Snowy Conditions Create a Virtual Snow Day

On Tuesday, February 16th, Canyons School District announced that all schools would have a virtual learning day on Wednesday, February 17th, as a result of extreme weather. The district is heeding the recommendation of the Utah Transportation Office that recommends everyone to stay off of the roads until at least 10 am. The roads are in bad condition and are dangerous to drive on.

Student Louren Hodges said it’s snowing, and “I couldn´t get out of my drive way.”

Keeping students and faculty safe from the roads is the number one priority, but letting education suffer is not acceptable either. Rather than having makeup days later in the year and disrupting school breaks or summer vacations, the district moved to an online learning day allowing students and teachers to keep teaching and learning and staying on top of their curriculums.

In high school classes, students are expected to log into Canvas and work on their courses. Each teacher should have posted their expectations on the dashboard. Additionally, teachers are available on Google Meet to talk with students and help with any issues they may be facing. Extracurricular activities have been cancelled for the day unless road conditions clear up.

Even with online platforms, it can be difficult for teachers to keep all of their classes on the same schedule. This week, A day classes were already put behind a day due to Presidentś Day. With this virtual learning day, A day students will be pushed behind even further in their classes because they cannot meet in person. This creates extra stress for teachers who want to impart curriculum to students on both days.

According to Ms. Graff, ¨Any online work just means more catch up, reteaching, and abandoning things I would have liked to accomplish this year.”

It can be difficult for students to keep up with lessons online and fully grasp them when they are not in the classroom. This sets lessons back and, unfortunately, creates difficulties for many teachers.

Some of the teachers have found ways to keep up with assignments online and in person. ¨I email out the lesson plan for the upcoming week every Friday with explicit directions that they are responsible for completing that work whether they are in class or not,” Ms. Peggy Deveny said.

Keeping students engaged and enroute to completing their classes on time has proved to be a challenge this year, but Canvas has played a major role in helping students and faculty succeed this year.