I recently read an
article on NJ.com about a private school in Watchung, NJ that is taking a new
approach to the term “ snow day”. With the recent snow and ice storms
closing many schools in NJ, some schools are choosing to hold classes
virtually, substituting snow days for cyber days. The school in Watchung has decided to use technology
to teach students when the snow
falls and school is cancelled. Students are reminded by their teachers to bring
all essential books home the day before the storm. On the snow day, the
students and teachers are to sign onto the schools online portal. Podcasts,
online chats, blogs and narrated Power Point lessons are presented on that
site.
Cleary, there is
always a concern when an interruption is present in student learning. After
reading this article I thought this was a great idea, but not so sure if it
would work with the younger grades. Also this was done in a private school
setting, I wonder if the public schools would be able to do something along
these lines? I know from experiencing this past week, that many of the teachers
in my school were complaining about how far behind they were because of these snow days. What are
your views on this? Do you agree
with turning “snow days” into “cyber days”? If so,what grades do you think
would benefit from this? What about the students that do not have the
accessibility to a computer at home? Also do you think students and parents
would approve of cyber day or is a snow day considered a “ free” day off?
I think this would be a good idea after the schools use all their inclement weather days. My school district has already taken some of Presidents' Day weekend away because they used three our of four snow days. Our district also has to deal with flooding so I'm sure all the days will be used in no time, you can't stop the weather but you can do something like cyber school. It may not work for younger grades or students that cannot afford computers. This would have to be something that the district helps to provide
ReplyDeleteThe school that I observe in now has already lost their President's day break, I also heard talk of some schools considering having students come in on Saturdays to make up days. I believe that this program would work very well in Middle School and High Schools. I have seen a program like this work with my sister. She went to a Catholic High School which had a laptop program. During Sandy they were supposed to turn in assignments online because of the school being closed for a few weeks.
ReplyDelete