Snow Days

This post may be more relevant for those of us in New England, but I welcome thoughts even from those of you who have never experienced a snow day.  When I was growing up, I remember not getting a lot of sleep if there was snow in the forecast.  I would wake up every couple of hours to peer out the window in the hopes that there would be snow.  I must admit I occasionally did the same thing when I was a teacher and even now as a principal I will sometimes do the same.  However, today more often than not I am hoping against snow days.  Snow days disrupt flow in schools.  Teachers begin to feel stress as the state assessments approach and days are lost.  Additionally, I do not like adding on the days in June when it is hot and humid and the most effective learning and teaching is in our rear view mirror.  When the calendar turns to June, most educators and students are looking ahead to days on the beach, not new lessons.  Perhaps if school were more like camp, June would be a more positive experience in schools.  But I digress. The schools as camp thoughts are for another blog entry at another time.

From a superintendent’s perspective, snow presents another challenge.  Is it the right call to cancel school or have a delayed opening or an early release to keep students and staff safe?  With these decisions so dependent on the meteorologists on television and the accuracy of the forecast (and we know how reliable they tend to be), it is a difficult decision almost every time.  With the Blizzard of 2013 and about thirty inches of snow to clear away over the past few days, I had some time to think about snow days.  Should we create an online experience for students so that we get credit for the day and not have to make it up in June?  It is an interesting thought, but around here, each major storm tends to bring with it power outages, so an online experience may not be possible.  What if we had built in, ready to go lessons for snow days for students to complete?  They could be snow related so that students get a chance to enjoy the snow and learn at the same time.  Math/geometry related snowman or snow sculpture building activities.  Science related experiments with snow and weather.  Poetry or other writing assignments with snow as the topic.  Of course an occasional day off to just play in the snow is good for all.  It is just when we have a winter with heavy snowfall and days off for hurricanes in the fall that the days quickly add up and then the month of June, that less than productive month in schools, becomes longer and longer.  Maybe if we had a longer school year... and maybe if state assessments were not so early in the school year... the snow days would not have such a major impact and we could just all be kids and have fun in the winter wonderland created by a major snowfall.

What are your thoughts?  How can we best deal with the snow in schools?