As technology evolves so does the concept of snow days.
Gone are the days of sleeping in and cartoon marathons. Now, when the weather gets bad and schools close, the learning turns online with many systems providing students with some type of instruction to supplement the missed classroom time.
Forsyth County’s school system is going a step further, counting bad-weather virtual learning the same as a day in class, so students don’t have to make up snow days later.
The system is in its second year of using the ItsLearning platform to offer a range of online classes and assignments on snow days. Many of Forsyth’s teachers use the platform throughout the year, so expanding the virtual learning to include snow days was a natural progression, Forsyth schools spokeswoman Jennifer Carracciolo said. Last year, ItsLearning was available to only middle and high schoolers. Elementary school students were added this school year.
For students without Internet access, mobile devices or power when bad weather hits, Forsyth gives students five days to make up the work once the lesson is posted online. The system also provides some wi-fi hotspots to provide connectivity at home and allows students to borrow devices to take home.
“We communicated with parents that we are training future employees, and many employees do a lot of their work online, so this is preparing them for that work,” Carracciolo said.
Traditionally, school systems build extra days into their school-year calendar, to be used if schools are closed because of snow or other bad weather. Forsyth included and used two inclement weather days this year. None are included next year, as the system further improves its online learning system.
“I’ve really appreciated it. Now we don’t have to worry about making up these days at the end of the year,” said Susan Farlow, whose eighth- and tenth-grade sons attend Forsyth schools.
Online learning as a remedy to the loss of class time on snow days is growing nationally as more systems look for ways to continue learning without extending their school calendars, experts say. Several northern states including Pennsylvania and Ohio allow the online-snow day replacement. But implementing the virtual systems must be done carefully and with proper planning.
“If you are just throwing this out as a one-off when students are home, it’s going to be a challenge,” said Matt Arkin, the head of Georgia’s Cyber Academy, who deals with online teaching and learning year-round for the Academy’s 13,500 students. “Just slapping some Powerpoints online and a multiple-choice question test is not going to work.”
Fortunately, most school districts already have some kind of online system for students and parents to access what’s going on in the classroom, said Allison Powell, vice president of New Learning Models/State and District Services at the International Association for K-12 Online Learning. “More teachers are using a lot of these tools on a day-to-day basis. Five years ago that would have been different.”
Hall County’s school system is in the second year of its “School at Home” K-12 virtual learning system, said Aaron Turpin, Hall’s executive director of technology. While home for a snow day this week, Turpin’s children participated in an online novel-comprehension contest for seventh-grade language arts. His third-grader’s assignment included measuring the snow outside and calculating its evaporation rate. Like Forsyth, Hall plans to eventually eliminate snow days from its calendar by using online learning days. Gwinnett County’s school system is also moving toward having the online learning already done by county students count as its snow days.
Ashley Van Gelder, a fifth-grader at Gwinnett’s Rosebud Elementary, spent the first two hours of her snow day this week doing e-Class assignments in science, English, social studies and math. She said she doesn’t mind the virtual work because it’s fun and often involves games and videos that build on what she’s learning in the classroom.
“I am still excited about not having school,” she said. “After I do my work I can still have fun with family. It doesn’t take the entire day, just a small block in the morning or whenever you do it.”
Ashley’s grandmother Susan says she thinks the e-Class program is a great approach, even if it means snow days are never the same.
“As competitive as jobs are today and as competitive as it is in the higher education system, the more kids can learn, the more they’re exposed to, the better,” she said. “Many of the things they do on e-Class are not your normal types of school work. They’re watching videos and taking assessments after the video. It’s not here’s a piece of paper, write answers for me. It’s more creative, which I think keeps them challenged.”
Other area school systems use technology on snow days in various ways.
Atlanta Public Schools provides online lesson plans if school is out for an extended period, officials said. Students without access to technology are given schoolwork packets to complete at home.
Cherokee County’s school system is reviewing programs that would allow teaching and learning to continue at home on bad weather days, said system spokeswoman Barbara Jacoby. The system is being thoughtful about accessibility for all students, power and Internet outages, and ensuring the assignments would not be remedial or “busywork,” she said.
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