EV
Opinion
Snow more Work written by: Sami Binning
A
fter last year’s amount of snow days, Liberty North has put in place a new policy regarding snow days. On snow days teachers have to assign an online Canvas or Google Classroom assignment that should take about 45 to 60 minutes to complete. I believe that this is an imperfect idea for a few reasons. First, it assumes that all students have internet access at home. Most students do, but we cannot assume in absolutes. If it is too dangerous or frigid that we cannot go to school, then those students cannot get to a library or coffee shop to access the internet to complete assignments. Second, for some classes that have non-online lesson plans, having online assignments on snow days would just be busywork. For students who take multiple classes like this, having a bunch of work just to do work is pointless. Third, it makes more work for teachers who already have enough to do. Assuming that this online assignment would be graded, and if it’s not then what’s
Dry
written by: Neal Shusterman his year, more than ever, the really shows you the extremes of these topic of droughts and wildfires is situations. We in the midwest hear extremely topical. From California about these wildfires, but we never to the Amazon Rainforest, our will know what it is like to experience world has recently succumbed to those tragedies, and I hope none of us fire. Dry by Neal Shusterman takes a ever will. first-hand look into these droughts and fires. Dry takes place in California in the midst of a terrible drought, the Tap Out as it is called. We follow Alyssa and her brother Garrett as their lives change because of the drought. They no longer can mow the lawn or take long showers, but everything changes when the tap runs dry. In the blink of an eye, the people Alyssa has known her whole life turn against one another and she has to fight for her and her brother’s life. Alyssa is faced with extremely hard choices throughout the book and it
T “People can be monsters. Whether it’s just their actions, or whether it’s who they really are, it doesn’t matter. The result is the same.”
the point, it gives teachers even more to do. Teachers have upwards of 100 students, so that’s 100 more assignments to grade. But, these online assignments do have their benefits. I speak from experience when I say that I lost motivation last year when I found out that another snowstorm was coming. I didn’t work as hard as I could have. By having work on snow days, students can stay on track and keep their brains going for their classes that have online assignments. I propose that these assignments be extra credit instead of mandatory. I think this would be beneficial to both students and staff because students who can’t or don’t want to do the assignments aren’t penalized and students who do complete them are rewarded. If they are extra credit, then the teacher doesn’t have to put as much work into the assignments, and possibly fewer students will complete them. Overall, I don’t think that snow day assignments are completely bad, I just think they could use some tweaking.
Neal Shusterman, Dry
30
design by: Sami Binning
