The Right Number of Snow Days

I have taught in both Tulsa, Oklahoma and Raleigh, NC.  Neither of these areas gets a lot of snow.  That means things pretty much shut down whenever it does snow.

I'm going to tell you a secret.  Teachers love the first snow day more than the students do.  We do a little dance when the call comes in.  We also really like the second snow day.

After that - not so much.  Then, we start worrying about getting behind and make up days.  Don't fall for the line "built into the calendar" as that is a phrase without meaning.  We start thinking about when we will move tests to and what can be reasonably skipped.  When we come back, we move really quickly through the material.

Students probably like as many snow days as possible, but there does reach a point where it is going to be more difficult for them than it would have been.  My school assigns things to AP students digitally on snow days, and they tell me it is more work than what they get at school.  Last year, we had a total of 7 snow days.  That was bonkers.  There were entire chapters we didn't get to in all of my classes.  This year, we are coming off of three in a row (on a Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday).  I'm good now.  I don't need any more.  I know I don't have any control over it; but if I did, I'd say let's go ahead and have spring now.

The perfect number of snow days is 2 - in a row if possible.  If there must be a third, it should be a couple of weeks later.