It’s safe to say that students don’t learn much on AMI days—and in part, it’s not their fault, nor the teachers. The format for AMI days needs to be changed, but it’s been a struggle for the past few years to create something that works for administrators, teachers, parents and students at the same time.
Why It Makes Sense:
Snow causes the community to shut down whether we like it or not. Planes can’t fly, cars can’t drive, and kids can’t get to school. Instead of simply adding a day to the end of the school year or just losing a day of work to make snowmen and go sledding, technology has allowed us to access assignments online.
This was vital during the years of COVID, as students could complete an entire year of school without ever stepping foot inside the classroom. Post-pandemic, we have realized that the same principle can be applied to individual snow days. In recent years, there has been a push for Alternative Method of Instruction (AMI) days in FHSD to prevent the school year from ending later than planned and to allow classes to continue like normal.
AMI days count as attendance for each student and encourage them to stay ahead on their work. Everything is uniform across the district and even between classes. Previously, some teachers would assign more amounts of work for their students than others, so district- or at least school-wide assignments ensure that students are fairly given work to do during the day at home.
Why It Doesn’t Work:
Our current AMI structure only requires a signature on a piece of paper to count as attendance and assignment completion for each student. This system is both easily manipulable and ineffective for students and teachers alike. Each student is trusted to do simple assignments, although not for their classes— instead, a simple task per subject that is likely unrelated to anything they’re actually doing in class. Some students may take advantage of this system, forfeiting any work while getting their paper signed to say they’ve done so.
Snow days are more fun that way, but from an academic perspective, grades and attendance will likely take a hit. Students in AP classes are at a disadvantage because they may get behind on scheduled classwork—and even if the classwork is pushed back, the test is not.
Solution:
AMI days should not be removed from our school district, but modifying the required work will provide students with an opportunity to learn something actually relevant.
Instead of making high school students count the number of points on a snowflake, it would be better to teach them life skills that will be helpful outside of school. This could be things like learning how to follow a recipe, change a tire, or what kind of taxes and utilities they can expect to pay in the future. This would not require teachers to create any extra assignments, and rather than being busy work that doesn’t impact what students are learning, it can be a life lesson that students actually find useful.
Another option would be to educate students on current world events and encourage them to think about what’s happening in the world outside of their immediate surroundings. Provide them with several unbiased sources to educate them on important issues within our community, state, country and world, which will help to raise a generation of more knowledgeable young adults that can share their voice and opinion on important issues. These assignments would be the same district-wide, providing uniformity and ease for grading and attendance.
While this doesn’t solve the issue of students, especially those in AP classes, falling behind, it is at least a step in the right direction to providing a learning environment for students.
There will always be some students who don’t do the work, and some that get credit without actually doing anything. But for those who complete the assignments, it would be more beneficial in the long run to teach students something they will carry into their future instead of giving them grade school assignments from years past.
