I read a really interesting article that isn’t necessarily specific to ESL, but it caught my interest so much, that I couldn’t help but to blog about it. It was titled, “Snow days turn into 'digital days' at some Minnesota schools.” This article clearly takes place in Minnesota, where they recently had a stretch of dangerous, subzero temperatures. The superintendent at Robbinsdale was confident in his decision of closing schools due to the fact that he knew learning would still continue. In his district, every 4th-12th grade student had access to laptops and there were built in “flex-learning” days in the school calendar. Our district is not fully 1:1 yet, but we are moving in this direction. We have 3 built in snow days throughout the school year, but almost always end up needing more. When we are finally 1:1, I absolutely love the idea of having these built in “flex-learning” days and allowing children to continue their learning while at home, safe and sound.
The district that this article was about had teachers prep videos ahead of time to coach students through their assignments throughout the day. It was stated that both students and staff were appreciative of the fact that learning could continue. One student even stated that it was fun doing schoolwork while in pajamas. By allowing for these built in digital days, Robbinsdale is able to stick pretty closely to its original schedule and avoid extending classes into spring break, holidays or staff training time.
However, the important thing to note is that this e-learning method will only be successful if students have access to the internet at home, as well as know how to navigate through the technology. It is stated that it takes a lot of time to plan good e-learning modules. One ESL teacher mentioned how it is especially difficult for her students. “We’re looking at what can students do independently on their own or in a limited English proficiency household. That is a very significant challenge,” said Melissa Davey (French & ESH teacher).
While I think these digital days are a great idea, I don’t know if they could fully replace an entire school day. I have assigned my students Flipgrids on snow days before, but never make them “required” assignments and not all of my students are able to access them at home. I think that digital days replacing snow days could definitely become more popular in the future.
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