Great concept in theory, but difficult to achieve full compliance. On the parent survey, not enough information was provided on how this would be structured to form a good opinion. Even if students are home from school, the parents may still be required to be at work which means lack of supervision to ensure that students are participating and staying focused in a virtual classroom option. Older students may be babysitting younger siblings. Younger students may be in a childcare situation or with another relative. Older students may be expected to assist with snow removal or other chores. What happens if a student does not participate - how does it impact their grade? Would the expectation be that the students would be participating during traditional school hours? Or would this be an option that could be completed anytime during the 24-hour period? Would the student have to demonstrate that they were online for a minimum amount of time during the day to achieve credit? Or would it be based just on assignment completion, regardless of the amount of time needed for completion? What happens if there are isolated areas of power outages? Would the Blizzard Bag day meet the same quality and depth of content as during a 6-hour school day? (I can't envirsion any student staying in front of a computer completing coursework for 6 hours on a snowday.) Or just enough to check off that the school requirements were met as to not extend the school year? Despite the fact that I can see challenges with a mass approach this as a snow day solution, the online educational opportunities are very appealing and do meet the needs of non-traditional learners. We have had positive experiences with EdGenuity online classes.
Great concept in theory, but difficult to achieve full compliance. On the parent survey, not enough information was provided on how this would be structured to form a good opinion. Even if students are home from school, the parents may still be required to be at work which means lack of supervision to ensure that students are participating and staying focused in a virtual classroom option. Older students may be babysitting younger siblings. Younger students may be in a childcare situation or with another relative. Older students may be expected to assist with snow removal or other chores. What happens if a student does not participate - how does it impact their grade? Would the expectation be that the students would be participating during traditional school hours? Or would this be an option that could be completed anytime during the 24-hour period? Would the student have to demonstrate that they were online for a minimum amount of time during the day to achieve credit? Or would it be based just on assignment completion, regardless of the amount of time needed for completion? What happens if there are isolated areas of power outages? Would the Blizzard Bag day meet the same quality and depth of content as during a 6-hour school day? (I can't envirsion any student staying in front of a computer completing coursework for 6 hours on a snowday.) Or just enough to check off that the school requirements were met as to not extend the school year? Despite the fact that I can see challenges with a mass approach this as a snow day solution, the online educational opportunities are very appealing and do meet the needs of non-traditional learners. We have had positive experiences with EdGenuity online classes.