With warmer weather coming the hope of random snow days off disappears, but in comes the payback for all those days off with its revenge of extra work and projects.
As I am sitting here typing this, the snow is piling high outside my front door and the rest of the world seems to have come to a silent stand-still, but not the internet or more specifically Blackboard. Updating every five minutes or so with a new assignment, the teachers have taken up the oath of the United States Post Office: neither rain, nor sleet, nor snow will stop them.
While I look forward every day in winter to the possibility of a full day off or even a two hour delay, going back to the full day of school has become more work than usual. The days off are striking back with vengeance. Due dates are standing firm, tests are being rushed and more and more teachers are using Blackboard to give assignment over the days off.
Even when a full day of school makes its way around the classes have materials rushed and dates pushed up. AP teachers have even more of an issue with these days off that are piling up. AP testing dates can’t be moved to accommodate the days of instructional time we miss because snow days are back in action. Reductions in materials taught has to be made somewhere and schedules are now being pushed up, the days off have caused a chain reaction the makes one wonder if the snow days are worth it? Maybe the students of WSHS would have been better off if we had just trudged through the snow for school. It might have been worth reducing the panic of rescheduling everything.
So while we have been enjoying our days of building snowmen and ice castles and causing an eternal winter everywhere, the snow days have been plotting their revenge, only revealing their betrayal when spring has come and we have no way of striking back. There are even talks around the state of Virginia of maybe taking time away from spring break to combat the fact that students have missed so many days. This might be because administrators can only add so many days on to the end of the school year and they are quickly running out of holidays and teacher work days to reclaim.
Where does that leave the students? With the conundrum of paying for the snow days we happily took, winter has effectively become a loan shark.