REDONDO BEACH, Calif. – Monday morning ushered in another week of home learning for students across the country. In California, many local schools were first closed on March 17, with an expected reopening date in mid-April.
However, as precautions continue to be taken to curb the spread of the coronavirus many school districts — including the Los Angeles Unified School District — have pushed the return date to May 1.
In Redondo Beach, that date is set for later that week on May 5.
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With home learning expected to continue for almost six more weeks, some families like the Rendes' are concerned that their kids might fall behind.
“It bothers me that they’re not learning any new material," said Jessica Rendes, a mother of three. "All the Redondo Beach schools, they are just reviewing what they’ve learned already, so I’m a little concerned that they’re not really going to learn anything new.
While some districts, like LAUSD and other private schools, are utilizing programs like Zoom to assist with interactive online learning, Rendes said her children were not given that option.
Instead, they are given review material and daily assignments posted to Google classroom, while each of their teachers hosts a set amount of office hours every day.
And now, with her kids' return to school pushed back even further, the full-time consultant and full-time mom is hoping some changes might be made to their curriculum.
"I really do hope the teachers can move to more of a Zoom classroom so that they really do have to listen," she explained, "and we can start to give them new material and not just review.”
It's important to Rendes that her children maintain some sort of routine, for if and when things return to normal.