Comments on: Superintendent: Decatur Will Not Make Up Snow Days

By: Decaturmom2

Decaturmom2 — Sun, 09 Feb 2014 23:12:35 +0000

Thank you. Well said. I’ve been an educator for more than a decade, and we’ve never experienced a winter with this many different winter weather possibilities impacting school days. Enjoy the excitement that we rarely see here; recognize the burden that is on local school officials in making these decisions; and be thankful that you live in a community with one of the best school systems in our region.

By: At Home in Decatur

At Home in Decatur — Sat, 08 Feb 2014 15:36:49 +0000

Now that’s a good point. Tuition students and students of non-resident employees have gotten pretty intense letters of warning about absences at that level.

By: immodest proposal

immodest proposal — Fri, 07 Feb 2014 23:48:37 +0000

If the 3 days don’t seem like a big deal, perhaps the district should reconsider the wording in the letter they send to parents when a kid has missed three days of school (albeit “unexcused”).

By: LDMBnot

LDMBnot — Fri, 07 Feb 2014 23:09:04 +0000

In response to AHID’s “I can just see a teacher trying to enforce discipline with both his/her virtual students and his/her in-the-flesh children at the same time!” yes, that would be a problem and it is the same problem I have every time school is cancelled – I work in a virtual work place and as long as I have power & internet – I am expected to work. I could take vacation on those days, but then I would have less time off later in the year (ex. spring break).
Life happens – even in a virtual office – I have been on many conf calls where there is the unexpected noise (dog, toddler, door bell, etc.).

But the virtual learning does not have to be such that the teacher and students are all sitting down at the same time in front of a computer. Lessons, projects, activities, etc. could be emailed, sent via Edmodo or Manage Bac for students to work on and turned in. Or even an online discussion about currently events or discuss what they did on the snow day – practice some writing. There are plenty of tools out there to accomplish a bit of virtual learning while we are all cooped up due to the weather.

We had both our kids finish their homework on that second snow day just to get them both away from the TV and PS3. One of my high school-er’s teacher stayed in contact with her class on a project and items to complete to stay on target with its deadline of the following week. I would welcome some virtual learning even if it was not required and just suggested work (daily math sheet or even a website suggestion of a topic the class is currently working on). my two cents…:)

By: At Home in Decatur

At Home in Decatur — Fri, 07 Feb 2014 19:44:58 +0000

I think virtual classrooms for extreme weather days would work best at the high school level, especially in those classes that have motivated students who want to avoid falling behind, e.g. AP classes. The lower the grade, the less effective I think it would be because younger students are usually doing something in the classrooom, not just sitting at their desk listening passively. Another problem is that it would be hard for teachers who are parents to teach virtually because their children’s schools and daycares would be closed and the kids would be underfoot. I can just see a teacher trying to enforce discipline with both his/her virtual students and his/her in-the-flesh children at the same time!

My guess is that it would be most worthwhile to set up if school was known to be closed for a while, e.g. a long emergency like the Hurricane Katrina flooding aftermath. For a day here and there, not sure virtual classrooms are worth the effort. More practical might be just a preplanned package of materials, websites, etc that could be emailed home to families. But I could be wrong. I didn’t predict the ubiquitous use of websites like Quizlet.

And there’s no way you’ll get the attention of students when there’s a new pile of snow. You’d have to wait at least a day to start your virtual lessons.