Looks like Mr. Weather says you have some snow coming. I went to grad school out East, and I know that in places where it snows regularly, it's not a cause for canceling class - it's a cause for leaving for class early so you can get there on time. But how about y'all south of the Mason-Dixon? Will you have a day off from classes tomorrow? If so, how will you handle it - skip some stuff? Teacher faster, dang it? Put stuff on your LMS?
We here in Abilene want to know.
Dr. Amelia
Our dean cancelled Friday classes on Wednesday evening! Bless him!
ReplyDeleteOur President canceled today's classes yesterday afternoon. My husband works for the state and they closed at about 7 AM.
ReplyDeleteour previous president was from Canada, and he NEVER canceled classes. and I wonder seriously if that didn't come to play when the school hired the current president--who is from a very warm country.....
ReplyDeleteOur current one is from a very warm place.
DeleteWaiting for his retirement is a kind of purgatory.
I'm not in the East, really. But I am in a place where is snows often enough that people should have some idea what to do about it but rarely enough that they panic anyway.
ReplyDeleteThe canceling of school here is sporadic and to most people unpredictable. However, I know exactly how the decision is made: somebody keeps a sharp eye on my lab and night-class schedule and cancels class whenever it will do disproportionate damage to my learning goals. That must be it, there is no other way to explain the last three years.
I'm a big fan of putting stuff up on the LMS and keeping going, especially when it's only the second week of classes. I've seen a few too many late-April/early-May train wrecks to think that getting behind this early is no big deal (and I also can't afford for things to bunch up in any particular part of the semester this semester).
ReplyDeleteOf course, since I teach the same class online (with full freedom of course/assignment design, etc.), I often already have an online version of the planned in-class activity more or less ready to go. So far, I've used that approach to keep two face to face sections from getting out of sync (a small snowfall this week created the dread situation where the first class of the morning is lost to a snow delay, while the second one meets, and the two sections are running on a combined LMS site, and I really, really don't want to have to create two versions of everything).
We'll see what this weekend/early week brings. If we have not only snow-covered roads but also widespread power outages (as seems possible), that will add a new wrinkle (online options don't work so well when the university servers and/or many students' internet connections are down). There is some flex in the schedule, and I may have to use it, but I'm reluctant to do so so soon (and even more reluctant to spend hours on the essentially clerical task of adjusting and readjusting deadlines on multiple course materials, especially since such work already seems to be taking up far too much of my "teaching" time).
At least in my observation, the further south you go on the east coast (at least until you get somewhere south of about Atlanta), the more likely it is that you'll have to deal with the effects of ice storms, which may be worse, in some ways, than snow storms. Not only is driving extremely hazardous, but ice tends to take out power lines. Global warming is likely to push this phenomenon northward (and make all storms more extreme). Fun.
DeleteEnjoying a long weekend with wife and doggies...
ReplyDeleteLending my snow brush to the owner of the way-too-big-for-an-apartment-size-parking-space truck that I've been maneuvering around to get to my own space all fall -- who turned out to be an early-20ish Asian guy, so there's one stereotype shattered. On the other hand, he didn't have his own snow brush, which confirmed a few stereotypes about "kids today" and suburban truck owners (I'm pretty suburban myself, but grew up close enough to the suburban/rural interface to expect truck owners to come equipped not only with a snow brush suitable for their vehicle, but also a tow chain and maybe a plowing rig as well).
ReplyDelete