Snow Days of the Future

I sit at home as a frustrated teacher on this snow day. My high school web design students are in the middle of a project and soon will be learning how to create mobile apps (although it is unlikely they will create one that can shovel snow, sorry!). However, there is no school on this snow day and this unfortunately also means no learning. How can it be that in 2014, with the internet, Twitter, Facebook, Skype, smart phones, tablets, and other important and ubiquitous technologies, that we still sit at home on snow days and have our students do nothing?

I see a future where snow days are still learning opportunities. Even an hour spent engaging with students, either online or via Skype, could be valuable time spent. We all know that a missed school day in January or February is not the same as a day in June. It’s time we actually start living and enabling a “21st century education,” rather than spending some much time just talking about it. We live in the 21st century but our nation continues to follow a school model from the 19th century.

– Allison Goldsberry