Meanwhile, my inner-teacher was seeped in empathy for the educators who had carefully planned, prepared materials, and tried desperately to follow the scope and sequence. I received messages from teachers about on-line practices and games to keep my kids' experience with class material fresh. Although I insisted the children do these activities, it was not quite the same as receiving new lessons, getting teacher feedback, and being able to pace themselves through relevant content. For these reasons, I strongly advocate a growing practice of "virtual learning days" versus "snow days."
You can check out this enlightening article of a real-life experience here: Homework in bed or you can read on further to see how My Big Campus can help recover time lost to Mother Nature and keep students engaged regardless of lengthy weather-delays. Here's how to get started:
* Make students and parents aware! In your syllabus, make note of the fact that your class will still move forward despite hurricanes, blizzards, tornados (think postman's creed here)! Send the message from day one that your class is ready for whatever surprises this year has in store! Give concrete directions of where students are to navigate on days the school building is closed. It is rare that inclement weather truly hit us by surprise, so be prepared to post and remind again as ominous conditions arise.
* Bundle a self-paced unit! Keep the momentum going in your class! For each unit, pull resources, assessments, discussions, and activities together and let students keep working. You can use bundle locks to reveal content by date, user, or mastery of material. Let it be known that your students will continue on this bundle for the unit, thus making the time spent on this relevant (instead of being viewed as busy-work).
* Have a non-wired back-up plan! Not every student may have Internet connectivity at home. Make note of those students ahead of time. Provide them with hard-copies of materials ahead of time (if possible) and even follow-up with a phone call or two to check-in. With the simplicity of branching and editing bundles, you can modify the unit for students that need to work both on and off-line. Bundle-stashing on the MBC ap also allows for work off-line that is automatically submitted once students are wired!
* Make virtual office-hours! Post an hour or two that your class can meet on chat or video-chat if they are available. Despite students' enthusiasm for days off, they also do miss each other (and you!) and the social aspect of class. It is a novelty to students and you just may be surprised at the level of participation you get!
* Debrief when you are face-to-face again! What worked? What was helpful? What was confusing? What would they like to see more of? What did they feel was worthwhile? What was their favorite part? What was difficult and why? Ask them! Oh, they WILL tell you! Then use this feedback to create your next virtual learning day unit.
Despite students' enthusiasm for unexpected days off, there is not one student that wants to be in school until the middle of July making up days. Although it is a district/state-wide decision how to make-up days (if they are made up at all), it can be a classroom teacher's decision whether or not to keep the momentum and learning going even on days off. Keeping pace with teachers' original plans leaves more time for enrichment and improvement!
