by Teresa Sullivan
Excerpted from “Snow Day” by Billy Collins
Today we woke up to a revolution of snow,
its white flag waving over everything,
the landscape vanished,
not a single mouse to punctuate the blankness,
and beyond these windows
the government buildings smothered,
schools and libraries buried,
the post office lost
under the noiseless drift,
the paths of trains softly blocked,
the world fallen under this falling.
… I will make a pot of tea
and listen to the plastic radio on the counter,
as glad as anyone to hear the news
that the Kiddie Corner School is closed,
the Ding-Dong School, closed.
the All Aboard Children’s School, closed,
the Hi-Ho Nursery School, closed,
along with—some will be delighted to hear—
the Toadstool School, the Little School,
Little Sparrows Nursery School,
Little Stars Pre-School, Peas-and-Carrots Day School,
the Tom Thumb Child Center, all closed,
and—clap your hands—the Peanuts Play School.
HOWEVER, classes are still in session at The Country School...
And the students can thank Hurricanes Irene and Sandy for that! The 2011-12 and 2012-13 school years began unlike most others. While children are usually unwrapping new boxes of crayons and organizing their multi-section binders, those years allowed students to reclaim what scarce bit of summer remained—perhaps without running water or electricity, but what do kids care? They aren’t in school and it’s September!
The adults, however, do care, and decided to put a plan in place that would address lost days because adding a week of school in June onto the academic calendar was a sticky wicket. We at The Country School learned (the hard way).
The recent article Are iPads the Solution to Snow Days? in The Atlantic addresses such a situation:
As many states dig out from yet another winter storm, school districts are struggling to keep the academic calendar—and student learning—from being derailed as a result of record numbers of snow days. But educators are increasingly using technology to turn campus closures into opportunities for students to complete academic assignments on their own.
In Farmington, Minnesota, a pilot program for "flexible learning time" in the local public schools got its first large-scale test last year when the "Polar Vortex" pummeled the Midwest. Students used their school-issued iPads to learn at home when classes were unexpectedly canceled, says Jay Haugen, superintendent of schools in the Farmington area, a suburb of the Twin Cities. This academic year, the policy went into effect in November when high winds caused a power outage at one of Farmington’s elementary schools. The teachers had uploaded their assignments by 10 a.m., and they spent the rest of the day interacting with students via the district’s Schoology digital platform, Haugen said.
For the past few years, teachers and students at TCS have shared an understanding that snow days now are no longer only for sipping cocoa, sledding, and skating. Students are now expected to hit the books (or the computers, if no loss of power) as well. Thanks to the vision of Technology Director Bill Leidt, our Google campus allows for easy communication between teachers and students.
Teachers share assignments online and when questions arise, email is an immediate and simple option for the children. In addition, in the upper grades the science and history texts are available online, and the Middle School English classes use an online vocabulary program, so teachers and students are able to take advantage of these tech-perks. Soon you may even see your children participating in Google Hangouts, a remote learning tool that allows up to ten participants to connect in a video chat.
Since homework is an extension of the students’ classwork, committing to such practices on snow days makes perfect sense. And we at The Country School have been proudly ahead of the curve on this one by successfully implementing our own flexible-learning model.
As Head of School John Fixx recently wrote in a message to teachers and administrators, “Distance learning will be a new experience for many at The Country School—students, families, teachers, and administrators—but not a new experience for many colleges and some boarding schools.” Our goal in distance learning, he said, “is to remain ‘educationally’ connected to students and families while school is closed, as well as remain ‘emotionally’ reassuring.”
“Part of our responsibility,” he continued, “is to assure children and families, during what might be an unnerving time, that the school and teachers that they so care about continue to be part of their daily lives.”
So how is it working? Sure, there has been a little grumbling here and there. “Not enough time to finish my snowman!” Or “I had to get out of bed to read my history.” But for the most part the feedback has been positive, both from students and teachers.
Here are a few examples. Last year, after school had to be cancelled for what seemed like the umpteenth time, Middle School English students received an assignment (by email) called “A Picture’s Worth A Thousand Words.” Here were the details:
Your mission: To capture the beauty, craziness, cabin-fever, silence, joy, etc. of the past week in both words and pictures and we will do the same. Take a picture (or use one you already have taken on one of these days off). If you don't have the capability of snapping a pic and printing it on your own, ask Mom or Dad because we know they would be delighted to assist you with this.
Print it at home or at school tomorrow if you cannot at home today. Write an accompanying poem that reflects your picture. Your poem must include at least three poetic devices - (imagery is going to be a lay-up for this assignment). Devices to consider: alliteration, consonance, assonance, onomatopoeia, personification, rhyme scheme, symbol, simile, metaphor. Your poem must include at least two adjectives and one adverb (underline them) . Your poem must be at least 8 lines long. Get creative and have fun! Bring the picture and poem to class tomorrow.
To their surprise, teachers received the following response (via email) from an 8th Grader:
Thank you so much for assigning this. I was walking on the beach on Monday night with my camera and thinking about how amazing it would be if English class had a poetry writing assignment about this weekend. This is so exciting...
She proceeded to produce both a beautiful poem and some beautiful photography. Meanwhile, the parent of another student shared the following observation (remotely, on Facebook): “My 7th Grader finished his by saying, ‘I think I might want to be a poet!' It was an awesome assignment.” When school resumed, a student, inspired by her classmates’ creative output, volunteered to post all of the photography and poems on a bulletin board outside the English classroom.
Other teachers report students making connections between what they are learning in the classroom and what they are doing at home during snow days. For instance, Kindergartners, studying weather, devised recipes to bake during a snow day (the result: snow muffins – more here). First Graders, learning about Polar Regions, taught their families how to construct igloos (scroll down for photos).
In 4th Grade, Heather Butler says she has had positive experiences with the distance learning model. Student Google accounts have “really opened the doors” for her students, she says, “even at this age.” Students are getting used to checking their email and looking at what tasks they can do. They are embracing online work such as the typing.com (typing skills site) and math sites, and Mrs. Butler plans to explore more with Khan Academy in the future.
“The students have stretched themselves as needed - there are also enrichment opportunities on our blog that go beyond the suggestions I email,” she reports. “Some students have completed tasks such as history timelines and writing pieces.”
Mrs. Butler says she has “loved the opportunity to be able to work from home and still be in a Google doc helping a student while they are online as well. This has been great for us especially with publishing final products. The students love that I am in their document at the same time they are!”
“So - slow and steady,” she says. “We will see what the next snow day (hopefully no more!) will bring!”
