On days like today, where the weather makes travel difficulty and hazardous, a good alternative to having a regular school day is to have an E-Learning Day. E-Days are being used by several schools in the United States to continue learning opportunities even when students are not at school- both weather related and teacher workdays.
So what might this look like?
High School teachers would have student assignments on Canvas- our Learning management System- and students would access the assignments from their laptops or a mobile device. The students would complete the assignments, with the teacher accessible on-line should the student need assistance.
Elementary students would have assignments in the core subject areas - Math, English Language Arts, Science, and Social Studies- listed on the school webpage. The assignments would utilize IXL, XTra Math, Discovery Education, or some other online program, and students would complete the assignments on their I-Pads at home or at Daycare. Teachers have the ability to monitor all students on IXL in real-time and can see what the students are working on and if they are answering questions correctly or having problems. We can also check on how much time the student spent working on IXL.
Next year the plan is to have individual I-Pads for all students in grades K-6. Grades 1 and 2 would not be able to take them home every night, but we would send them home with students for an anticipated E-Day if the weather forecast was not favorable.
What if students don't have internet at home? We surveyed parents and found that most families have internet access. For students that don't have internet access, the students would have one day to complete the assignments by showing up for school early (7:00 am) or staying late and utilizing the school wireless network.
We have a plan to try our first E-Day on November 22 of next year, when there will be no school because we are hosting the Conference One Act Play Contest.
