BY ISABELLA BEELER

Imagine hearing the phone ring on a snowy night. The school district is calling. They say that there is no school tomorrow. The feeling of hearing the phone ring on a snowy night makes me excited. Snow days are all fun and games until you have to make them up. We’ve had a lot this year and have to make some of them up.

Other school districts have AMI days. AMI stands for alternative methods of instruction. AMI days are virtual learning instruction days. They learn from home. After a certain amount of snow days, other schools have regular snow days and have to add on to the end of the year. One school district made up a snow day on president’s day this year. 

Our school district has regular snow days, but has to make them up on Mondays. After a certain amount of snow days, we have to make up for every other snow day. That is nice. Just for all of the snow days that were had, we are going to school on a lot of Mondays for a 4 day week. That is not fair, since we don’t get a spring break and have longer school days. It also ruins the perks of having Mondays off, like having appointments on Monday and A+ Kids Safari. It is nice that we don’t have to add on to the end of the year, though.

I would rather have AMI days. We would still be able to learn, but in the warmth and comfort of our own home. Then we would still have our Mondays off. That way it will be fair and we would be able to use the no school Monday perks. If we had a certain amount of snow days, we could make it up on a Monday instead of adding to the end of year. It would combine our district and the other districts’ snow day rules.

I understand AMI days are hard for some kids, but I think it would be nice. I did ok doing virtual school during COVID. Our school district doesn’t think virtual learning is as effective as in person. I do know it is hard to be productive at home. Maybe we can come up with ways to make it more effective. The teachers can put detailed instruction on the assignment, have zoom meetings, send emails, and communicate with parents. It would only be a little bit of virtual learning days. 

I love snow days, but I don’t like to make them up. It is not fair to have to go to school for a lot of Mondays. I do like making snow days up on Mondays instead of adding on to the end of the year. I would like it if our school district had AMI days. That would mean that we wouldn’t have to make that much up unless we had a lot. We can make AMI days more effective by providing more instruction on assignments and teachers communicating with their students.