By Elizabeth DaCunha
Snow days.
It’s a controversial topic. You either love ’em or hate ’em, but that depends on whether you care about a few less days of summer.
Unfortunately, snow days aren’t up for debate any longer. Now that we are so familiar with using technology to learn, schools including FHS have decided to make remote learning available on snow days.
The Superintendent of the district decides the night before, leaving teachers and students enough time to prepare for the remote day ahead. It’s organized to include all academic classes and electives just as a regular in-person day would look like, but rather teaching over Google Meets than in front of the board.
Just like all the other changes forced by COVID, students and faculty have had to adapt, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that everyone is fond of these new adjustments.
So, I have discussed the topic with several Fairhaven High students to see what their thoughts are on getting rid of snow days.
Baile Fitzgerald said, “I think having Google Meets on snow days is a smart idea. I would prefer to do this because it gives us more days in the summer, and we can learn from home while still having our attendance count.”
Natalie Yochim also commented that she liked learning on a snow day because, “I think it’s helpful to actually be able to talk with our teachers, even though some things were a bit harder to learn remotely, but overall I didn’t mind the snow day at all!”
Sam Hubert stated his opinion as well: “I like what we’re currently doing with the snow days because then we get to be home and don’t add any extra days to the end of the year.”
Many kids felt similarly to Fitzgerald, Yochim, and Hubert including myself. I personally like that the weather now does not interfere with our learning. We’re already home so much as it is, being remote half of the time, and vacations on top of that, so learning virtually gives us the opportunity to continue learning without any more interruptions.
Although I like being able to keep my extra days of summer, I do appreciate the traditional snow day, being able to sleep in and play in the snow all day long.
Thomas Marcotte said he doesn’t mind having to learn on snow days, but, “would prefer having regular snow days where we make it up at the end of the year because snow days are fun.”
Freshman Sophia Fleurent also felt the same as Marcotte saying, “I would rather make the day up at the end of the year because that’s how we’ve always done it.”
Change is hard, and a learning curve comes with modified, virtual education. Fleurent proved this by stating, “It’s hard to pay attention and most people procrastinate the work given on these days.”
Not only that, but also technical difficulties are a pretty common problem throughout remote learning whether it’s setting up these virtual meetings, sound issues, weak internet, you name it.
Even from my own experience this past week having my first remote snow day, some classes started late because of problems with network connectivity, and several students could not hear or see the teacher.
These are the problems that make students miss regular classes and long-established snow days.
It’s odd to think that snow days are perhaps a thing of the past now that we are able to interact with our teachers and classmates through online conferencing.
What are your thoughts on revamping snow days into virtual classes?
While you ponder that, make sure to go check out my past articles and stay tuned for more!
As always, stay positive and test negative!
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