It usually starts off the day before with someone sending me a Direct Message on Twitter asking if I have seen the forecast. Any snowflake in the 7-day forecast will often warrant a message. And then it picks up. I get screenshots from weather apps on a regular basis. There are emails, lots of emails – mostly about the poor conditions that are anticipated on the roads. By this point people are often commenting on what a big jerk I am for not closing schools yet. And then usually by sometime in the evening I get forwarded a link from a petition site with students (and others) looking for a snow day. HERE is an example of one posted last year that was just continued this year with now close to 4000 signing on. And I try to take some time to have fun with it. While I don’t have any snow day parody songs, I do try to post the odd funny gif and bring some joy to the situation.
Of course, the truth of it is that making snow day decisions sucks. You can be sure that half the people think you make the wrong decision. I get lots of emails about how decisions get made – and it is a bit of art and science. The goal is to keep schools open whenever possible. Snow days are a huge inconvenience, and often force parents to take unplanned time off of work, and have huge ripple effects beyond just our schools. That said, we have to be sure it is safe for our staff, who often travel from long distances to get to work, and safe for our students and families who need to walk or drive to school to be able to attend.
Now back to snow days and social media. I wonder if it is just the culture of social media use today, but the comments to schools and districts were often just plain nasty this year. While I experienced a little of it, others I know got a lot more. The Abbotsford School District has an awesome Twitter account, and their reaction led them to post the following:
I worry that we think a mob mentality is really the right approach. And I think as Abbotsford pointed out, we easily forget there are real people behind these decisions. I have never met anyone involved with a school district who wants to put staff or students in unsafe situations, nor have I found anyone wanting to give out snow days like prizes to be won. Too often I think that if we just get enough people to show enough outrage the loudest voices will win. As Abbotsford nicely said – Be kind with your words.
So before you think it is all lost, one final social media story related to the snowfall. I shared on Twitter parts of an email conversation I had with a student last week – and it went viral. After our snow day on Wednesday, here is part of the message I got:
Well, unfortunately, Thursday was not a snow day, so I checked in with the student to see how the chemistry test went, and here is his response:
This is the social media world I want to live in. Where we can have some fun, and be respectful. Others seemed to like the story as well, as outlets from the NS News, to CTV to Vancouver is Awesome all picked up the story.
So what are the lessons:
- Superintendents are always wrong about snow days (for some people)
- We can do better on social media and remember there are people behind the avatars and be a little more kind
- Enjoy your snow days when you get them, but always find some time to study for your chemistry test
Oh, and I am pretty sure that thing about wearing your pajamas backwards and inside-out doesn’t really work.
cultureofyes.ca 