VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WVEC) — Schools are trying different to make up school days following Virginia's Governor's mandatory evacuation order for Hurricane Florence. For Columbus Day, school's in Virginia Beach had what they called a Virtual Learning Day.
A Virtual Learning Day is supposed to be a day away from the class where students get work done at home.
Richard Dukes, a senior at Tallwood High School, said his teacher gave him work to do on a website. While Dukes appreciates the new learning technique, he doesn't think a Virtual Learning Day will be very effective.
"Honestly, I would say go to school like normally maybe makeup on Saturdays because when you are at home you do really think about school," said Dukes.
Meanwhile, some fourth graders at Linkhorn Park Elementary School were given the assignment to become weather reporters. They had to record a video of a weathercast as well as a weather brochure.
Jazmine Smith said her daughter, who attends Brandon Middle School, was not given a specific assignment for the Virtual Learning Day.
"I thought she was gonna come home with a stack of papers or a task list or something to do, but absolutely nothing," said Smith.
Smith said she would have liked all student assignments to be consistent. She felt the email sent to her about the Virtual Learning Day left assignments upon to people's own interpretations.
"What I read in the email, it sounds like they were looking for the kids to explore something else outside of school... Maybe they would go back to school and talk about whatever it was they were supposed to do," said Smith.
Virginia Beach City Public Schools Superintendent Aaron Spence said virtual learning is an exciting initiative.
"To begin from the state level, students are required to utilize more non-traditional learning environments in their school careers and this is one way we can help model for the ways to experience learning in and out of the classroom," said Spence.
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