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FROM THE EDITORS
FROM THE EDITORS
After our long and cozy winter break, welcome back to school and our February publication! As you have seen in the past weeks, snow days don’t mean the same thing as before. In previous years, snow days were packed with bad weather but especially joy because it always meant a blissful day of relaxation was in store. Now, snow days seem to be a toss-up between online learning and the classic snow day where students would sleep in, go sledding, sip hot chocolate, or just unwind. Searching for answers, we interviewed administrators who are involved in the decision-making process—Mr. Harrell and Dr. Gibbs—so keep reading to find out the future of snow days.
After our long and cozy winter break, welcome back to school and our February publication! As you have seen in the past weeks, snow days don’t mean the same thing as before. In previous years, snow days were packed with bad weather but especially joy because it always meant a blissful day of relaxation was in store. Now, snow days seem to be a toss-up between online learning and the classic snow day where students would sleep in, go sledding, sip hot chocolate, or just unwind. Searching for answers, we interviewed administrators who are involved in the decision-making process—Mr. Harrell and Dr. Gibbs—so keep reading to find out the future of snow days.
This month, our feature story shows the BT community’s viewpoint on changing snow days, including one-on-one interviews with BT faculty and students. Our Activities section covers a variety of events ranging from stories on our girls and boys basketball team as well as coverage on the Yakking Raiders. Moving on to our Community page, we have Valentine’s-themed BT voices and Verbatim poll as well as a new addition of a citizen science section focusing on this month's The Great Backyard Bird Count. Last but not least, our Culture page consists of a review of an American classic, long-form essays reflecting on the ongoing consequences of the Scopes Trial and the 01.06.21 Capitol riot, a decadent chocolate cookie recipe, and information on Nebraska’s first-ever Youth Poet Laureate.
This month, our feature story shows the BT community’s viewpoint on changing snow days, including one-on-one interviews with BT faculty and students. Our Activities section covers a variety of events ranging from stories on our girls and boys basketball team as well as coverage on the Yakking Raiders. Moving on to our Community page, we have Valentine’s-themed BT voices and Verbatim poll as well as a new addition of a citizen science section focusing on this month's The Great Backyard Bird Count. Last but not least, our Culture page consists of a review of an American classic, long-form essays reflecting on the ongoing consequences of the Scopes Trial and the 01.06.21 Capitol riot, a decadent chocolate cookie recipe, and information on Nebraska’s first-ever Youth Poet Laureate.
By Aishani Srikumar and Crystal Huang
FEATURE
FEATURE
Are Snow Days Here to Stay, or Could They Soon Melt Away?
Are Snow Days Here to Stay, or Could They Soon Melt Away?
By Verbatim Staff
Nebraska winters are brutal. They demand extensive shoveling, additional caution during commutes, and extra layers of clothes. The one silver lining to living in a land of inclement weather—something that students in warmer states like California don’t experience—is the joy of waking up to a snow day. So many people love to go build a snowman or go sledding outside and then coming in and drinking hot cocoa in the coziness of their home. But things might be changing with the advancement of technology. With the ubiquity of laptops, tablets, and wifi—combined with the lessons we have learned from a year of remote learning because of the pandemic—many school districts across the United States are seriously considering doing away with traditional snow days.
At Brownell Talbot we've had three traditional snow days so far this winter, but also our first remote learning snow day. To best understand the snow day situation at BT, Verbatim staff reached out to administrators, students, teachers, and parents to gauge their feelings and concerns about this new approach to handling inclement weather.
The administrative team at BT has a difficult balance to strike when it comes to snow days, as they need to consider the safety of all members of the BT community, while also taking into account the loss of instructional time that results when school is called off.
During an interview with BT's Head of School, Dr. Gibbs, she explained to Verbatim that “Our hope is to continue to give you snow days, and give that break and the opportunity to catch up." She offered further insight on the thought process involved in making decisions about future snow days, noting that, "We also know that learning is important and that there are things that need to continue. We pride ourselves on letting teachers make decisions on what's best for that class.” Brownell Talbot has taken the approach of incorporating snow days with both virtual learn and no virtual learning. Furthermore, Dr. Gibbs described the following policy in the aforementioned interview: “If we find ourselves having back to back snow days, the first will be a snow day, and the second will be remote learning.” Dean of Students Mr.Harrell concurs with Dr. Gibbs, noting the importance of balancing snow days and Zoom days: “Our transition to distance learning has made us evaluate snow days, but the excitement of snow days is something we’ve always had so we don’t want to take that away and we want to balance the snow day and distance learning.” Students who are anxious about living in a world without anymore snow days thanks to Zoom and other technological innovations can rest easier knowing that the decision makers at BT share many of the same feelings about not completely abandoning the tradition of snow days.
However, such reassurances aren't likely to alleviate every concern that students have about the fate of snow days, as a half-semester spent in Zoom classrooms have made it clear that "school" is no longer limited to the physical walls of the building. Losing snow days is a particular concern for many Upper School freshmen, who are old enough to have experienced a good number of snow days in the past, but are also looking at the prospect of a three more years of school without snow days, or at least with a smaller number of unplanned and unstructured breaks from school.
When BT students were interviewed, many expressed support for snow days. Jacob Harding '24 reasoned, "I would rather have snow days because they are a break in the middle of the week, and are fun, but I dislike a lot of snow because it is annoying.” Lia Li '24 said, "Snow days are a good mental health recovery.” Knowing that snow days could potentially put classes behind schedule, Berlyn Thomson '24 assured the Verbatim staff that, "If we get behind, teachers will just go faster when we come back to school." Adding an interesting thought, Berlyn commented that, "In the future, there might be holograms of us in school.” Given that few of us imagined even a year ago that an entire class could meet within the small screen of a single laptop, maybe this idea isn't as far-fetched as it sounds.
Meanwhile, another important stakeholder in this issue—teachers—occupy a tenuous middle ground between administrators and students.The loss of instructional time is a serious concern, but an extra day to plan or even just to relax is something that most teachers look forward to. What's more, many BT teachers are also parents of younger children, and so navigating family responsibilities and virtual instruction time poses challenges of its own.
When asked about whether BT should have snow days or attend online school, Upper School biology teacher Mr. Sauer states, "I still think students (and teachers!) should be entitled to a snow day when the weather is bad enough, but it also make sense to not extend snow days too long when we have the technological capability of remote learning. Like anyone else, I enjoy a good snow day. But I'm also aware that too many idle days can be hard on keeping up motivation and establishing routines at the beginning of the 2nd semester."
Many other teachers, such as Math Department Chair Mrs. Ryan and History Department Chair Mr. Smith, hold similar opinions on whether snow days should be canceled. However, Mr. Smith specifically says that he thinks "the one exception would be if there was a scheduled quiz or test to postpone that till the next time." Snow days are enjoyed by many students and when asked if snow days should apply to all divisions, Mr.Smith, says, "LS - should probably have a true snow day...I think if it becomes apparent it will be a multiple-day snow event, then teachers can begin sending out activities on Days 2, 3, etc."
Our time spent investigating this issue on BT's campus has led us to conclude that snow days are not in danger of being eradicated any time soon. When inclement weather inevitably comes around in December, January, February, and sometimes even March, there will always be the possibility of a free day off from school. However, in unusual times like a couple of years ago when the snow days keep piling up, students should also expect to participate in some instructional activities when there are consecutive days off from school. BT has invested in technology to enrich the classroom learning experience, but that technology now serves a dual purpose of expanding the boundaries of the classroom. So don't put all of your snow gear in storage just yet, but be prepared to fire up the laptop or tablet before you hit the slopes in Memorial Park.
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