I remember when snow days meant a great day off from school. And when I was a senior in High School, those were free days. We didn’t even have to make them up at the end of the year. Even as a teacher, a random day off is kind of nice. They always seem to come at a great time when I need to get something done, need a little extra rest from a sickness or just plain want to spend some time with my kids.
But this year, this is ridiculous. I’ve lost count of how many snow days we have had and can’t get my mind off how this will affect my trip to Philly in June to be at the ISTE conference. There’s talk of making up days on Saturdays or during a spring vacations, which, quite honestly, I wouldn’t mind too much. The problem, though, is in the inconsistency. Our students can’t get into a groove and so a week with two and a half days seems like a waste. There’s little follow through and the learning keeps getting cut short. Ugh! It will be nice when we can have a complete week again.
Thanks for letting me rant today. If you would like to join me, please comment. I know I’m not alone! 🙂
~EMP
I agree. We haven’t had a full week of school since before Christmas break. The students can’t get in the groove and it seems like nothing is getting done.
We were supposed to get out June 13th, we are now at 7 or 8 snow days and past the “absolute last day of school” and there is no word on what they are doing to make up the days. I’m going to ISTE and luckily it seems like even if they add the days at the end of the year we won’t run into ISTE.
I’m actually tired of the days off and want to teach!
I always worry about the kids when there are too many snow days. In SC we don’t have this problem too often, but when we do, our state goes crazy. Usually we only get a dusting of snow, so kids still get out there and get themselves into “situations.” Several years ago, we had a snow day and a boy shot his brother and killed him by accident when they were left home alone. Just thinking about what happens when kids are left w/ out supervision really makes me nervous. I also worry about parents who are cooped up in a house and don’t know how to properly handle the energies of a kid who can’t be with his/her friends.
We’ve had six at Poughkeepsie Day School and it’s played havoc with scheduling games, concerts, assemblies, rehearsals etc. It hasn’t been quite so disruptive academically for the older students.
As a 1:1 school we have been able to leverage technology to keep some things moving forward. But it’s not the same.
Certainly raises the bar for thinking of the purpose of school and how to maintain momentum in time of disruption AND as a routine matter.
Not so easy for the younger kids and their families. More thinking to be done there.
I wrote to families on the last snow day: “Snow days and Disruption”. And received some interesting responses and comments.
http://www.pdscompasspoint.com/snow-days-and-disruption-a-letter-to-families
I’ve been out for a while also because I’m serving on a jury. Technology is helping me out. I post student work and communicate through the class blogs and the students are using some great software with self-guided lessons and interactive science demos along with some web sites to learn while I’m out for 2 weeks.
I want the district to try to do this with snow days, but being a poor urban district, many of our students do not have computers at home.
Too many snow days. BOO HOO! Go cry yourselves up a river while the kids can still be provided free education at all!
Before you guys throw the flame throwers at me listen to the pros and cons of what I am about to say below:
Public schooling is favoring a group in this case *children* over adults which is a form of being racist and it gives kids a feel of super powers making then naughty because they cannot apperciate education if it’s free since they have no concept of tuition fees/class fees/material fees since most stuff is provided for them or they pay very little for materials when they are in school.
In other words the government has no right to determine the number of days we go to school. There shouldn’t be a minimum number of days as each school will face it’s own unique situation and should be allowed to have unlimited adjusting rights to their schedule.
HOWEVER the government CAN and SHOULD provide services like Libraries and Parks because these can be accessed by EVERYONE young and old alike. Not just children.
Like wise it would be illegal to restrict parks to children on XX days only so why do it to schools for XX days a week?
If the government restricted parks to children only on certain days/hours I am sure there would be a lot of complaints about the unfairness yet when the words *education* *reform* pops up everyone becomes as quiet as a mouse.
Either everybody should have a fair chance or make schools all private.
Kyle – I hope you were understanding the concerns here from the teachers who commented. We are only concerned here with the routine being disrupted and students not being able to continue their learning at school when there is a closing due to snow. That part is out of our hands. If it snows and it become too dangerous for children to commute to school, then it is cancelled. This is the case for public and private schools. Unfortunately, there is an overall feeling in our society that once June rolls around, school is over. I don’t like that. Learning should occur until the last days of school (whenever that happens to be.) There are some who think that June means parties, movies and random projects. Therefore, it can be difficult to keep kids in the game late into the month.
I do like how other teachers commented here about alternatives to keep the kids in the groove of things. Tech can certainly be of help, especially when a school gets hit with many snow days in a row, backed up by a week end (granted kids have access to needed materials).
Thanks for all the comments from everyone. I love the conversation!
Whenever the words *Education* and *Reform* shows up nobody dares question the system and it gets as quiet as a church on Sunday.