Snow-E Days

As teachers it is our role to engage the students in learning. One way to accomplish this is through activating prior knowledge. Likewise, when teachers activate their own prior knowledge it can add depth to the lesson. As soon as I saw POUGHKEEPSIE, New York streaming across the top of a news article followed by, “No More Snow Days,” my prior knowledge was activated.

It was about four years ago when I actually first heard about the idea, ‘E-days.’ I was listening to the Rosie O’Donnell Sirius Satellite Radio show, which is no longer on the air. I was not a parent or a  teacher at the time, so I had very little interest in the topic, but I stayed tuned because I was loyal listener. During the broadcast, I flashed back and reminisced about how my siblings and I spent our  snow days. They were fun! Snow days were synonymous with no school, good friends, pranks and winning over a school day crush. And as the saying goes, “All good things come to an end,” so may the days of hot cocoa and sledding with a side of make-up day to be determined for sometime in June.

Fast forward to 2013 — I was engaged in teaching. The article meant something to me because of what I heard in a radio broadcast several years ago. I was curious about the students’ opinions regarding the subject matter. I took a survey and the results caught me by surprise. 20 students in a class of 22 are opposed to E-days. The results surprised me. The biggest concern students had was that there is no teacher to ask questions to if they are unsure what to do or simply don’t understand what they’re learning. Education is give and take; however, the rules seem to leave out an important component of this particular equation. Given a choice in the matter, students from the class I surveyed would prefer to make up the day later in June or have a day from spring break taken away. Isn’t it worth asking more students to contribute their opinions on how their education is served? The ”powers that be” would be quite surprised at the ideas that accumulate when strong, young minds are involved in the decision-making process. Collaborating towards a solution is a forecast for accuracy.