With technology keeping us virtually connected from wherever we go, snow days shouldn’t be an issue for schools or students facing important placement tests and evaluations. (At least, that’s the rumor.)
Not all schools are up-to-speed with what technology can offer. In fact, some don’t incorporate technology at all in their mission or curriculum. But, for those schools that have technology embedded in their missions, the rumor of snow days being ancient history rings true.
This winter, Mother Nature has dumped more than enough snow over most of the country. Bullitt Central High School in Kentucky, for example, has had 13 snow days already and there’s still six more weeks of potentially nasty weather to come. But, Angela Hamblen’s advanced history class is still on target for their Advanced Placement test this May.
Hamblen has taken advantage of Twitter’s connection abilities along with her classroom’s Web site to communicate with her students so they don’t fall behind.Her thinking is that her students “deserve the opportunity to do well on these exams. I’m doing what I have to to make it happen.”
Hamblen isn’t alone. At Henry Clay High School in Lexington, Kentucky, Linda Dewees is using technology to keep her advanced calculus students up to speed. She posts videos of herself teaching online, going over homework, and asking bonus questions that students can answer for extra credit.
Outside of Kentucky, five other states are allowing e-learning days to replace snow days. In Ohio, Illinois, West Virginia, Indiana, and Pennsylvania, schools can replace snow days with e-learning days. Not all districts and private schools are able to take advantage of this, but Dan Domenech, Executive Director of the American Association of School Administrators, believes that in another 10 years, learning will be able to take place anywhere.
In a recent article published by USA Today, Ohio is highlighted for its acceptance of e-learning days. A law passed in Ohio in 2011 allows districts to redefine three of its calamity days as e-learning days. (Districts in Ohio are allowed five snow days.) To meet class-time requirements, Ohio schools have the option to submit a lesson plan to the Ohio Department of Education outlining what each e-learning day would look like. Of the state’s 614 districts, 156 have submitted such plans.
This is a much different approach to education than how some districts and schools are handling this winter. For students in Rossville, Indiana, snow days being a thing of the past is still just a rumor. They’ll be attending class on Saturdays to make up the missed classroom time. And, in Michigan, districts are trying to decide between adding minutes onto the end of days or bringing students in for days previously planned as nonschool days.
With more days off anticipated as storms roll across the country, more schools—private and public alike—will be sitting down to review their policies on snow days. There’s a nice mixture of solutions being tested this season, and enough press covering the details that future conversations being had by Boards and administrators should have ample support to build their cases. Let’s keep the conversations going—how is your school making up missed classroom time?
