Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Another Snow Day!

Good Day!
As I write this most recent newsletter, it is 9 degrees. We have been off of school for the past two days. As much as I hate to admit it, my thoughts over the past two days, coupled with the other snow days/delays we have had this year, run to standardized testing. What impact will the weather have on our kids this year?!

Unfortunately, this is our reality. Standardized testing has really become the driving force behind what we do each day. As the snow pelted us yesterday, I was in touch with various teachers to reschedule our third benchmark test of the year. To note, our third benchmark test comes on the heels of our 8th grade class most recently taking the CDT tests.

In the midst of the various cancellations and delays, one school in particular caught my attention. I noticed that a local community college had posted “On-line learning day”. Rather than cancel school, all students were expected to log into their respective computers to complete the day’s learning. What an awesome idea! I am not sure all of the logistics this would take; however, students could log into their respective classes to ensure no learning was lost due to inclement weather. If there was a way we could make this work at CWMS, learning would never be lost to a snow day again!

Here is a link to a news story from the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. This highlights three schools from Pittsburgh who do not lose instruction due to poor weather.

Education in 2014 is not relegated to a building. Let’s keep striving towards a ‘wall-less’ school room!