Remember the elementary school days? Opening your eyes and looking out your window to a blanket of white, fluffy snow? The joy of eating breakfast, the phone ringing, and your mom answering the phone to the school sending out a call saying that due to the snow, you would not have school? Do you remember the burst of excitement you would get at the news that you got to stay home all day and play in the snow? Well, those days are now a thing of the past, as snow days have cleared the stage for virtual school.
COVID was somewhat of a forced transformative period for virtual learning, where something that was a mere idea was forced upon the world with the closures of school. What started out as an extra two weeks of spring break quickly spiraled into a year and a half of virtual instruction. While virtual school had its problems at first, it is now an easy method of compromise when something happens that prevents schools from meeting in person.
Even though virtual instruction became helpful during COVID, for many it was unproductive, frustrating, and isolating. According to CNBC, a whopping 97% of educators saw a learning decline over the past year during virtual learning vs in class learning. Education wasn’t the only category to take a hit, as 57% of students were seen to have a decline in social skills due to isolation.
Virtual learning wasn’t frustrating for only students, as teachers and administrators had their share of struggles with virtual instruction. Many teachers were uncomfortable teaching online, and many teachers had internet problems hosting virtual classes on platforms such as Google Meet or Zoom.
After the rollout of the COVID vaccine, life began to return to a semblance of normality. However, one holdover from COVID seems like it is here to stay: Virtual Instruction.
Schools realized with virtual instruction that instead of making up for a lost snow day at the end of the school year, they could simply conduct virtual instruction instead. The State of Indiana also realized that after a year and a half of virtual instruction, that virtual school could work.
For students and administrators holding out hope that true snow days would one day return, they shouldn’t hold their breath. A new Indiana law was passed stating that schools may allow up to three virtual student instruction days without Google meets where students will simply have to log onto classes and complete assignments, just like normal virtual days.
However, after schools have used up their allotted 3 days of virtual instruction, students will be required to log onto Google meets where teachers will be conducting live classes.
Lawmakers stated that there also must be, “teacher-directed synchronous instruction for at least fifty percent of the particular instructional day.” This means that students must be at their computers following instructions like they usually would in class all day. Indiana State Law requires students to follow along with all of their classes virtually just like they would on a normal school day so schools can reach their required 180 days of instruction.
According to WTHR, ”While the bill limits a district’s e-learning days, there is an exception for extraordinary circumstances.”
Lawmakers did not define what this statement means, instead loading it on the State Department of Education, which is working on defining what that statement means in formal terms. The State Department of Education is also working on creating a waiver for districts looking for flexibility or a greater amount of E-learning days. This new policy will go into effect for the 2023-2024 school year.
Any Indiana resident knows how hard it is to predict when snow days will fall. Indiana could have a snowless winter, or it could get hit with a storm that knocks everything out for a week. This bill would cause a major inconvenience in an event such as this.
Which leads to the struggle that is plaguing many school districts. Many school districts are now faced with the decision: Do they pre-plan out when these three days of virtual instruction will fall, or do they save them for when they actually need them due to inclement weather?
New Castle schools have already planned out when they will utilize their allotted virtual days. They have their built-in virtual days set for September 28th, November 8th, and March 15th. These days will be used for teacher instruction and training. Students will log into their classes and complete their assignments within 3 days for attendance.
However, if the school were to require an actual snow day, then students will log onto Google meets at 10:30 and follow a two-hour delay schedule with live teacher instruction until 3:30. There will be a built-in half-hour long period for lunch as well.
The 10:30 start time gives students and staff time to sleep in and eat breakfast and get themselves ready before instruction starts at 10:30.
“It will be a little bit of an adjustment, I think there’s good and bad in it. It does hold us more accountable for doing our virtual school work that we can all sometimes get kind of lazy on.” New Castle High School Principal Kirk Amman says, “Any kind of change like that is always a little bit hard to get used to.”
The built-in virtual day on November 8th will be purposed with teaching and training new staff on how to conduct virtual days and live classes.
“I feel like we have a pretty good plan in place for when we do get our first snow day in December or January, but like with anything you never know until you do it,” Amman says.
Even though it looks like the snow days that we used to know will be in the past, virtual school days do have their hidden advantages. When schools have real snow days like they used to, when school was forgotten completely, the school had to make up for those lost days at the end of the school year in order to reach their required 180 days of instruction.
However, with virtual school days, the school is not required to make up those days at the end of the year if all students log on for live instruction. Unlike actual school days, these new virtual days will only be from 10:30-3:30 and will be on a two-hour delay schedule.
“I’m cautiously optimistic about the whole thing,” Amman says.
For now, it looks like the snow days that we used to know have been replaced by the ever-growing virtual school days. Will kids be forever fated to sit in front of a computer screen instead of playing outside in the snow all day? For now, the short answer seems to be yes. However, virtual school isn’t all bad, as it saves students from having to make up for lost days of instruction at the end of the year.
