Snow days traditionally meant that students had no academic obligations for 24 hours. Now, with the introduction of Alternative Methods of Learning (AMI days), students will have preassigned work to complete while at home.
“The thing about snow days is that they’re supposed to be a fun thing that you just get. While I realize that work still needs to be done, most school years we don’t have more than three or four snow days,” senior Charlotte Wilhelm said.
AMI days for up to 36 hours of time per school year began in Missouri during the 2020-21 school year, to better work around the COVID-19 pandemic. After obtaining feedback from parents and district staff committees, Howell will institute the practice this year for snow days 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10. Snow days 1, 2, 3, and 4 are built into the calendar and will not be made up.
“In Waynesville, we’d had AMI days since the pandemic, but ours were a little bit different,” drama teacher Charles Davis said. “We would have a snow day, and then the second consecutive snow day would be AMI all the way through. The big thing about it was that everything had to be online.”
The goal of the AMI practice is to allow students to complete work at home during a snow day so that day does not need to be made up as a day of school later. Teachers will create paper copies of assignments, give them to students in advance of inclement weather, and provide instructions on what to complete on those paper copies if the AMI snow day was to occur. Credit for the work and attendance for the AMI snow day will be marked when students return to school and turn in the work their teachers assigned.
“I understand that it fwe have two weeks of snow or ice we can’t just stop teaching material. I feel there is a great need for AMI days, we just need to ensure we execute them in a way where no one is confused about what is expected of them.”
— Drama teacher Charles Davis
Since their announcement, the AMI days have received mixed reactions. However, there is a positive way to look at the news.
“I think AMI days are useful because we won’t get so far behind on school days, and they help us determine our work ethic on our own by testing us to see if we will actually do the work or not,” senior Layla Woods said.
More information can be found on the Francis Howell School District website.