Looking at remote learning this way can turn it into one of our best allies. [/pullquote] As Christmas break approaches, anticipation builds for snow days. Snowdays have become less of an exciting, lazy day off but they now lean more towards a day of working on school from the comfort of one’s home. Although the first snow day has not arrived yet, the duty to prepare students for what awaits has fallen on me. To figure out what is expected in the near future we must take a look at our past experiences.
Looking back before the era of COVID-19, the announcement of snow days, either the night before or the morning of, was met with thrilling excitement. Waking up with a day off of school allowed students to take the day into their own hands. Taking a look out the window to witness mother nature through an arctic lens called us outdoors dressed in snowsuits. Taking part in sledding, snowball fights, even building snowmen or igloos let us feel like kids again. Break time came when the hot cocoa was ready and when we were cold enough to ditch the gear for fuzzy socks and a blanket. Next came the decision to go finish what you started in the crystalline beauty of the outdoors or to cuddle up in bed to start a christmas movie instead. No matter the decision that was made we knew we would not be disappointed with either.
Looking back to 2020, COVID year, when the start of all remote learning began shows the progression of snow days that students looked forward to transforming into snow days students dreaded. Instead of waking up with the day ahead of us, we woke up with a couple of hours of school work that we needed to accomplish, with all the tools we needed on our Chromebooks. We all used the excuse that we did not know that we needed to do school work during the snow day a few too many times. That did not hold up for long. Eventually, we were expected to do what needed to be done with our “day off”. Although snow days were not what they used to be there were a few benefits that came with remote learning. No extra school days were added to the end of the year and we got to have the full summer we anticipated. Doing school work in the comfort of our homes is not the worst outcome.
Looking forward, as we approach Christmas break the changing nature of snow days has altered our perspective on these breaks. Through this transformation we have the opportunity to have the best of both worlds: educating ourselves from home for a couple hours to get an uninterrupted summer then turning the rest of the day into the snow days we once experienced. Looking at remote learning this way can turn it into one of our best allies.
