If we take our essential skills, create a student-centered classroom, create and embed authentic assessments, create and maintain online learning environments - then snow days would be more like a typical day - not a complete and total stoppage of school.
We are mired in a "blizzard" in Iowa and most schools have canceled, some for the second day in a row. Teachers who have till Christmas to wrap up their semester just had their plans condensed, fine arts programs preparing for holiday concerts are scrambling and looking for times during the day to practice.
Students are connected via internet (75% of our students have access at home) or most have cellphones that have apps if not browser access on their phone. If we made these tools part of our curriculum delivery then physically having the student's logging seat time would be unnecessary.
Regular days and snow days could be administered to anyone and everyone, whether they were at school or not.
The questions are limitless and are often stumbling blocks for reform in education by using technology. A total shift to online curriculum looks impossible.
But is it? We have two classes that have 60-90% or their curriculum online and if they had too, they could have instructed students to refer to their sites these past two days. Definitely something I'm going to bring up at the next leadership team meeting.
No comments:
Post a Comment