I have lived in the Midwest for my entire life and am therefore accustomed to winters that include the bitter cold breezes, copious patches of slippery ice, and snow - inches and inches of snow, demanding to be shoveled. Challenging you to get to school and work in the morning. Beckoning you to throw your cares away by staying outside and playing a while.
The last couple of winters have brought the Midwest not just heavy snow, but snowpocalypse after snowpocalypse! In January 2014, most schools around my area had an extended winter break because of the snow fall. In fact, most schools around this area had more snow days than actual days of school in the month of January. After I started working at my last full-time job, which I started mid-way through January 2014, there was a point in which I had had more snow days than actual days of work on the job. If I'm being perfectly honest, I was not displeased about the large number of snow days at that point in time; the snow days ultimately reduced my level of stress because they gave me more time to plan lessons, which was helpful because I started working in the middle of the school year and didn't have a lot of time to prepare lessons before I started teaching.
Flash forward to now. January 2015 passed with minimal snow days, but over the weekend... Well, the snowpocalypse returned and has put most schools around here out for two days (and counting! There are rumors of more snow tonight!) While I have enjoyed sitting around in my pajamas the last couple of days, I am slowly getting stressed out thinking about what I have to do before Friday - tasks I can only accomplish while at work! And I feel like I have barely moved a muscle this weekend, too. Walking to the living room didn't used to feel like it took this much effort!
Like students, when I hear that a snowstorm is a'brewin', I stay up late checking news websites to see if school has been canceled. Then, if school is called off...well.... I'm not sure how I react. It depends.
I have always had a love/hate relationship with snow days. On one hand, it's an unexpected (and paid, for teachers) day off. Sleeping in never hurt anybody, right? No rush to get to work, no sarcastic comments from students, more time with the cats... Not a bad deal.
On the other hand, AHHHH, AN UNEXPECTED DAY OFF! How am I going to change my lesson plan to make up for this? Should I move the quiz to Thursday or Friday? Is it really important for the students to do that writing assignment? Can we still get this project done before the end of the quarter if I shift the entire lesson plan over a day? Do my students and I have enough time in the next two days to put together my class' booth for Friday's cultural fair? Basically, snow days are a planning nightmare! How can I relax when there is so much to think about? And what if there's another snow day tomorrow? Then I have to redo the lesson plan YET AGAIN.
I guess snow days, like anything else, are what you make of them. I could, for instance, choose to be stressed out, or I could choose to relax. Or a little bit of both, for the sake of variation and excitement on this day when I am otherwise stuck indoors. Yes, stuck inside...after I ate the last of my Girl Scout cookies (a story for another time.) Ugh.
What is the consensus, fellow educators: Do you embrace snow days with open arms, or are they simply too antagonistic to your lesson planning?
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