Follow AAE on:

Subscribe to RSS Feed:

Record Snow Days Disrupt Learning
posted by: Ruthie | March 17, 2014, 09:27 PM   


With a late winter storm disrupting classes on the east coast today, teachers and students are no longer celebrating. While some schools have a cushion for snow days, with extended hours or extra days, other districts are left struggling to solve the problem of missed days.


In St. Louis
, many schools are using spring break days to make up days missed due to snow and extreme cold. Other districts have extended the school year in order to make up the missed days, without inhibiting spring break plans.

With testing and state assessments scheduled for April, teachers are worried about the effect of missed days on students. In order to mitigate the consequences of missed class, many teachers are
turning to technology to keep students on track. By providing live, online lectures, assessments and forums, or through flipping their classrooms and recording lectures for students to watch at their own pace, teachers are able to continue learning, despite the weather.

“Snow days have always been difficult, and this year has been especially challenging for students and teachers," said Bill Reinhard, spokesman for the Maryland Department of Education. "The research on snow days' effect on learning is not clear cut, but every teacher I know tells me that students benefit from uninterrupted instructional time."

In addition to technology, teachers have also tried to prepare students for snow days by giving extra homework to students, and outlining expectations, should class be missed. "They told us to bring all of our books home in case we didn't have school, so now my backpack is like 800 pounds from all the books I had to bring home,"
said Kate, a Maryland student. "I am actually fine with it. I think it's pretty good that we get to stay on top of our assignments.”

What are you doing to make up for days lost to snow and cold weather?
Comment below.





 

Comments (0)Add Comment

Submit a comment
 (not published)
smaller | bigger

security code
Write the displayed characters


busy