What do you do with a snow day?
Many people would spend the day curled up by the fire with a good book. Others would sit around in their pajamas and catch up on their DVR. Still others would go out and play in the snow. Playing games, doing laundry, cleaning house and social media also come to mind.
This morning the local twitter traffic exploded as teachers were confronted with a day outside of the classroom. It was great to see that the day trapped indoors would not be wasted by all, but instead would be a day mixed with some professional development. I saw a few links to the new #oklaed chat archives, inspirational quotes, links to articles and many other ways that teachers are continuing to learn and grow when others might expect them to be "slacking." This flies in the face of those that believe teachers work an 8-3 job with all holidays and summers off. In this profession, every break includes some time spent in personal growth and reflection. We plan and prepare, research, attend conferences and workshops, all in an effort to provide the best environment for our students.
So today, while students were sleeping in, #cpsreds teachers and admins were reading research. They were searching through educational commentary, newspaper articles and legislation. They were examining ways to take their lessons to a new level of instruction that will increase the depth of knowledge of their students.
Teachers today were trying to find ways to modify their lessons so that students couldn't simply Google the answer. Do you know how challenging that task is? In our copy and paste world, trying to encourage students to have an original thought is extremely difficult. Teachers were expanding their professional network on social media, leverage the collective power of teachers all around the world. That is what we do with a snow day. That is what we do with a day off. What did you do with your last day off?
Many people would spend the day curled up by the fire with a good book. Others would sit around in their pajamas and catch up on their DVR. Still others would go out and play in the snow. Playing games, doing laundry, cleaning house and social media also come to mind.
This morning the local twitter traffic exploded as teachers were confronted with a day outside of the classroom. It was great to see that the day trapped indoors would not be wasted by all, but instead would be a day mixed with some professional development. I saw a few links to the new #oklaed chat archives, inspirational quotes, links to articles and many other ways that teachers are continuing to learn and grow when others might expect them to be "slacking." This flies in the face of those that believe teachers work an 8-3 job with all holidays and summers off. In this profession, every break includes some time spent in personal growth and reflection. We plan and prepare, research, attend conferences and workshops, all in an effort to provide the best environment for our students.
So today, while students were sleeping in, #cpsreds teachers and admins were reading research. They were searching through educational commentary, newspaper articles and legislation. They were examining ways to take their lessons to a new level of instruction that will increase the depth of knowledge of their students.
Teachers today were trying to find ways to modify their lessons so that students couldn't simply Google the answer. Do you know how challenging that task is? In our copy and paste world, trying to encourage students to have an original thought is extremely difficult. Teachers were expanding their professional network on social media, leverage the collective power of teachers all around the world. That is what we do with a snow day. That is what we do with a day off. What did you do with your last day off?
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