Joliet West has recently adopted a new policy regarding days when the weather is too dangerous for students to come to school in.
Instead of having snow days like previous years, Joliet West will now have
E-learning days, where students may continue to learn even in the event that the school has to be closed.
E-learning days will be counted as a regular school attendance day and will not have to be made up at the end of the year during May if enough students sign in on the affected day.
E-learning days have to be announced by 5 a.m. on the day of and students will be provided with relevant and useful assignments by their teachers to be done during the day.
Students are to sign in to examlogin.com once with a provided attendance code from 9:30 a.m. to 11 a.m. in order to be counted as attending.
E-learning days will come into effect on February sixth, but until then any emergency days will have to be made up at the end of the year.
Due to the introduction of E-learning days, the curriculum may no longer be interrupted as greatly by snow days.
Previously on snow days, teachers would often lose time to teach their classes and possibly have to readjust their class plans in accordance with the snow day. However, some concern has been expressed with the implementation of E-learning days.
The new policy has been met with mixed opinions. Some students have said they’ll miss the free day provided by snow days. One teacher, Ms. Monninger, had this to say about E-learning days. “The idea is really good, but I just don’t know if the rollout has been ideal. Because let’s be serious, snow days made up at the end of the year are a complete waste of time.”
Other students and teachers have remarked that E-learning days might not be effective if students don’t participate properly.
E-learning days are predicted to be at least an improvement to the coming semester. Some potential issues may still have to be worked out, but this policy has potential.
Last year, the polar vortex hindered progress significantly due to sparse attendance, however with E-learning days this may no longer be a problem in case of an emergency. So in unison lets sadly bid farewell to snow days.