Outdoor Learning Park in Watts offers make-shift classroom environment during pandemic
When COVID closed their classrooms, some students in Watts took the school to the park! They re learning and playing again thanks to a solution that might stay even after the pandemic.
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WATTS, LOS ANGELES (KABC) When COVID closed their classrooms, these students just took the classroom to the park! They re learning and playing and making school fun again. It s a successful solution that might stay even after the pandemic.
There is hope in the Watts community, thanks to a make-shift oasis of learning and play. It s for children who may very well have been lost in the shuffle of online classes during the pandemic in a neighborhood that was already struggling with poverty and a lack of resources.
Parents have done their best to fill in as teachers, trying to guide children through remote learning.
But who was guiding the teachers? And what will work best as they leave their Zoom room for a classroom? We knew we had to try to do something different for when the fall came, when we knew we would be teaching remotely, said Michelle Touceda, a South Gate High School English teacher.
Touceda and Mia Young, two LAUSD English teachers who had never met before attending an online high school training seminar, came up with a solution. They decided they would create a Facebook group called Distance Learning Educators. They knew the seminar would end, but wanted the collaboration of teachers to continue.
SIERRA MADRE, Calif. (KABC) You worry about your kids mental fitness during distance learning, but what about their physical fitness? With no recess to run around, one local school is creating the next best thing.
Remote learning has deeply affected physical fitness. One study showed 55% of kids feel their physical activities have been disrupted by school closures.
St. Rita s Elementary School in Sierra Madre is trying to address the needs of students who are still learning from home by providing an after-school fitness program for students in 3rd-8th grade. Parents have commented how happy their kids are, said Principal Adela Solis. They went home tired, they went home out of breath, but they just. they just had a great time.
Los Angeles program helps small businesses compete by boosting online presence
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LOS ANGELES (KABC) Small businesses throughout Los Angeles have been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The city of Los Angeles is working to help them survive and compete with larger companies by boosting their online profile.
The city last year launched LA Optimized, which aims to help small businesses adapt to rapidly changing consumer behavior and technological advances. Priority will be given to brick-and-mortar establishments in low income communities with a goal of helping 1,000 local small businesses develop a clear online strategy.
What was once an option - a digital solution to market and grow a business - is now required to survive.
Project Homekey turns hotels into housing, offering shelter for hundreds experiencing homelessness
Project Homekey is one solution for those experiencing homelessness and provides not only shelter but also support services to help tenants stay on the path to independence.
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LOS ANGELES (KABC) Project Homekey is a new twist on an old idea: offering housing to hundreds of people. Frank Guerrero is praising the project and its staff members who helped him transition to sheltered living after being on the streets for five years. From out in the cold into a family, man. They care, they care, said Guerrero.