Life After Six Snow Days

February 3, 2011 | Posted in: Class Updates

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It’s amazing to think that we haven’t had a full week of school since December.  I want to believe that next week will finally be the week, but as I write this, I see the little show shower icon hovering in the box for Monday (it had been Tuesday) on the local news stations’ forecast sites.  How has this affected our routines in school?  Hugely.

As I wrote in a recent update, this time of the year is normally a very busy one for us for several reasons.  First, it’s the time when we’re really starting to introduce brand new skills, not just more advanced variations of existing skills.  For example, today, I introduced the students to long division – a challenging skill that won’t come easily to most students after only a single day, and must be reinforced daily for several days before it becomes a comfortable skill for students.  Second, just by luck, it’s the time of year when a variety of assessments all seem to happen at once.  In the past few weeks, we’ve given two CFAs, three universal screenings, and a writing prompt.  Over the next few days, I hope to find time for a grammar assessment and a time skills assessment.  Third, we’re in the thick of CMT preparation mode.  I pride myself on truthfully telling students that we DON’T prepare for the CMTs in our class – rather, we work on skills they’re going to need to be successful as students – and yes, the CMTs are one way in which we measure that success.

You can imagine what six snow days and, I’d estimate, an equal number of late openings and early dismissals will do to the fidelity of our instruction – how precisely our instruction matches what we want it to look like.  As a result, we are forced to compress lessons that “have some give to them”, and we omit areas that aren’t necessary or can be saved for another time.  Please be understanding when your kids come home and report that we didn’t go over a homework assignment from the previous night or that I skipped a spelling assessment.  At this point in time, it really is a matter of triage – the most urgent activities come first.

The kids are also rising to the occasion.  This is the first year I’ve routinely given snow day assignments, and so far, it seems to be working well.  I’ve gotten lots of feedback from kids, and I’m glad that they seem to be seeing it as an opportunity to stay active (rather than as a chore.)  In class, the kids are working hard to maintain a brisk pace in class.  We’re squeezing a lot in the school day, and some of our beloved rituals such as Morning Meeting, CCLS, and silent reading time have been put on the back burner temporarily.  Every now and then, we do take a needed break to pursue topics of interest.  On Friday, for example, when we had Pajama Day, one student brought her Snuggie.  I asked her if it was a Snuggie or a Slanket and explained the battle between both products.  (Allegedly, the Slanket predates the better known Snuggie, and both companies have been battling in court over who is entitled to the idea, and so on.)  This led to a wonderful discussion about patent rights, intellectual property, trademarks, copyrights, royalties, etc.  You might wonder what possible value this could have in a fourth grade class, but you’d be amazed by how many hands shot up with questions or comments – many of those hands belonging to students who don’t always seem eager to participate in typical lessons.  I was surprised by how many people had personal connection and were able to contribute valuable ideas to further enrich the conversation.  This also led us to a very valuable about plagiarism and citation – a concept kids need to start developing now.  It was a nice break from the usual rush to move through lessons and material. But now we’re back to the daily grind, and there’s lots to do. We’re working hard in Room 209, and we’ll continue to do so.