Snow days are what gets students out of school and allows them to sleep in without the stress of completing assignments at their own pace. Students in the midwest are all familiar with what snow days are and wish for them whenever the weather forecast shows snow. When they receive the news that school is out due to the weather, they’re happy and excited to have the day off. However, what exactly do students and staff do with their free time?
For students, when asked what they did on snow days, almost everyone responded first with sleep. Makenzie Ackerman said her simple day was, “I sleep and get on Fortnite and then I sleep again.” Other students say something similar when asked to describe their day, Dylan Nguyen being one of those students. Nguyen describes his day as, “Sleeping in as much as I can to enjoy the snow day, then getting up to hop on the game.”
However, his day, along with many other students, usually looks different from this when school is called out for an E-Learning day instead.
“I usually play something first for the first few hours of the day,” Nguyen said, “then when it gets later at night, I finish my assignments.”
Raven Cranny also does something similar, saying, “For E-Learning days, I wake up knowing I have to do my work, but I usually put off my assignments for later, just ‘cause I know I have the time to waste anyway.”
Putting off the work for later, as well as sleeping in as much as possible seems to be the common trend with students, but is it the same with teachers? Surprisingly (or not), it totally is!
During snow days, even teachers try to enjoy the extra hours of sleep they’re granted before waking up for the day.
“I sleep in and stay in my pajamas, then help my daughter with her homework,” said orchestra director Dr. Brittany Rom.
However, some teachers choose to stay busy rather than relax with their free time. Language arts teacher and debate coach James Constantino said, “If it’s a regular snow day, I’ll have some coffee, and I’ll check my email hopefully before noon, and just kind of relax and work on other things for my other jobs.”
Social studies teacher Kristy McGuire says she will go to the grocery store the night before if she’s anticipating a snow day to cook something that will usually take more time for the next day. McGuire also will watch some TV, and says, “I don’t have any kids at home so it’s kind of lovely that I can do sort of whatever I want.”
E-Learning days, however, are a tad bit different. Many teachers will post their material the night before to avoid having to wake up early to post in the morning, as well as to keep their schedule that day somewhat free for other activities. Like social studies teacher Meryl Zadina, whose snow days have a little bit of tradition in them.
“Well, my boys and I have a tradition where we live kind of close to an area that has a Hy-Vee and other restaurants, so we’ll bundle up and walk up there for lunch,” Zadina explained.
Other teachers need to bug their kids to do their E-Learning while making sure their own students do theirs. Blair Sommerfeld, a world language teacher, is one of the teachers that has to deal with this, saying, “I set up my E-Learning for my own students, then try to convince my child to do his own.”
