Winterize Your Class

Snow days virtually eliminated with Web tools

http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2011-02-08-1Asnowdays08_ST_N.htm

Despite winter storms that forced schools and colleges across the nation to cancel classes, tech-savvy educators are turning to Facebook, podcasts and other Web tools to keep students on track.

Rutgers Prep students turn snow days into e-days with online classes

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2011/02/rutgers_prep_academy_students.html

While most students around New Jersey huddled under blankets or spent a lazy day playing video games or reading magazines during Wednesday’s snow day, Joey Battaglia, an eighth grader at Rutgers Preparatory Academy in the Somerset section of Franklin Township, had two classes.

Online lessons, 'blizzard bags' new tools for schools on snow days

http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/dayton-news/online-lessons-blizzard-bags-new-tools-for-schools-on-snow-days-1222089.html

House Bill 153 — the biennial budget signed into law by Gov. John Kasich in June — allows school districts to establish online lessons and “blizzard bags” students can use to make up the work they would be doing on a snow day. “Blizzard bag” is a term used for physical copies of the assigned work.

Virtual Snow Days? Schools Experiment With Online Lessons During Bad Weather

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/17/virtual-snow-days-online-class_n_863170.html

Could the Internet mean the end of snow days? Some schools think so, and they are experimenting with ways for students to do lessons online during bad weather, potentially allowing classes to go on during even the worst blizzard.

Thanks to telecommuting, snow days are no longer fun

http://www.usatoday.com/money/workplace/2010-02-10-dcsnow10_ST_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip

Faster computers, broadband connections and free public Wi-Fi are taking the fun out of snow days. The federal government was shut down for the second day in a row Tuesday and many offices were empty in the nation's snowbound capital, but work continued — in homes across the D.C.-Maryland-Virginia region. It showed just how seamlessly well-equipped workers can soldier on even through disruptions such as heavy snowstorms.

Boulder-area schools intrigued by virtual snow day idea

http://www.dailycamera.com/business/ci_18129911?source=rss

School districts and universities across the country are replacing snow angels and hot cocoa with online algebra and English during snow days and other school cancellations.

Planning for winter weather...and other calamities

Accuweather.com predicts "brutal winter snow and cold" for our area of the country. Last year, the campus was closed for parts of two days in February. Given the long-range forecast, we may well see even more closures this year. In addition to weather, instructor illness, transportation problems, pandemic, and other problems may cancel or delay classes. The same strategies may be employed to keep the course on track.