BOLD weather
After the recent snow days, the Torch reviews the new solution of Bomber Online Learning Days.
Snow covers the bench outside of the Cannon Falls High School.
When the weather is against Cannon Falls schools, they have a secret weapon: Bomber Online learning days. They are are snow days, but not. The superintendent of Cannon Falls, Mrs. Giese, cancel school, then post assignments online. The school can then have a BOLD day instead of having more days added in June. These days only happen when snow days run out, but the school can only have 5 of these online learning days. The BOLD days were put in place at the end of last year so that the school would have more options if the weather didn’t cooperate.
The BOLD days seem to be working but can come at a price. The amount of work given on school days is sometimes greater than on a normal day. The work can be counterproductive as many students feel like the amount of work is too much, however, this seems to be getting better. Parent Heidi Brokate states, “The first couple of days the amount of work felt overwhelming for the kids, but then it became more manageable.” Though BOLD days help a lot, they can’t replace actual class time. This is especially bad in classes like art because if school is canceled you would have no way to work on your project. Because of this many teachers have had to shorten or even cut out things they planned to teach in the class.
Late starts also present a problem for teachers. Some teachers have scheduling conflicts because of changes in normal schedules. “At the MS/HS when we have a 2 hour late start, I don’t see my 6th graders at all and my 3rd period 8th graders have class in the afternoons while I’m at the elementary so I need to find a sub on those days,” says Mr. Zimmerman, a middle school art teacher. Overall 8th grade art has lost 12 days of class due to late starts and snow days.
Online BOLD days cannot replace actual learning in front of a teacher, but are preferable to adding and extra week of school, because in June students are done with school and don’t want to learn anymore. They would actually learn more on a BOLD day than being forced to go back to school in June. Overall BOLD days help more than they hinder and seem to be working well.
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