Along with being granted a snow day, students of the Academy of the Holy Cross are given e-learning assignments by their teachers to be completed at home.

The assignments are given so that the students will not fall behind in their studies and can learn at home the lessons that would have been taught that day.

Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) have an additional five days of school added onto their school year to prepare for snow days. Whether or not they have any snow days that year, the school year will have those additional five days. This year, MCPS students will have to make up a snow day with an extra day of school. However, AHC provides their students with e-learning assignments on snow days so that those additional five days do not have to be added to the end of the school year. With this year’s e-learning days, Tartans do not have to make up days.

These e-learning days also provide the students and teachers with a way to be involved in a learning or teaching dynamic without driving in risky weather conditions to get to school. Faculty member Kate Griffith shared some of her thoughts explaining, “regular school days are nice, but since it’s unsafe to get to school at the time it’s nice to have the e-learning days to keep us on track.”

E-learning assignments are meant to be about an hour of work per class, but many students find that the assignments tend to take more time than intended. Sophomore Grace Martin added, “e-learning takes forever to do and I don’t have any time left to enjoy my snow day.”

Another concern voiced by Ophelia Hyde, “I can’t ask my teachers questions if I’m confused or don’t understand the directions.” Although teachers have virtual office hours on e-learning days, Hyde shared that asking questions through email is a difficult process. The teachers may take a while to respond, or the students may not receive the clarification they were looking for. Either way, without personal interaction with teachers and without being taught the lesson, students can become very confused and may lead to the work taking longer than planned.

While some students mentioned that they enjoy the fact that they can sleep in on these snow days, most would rather have a regular school day than e-learning. They acknowledged that e-learning serves a good purpose considering the weather conditions on snow days, but it has not quite reached the point where they learn just as much and as well as they would on a regular school day. Hyde concluded, “E-Learning is a great way to keep us moving on schedule through our lessons, but I’m still not praying for anymore big snowstorms this year.”