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Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS)
Virtual Snow Days
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Anonymous
How advanced must the notice be? Would a snowmaggedon forecast be enough? One or two days off, then on to virtual? |
Anonymous
| Not for my ES kids. They will need childcare and i will need to work. |
Anonymous
mcps teacher here. I may not be remembering correctly, but i think it was noon the day before. Other teachers may have a better memory than I have. Also seem to remember that all absences are automatically excused and assignments cannot be due back before in person school resumes, or something like that. I teach ES and have no intention of making my HS kids login in the very unlikely event this ever comes to fruition. |
Anonymous
The MD state dept of ed allows for virtual inclement weather days - up to 8. Three of the days can be asynchronous, which means students do not have to have to report to specific classes at specific times. Other counties have had their plans posted, some since October. Not MCPS though. They wait until the last minute possible to do anything that is approved by the sate. And MCPS would be foolish not to use these days for inclement weather because the state will probably not waive days as they have in past years. The same people who complain about virtual snow days will also complain if days are added to the end of the year. |
Anonymous
Are you ever going to stop patting yourself on the back for what a wonderful parent you (allegedly) were during a global pandemic? We get it. You are truly superior. You know what? My kids excelled academically during the pandemic. Was it because I’m superior? No, it was because they’ve always taken school seriously and are resolute rule followers. But they suffered socially - it was a massive blow to their mental health — and it’s obvious even now what a massive social setback the school closures were for them and their peers (yes, your kids too). Sticking your head in the ground and crowing about how superior you are adds nothing to this conversation. Full time virtual school is a disaster for almost everyone. Occasional snow days? Probably ok, apart from listening to the crowing from people like you about how great you are. |
Anonymous
| You can all quote things you read online til youre blue in the face. The reality is it will never happen unless for some crazy reason we get like 2 weeks of straight snow. |
Anonymous
So-called "asynchronous" days are effectively the same thing as MSDE waiving the state requirements for all instructional days. No one needs to do anything. Actual virtual instructional days will never happen. |
Anonymous
MCPS needs to submit a plan,, even for asynchronous days and they haven't yet. |
Anonymous
| When was this plan posted? This is the first I have heard about it. |
Anonymous
School shouldn't be your kids only social outlet and if it was and you made no effort outside of school, virtual school wasn't the issue, it was you. It absolutely was not a disaster for everyone. An occasional virtual school day is far better than extending the school year or taking away spring break. |
Anonymous
Kids are such an inconvenience! |
Anonymous
Another MCPS teacher here and this is what was shared during a recent staff meeting at our school. The fact that absences will be excused almost guarantees a low attendance rate if this “code purple” day actually happens. How productive can a virtual day be if we are missing a large portion of the class and can’t teach anything new? Teachers can not just recreate what we had planned on teaching in person at home. Creating things to use and teach virtually takes a lot of time, especially with elementary students. Having Chromebooks and chargers ready for all students is a big problem. We were told that our school would not be unwiring our Chromebook carts to get chargers. All of the technology pieces just aren’t available and in place anymore. Parents can request a Chromebook to have at home for their child to use, but the ones they are sending home are the old Chromebooks (not touch screen) and they frequently have a lot of problems. Also, there is a formal process for this request and it takes several weeks (at least at my school). Additionally, many elementary students don’t use Chromebooks to the degree they were used in the past. I am the only teacher on my team (of four classes at my grade level) that has students use Chromebooks. Most of my students know their username/password and can log into a Chromebook. However, this would be a challenge for many elementary students. I hope if this happens, most of my students are outside playing in the snow and having fun being a child. |
Anonymous
I’m thinking that you could say the exact same thing about a two hour delay day. Would you just let your kids stay home then? |
Anonymous
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I'm guessing most of the posters in this thread have younger kids? We haven't had many snow days in the past few years. I'm guessing you think snow days were like Snowmaggedon.
I have two high schoolers (12th and 10th grade). 10 years ago when they were in elementary school, the weather was different. It wasn't unheard of to have many 2 hour delays in December (we seemed to get a lot more icy rain back then) and actual snow days. Yes, we had some actual snow on those snow days. Snow the kids could play in. But many other days, was just brown and muddy out. If we have a snow day and real snow, sure - I"ll give my kids the day off. But if we have a snow day and one of those brown, icy, slushy days? Sleep in but then hit the books. |
Anonymous
It's not just the temptation of snow-- it's the lack of value from virtual. Even adults can't stay engaged over zoom for hours at a time. And given that half+ of the class is going to be out anyway, they're not going to be doing anything useful that day anyway. |