Antioch Community High School had a remote learning day on Feb. 16 due to expected heavy snow. In past years, this would have been a snow day, and students and staff would have had the day off. Instead, it was a remote learning day.
As COVID-19 forced students and staff to stay home, remote learning became a new normal. This experience allowed District 117 to use these days when poor weather conditions hit. Students and staff shared the pros and cons of having a remote learning day instead of a traditional snow day.
Superintendent Jeff Feucht makes the final decision on whether or not D117 will experience a snow day due to complicated weather conditions. While traditional snow days are still allowed to take place, the Illinois State Board of Education passed the law, Public Act 101-0012, providing schools with the flexibility to utilize remote learning days when there is an emergency day off.
“[Remote learning days] help students keep their learning moving forward and prevent the gap where they don’t learn anything in their classes, forcing them to come back a day later and get caught up,” Feucht said. “If we do an old-fashioned snow day, we also have to add that day at the end of the year.”
While remote learning days help keep students and staff on track with the curriculum instead of falling behind, student cooperation is crucial for making these days work.
“On one hand I like that I still get to teach, but on the other hand some students aren’t really participating which is frustrating,” biology teacher Jackie DeCaro said.
When students do not participate during Google Meets, learning the assigned material can be harder.
Common reasons for non-participating students during Google Meetings are other electronics, family members being distracting and lack of motivation. This can cause some to think that there might as well have been no school at all if they were not going to learn. However, some students enjoy the benefits of not taking the day off.
“I personally love e-learning days because they are very comfortable and it usually starts later in the day,” junior Anton Augusto said. “For me, it’s actually easier to focus because I don’t have all of the distractions of my classmates yelling at me.”
Overall, having the opportunity for remote learning days provides students with the privilege of not having to add additional days to the end of the school year. This also keeps students caught up on their curriculum and keeps the class on track.
