7% of applicants. This is to ensure a high quality education across every SchoolHouse school.
We recruit teachers from a variety of backgrounds including private, public, and charter schools. We interview and offer competitive packages and small class sizes to attract top professionals.
Regarding Covid-19
Safety is our highest priority, for your family, the students we work with, and the teacher. We ask all teachers to follow all CDC, state, and local guidelines as it relates to COVID. Beyond that, we have all families and teacher in a pod agree on certain health guidelines and COVID protocols at the beginning of the pod so that there is not any ambiguity about what is expected.