During the Second Trimester at Grand Ledge High School (GLHS), most students are hoping for an email stating that there will be a snow day. During the Second trimester of school which falls between the winter months of Michigan, it is a common thing to hear students talking about rumors of a snow day. But are these snow days causing a setback for the curriculum?

   With multiple snow days week after week, many concerns have been raised about all the material that needs to be taught before the final exams, which are during the first full week of March. While this is a rising concern for some, College Prep Math and Algebra 2 Teacher Melissa Goodrich believes that her classes will still be able to cover all the materials before the trimester ends.    

   “So far, we are still on track to get all the material in before the end of the trimester. The biggest drawback I’ve found is that it affects the placements of tests. We’ve had to push some tests back and they’ve fallen after long weekends like five-day breaks so that has been challenging,” Goodrich said. 

   With finals nearing soon, many students have been feeling stressed due to the amount of work that might need to be completed before the end of the trimester. Coming back to school after long breaks and multiple snow days can be a major factor in why students’ productivity during class is decreasing. To combat this many teachers and students have appeared to use methods of multitasking to avoid taking up more days to cover materials in classes and increase productivity. But this method might not be foolproof, instead of increasing motivation it might be doing the opposite. 

  “I feel that my productivity is down after a snow day and I cannot focus after because it feels like [Teachers] are trying to rush and they’re trying to cram [classwork/materials] into certain classes,” sophomore Addison Bouwens said. 

     While Snow Days are a major part of Michigan winters and it is hard to avoid them. This often leads to forcing teachers to change lesson plans or move schedules around to make it through the most important parts of a class’s curriculum. This might lead to review days, projects, assignments, and more being cut or added. SAT Skills and Algebra 2 Teacher Rachel Hess explains the changes she has had to make. 

  “For my Algebra 1 class, I have just cut some quizzes shorter so we don’t have to have a full day review, but instead do half day review and half day quiz,” Hess said. 

  Hess also explained how multiple absences and snow days are causing scheduling problems for students who are unable to make up or retake tests and quizzes. 

  “It’s a big divide, those who struggle with absences the snow days have made it much worse because they can’t get back on track like they’ll schedule to retake a test and then they can’t make it because of the snow days, but for the most part I think we’re okay,” Hess said.