“The snow days make school incredibly stressful. Teachers start to cram information and we play this game of memorizing information instead of learning information in order to keep up.” Cheyanne Boss

The snow days that occurred over the past few weeks put stress and tension on the academic life here at Jenison high school. Many people’s planning turned upside down by the weather and now teachers work to cram lessons in time to meet the deadlines of the end of the year. Students scramble to keep up. Many people wonder if the snow days turned into events that gave students a chance to catch up, or if they will just cause problems for students and staff in the long run.

The snow days added stress to Jenison student’s lives. Even though the snow days were a nice break from school, they could cause more harm than good.  “I think that the snow days were a good break from school, but AP classes are more stressful now with teachers stacking work to catch up or having students learn on their own to get through content quicker.” (Jenna Boelkens) a Junior here at Jenison High school said when asked about the topic. Many students and staff have felt the added pressure of the fewer days available. Many teachers scrambled with their lessons that they planned out months ahead of time. The teachers try to meet their requirements and test on the elements that they need to test on.

Yet a large portion of the students struggle to keep up with the added pressure and stress.

 Another major issue occurring due to show days here at Jenison-AP classes. AP classes help students achieve college credit at a lower price in exchange for a heavier course load. Many students choose to take a number of AP classes their Junior and senior year in order to whittle down their college tuition one class at a time. These tests have to follow a set scheduled for a certain date. The tests loom ahead no matter what the circumstances. It doesn’t matter to the testing center whether or not the students learn the information in the time given. Many of the AP teachers  worry about how the snow days will affect the scores of the AP tests and go through lengthy measures to try to prevent the scores from dropping.

Many of the AP teachers began to assign extensive amounts of homework over break and planned for students to teach themselves the lessons over the time that they had. Even though this appears like a good idea, this however could invoke counterproductive results. “There wasn’t much instruction so some of it was not learned correctly and or we were tested on it when we got back. This caused students to get poor grades for not knowing explicitly what we were learning” Jenna Boelkens explained to me.The snow days have with out a doubt put everyone at a setback in the AP department.

Although many students appear stressed when asked about the snow days, other students believe that the snow days did in fact help their academics. They say that it gave them time to work on all of their class work. Erica Buhk, a senior at Jenison said, “ I enjoyed the snow days. Since I take so many advanced classes, a five days school week is really long. To have a day where I do not have to go in to school breaks up the monotony and allowed me to get some extra sleep. I do not think that the snow days affect my academics in one way or another, but I do think the way that some teachers handled the missed days was not effective.”

“I do not think that the snow days affect my academics in one way or another, but I do think the way that some teachers handled the missed days was not effective.”(Erica Buhk)

Still the snow days have become a leading topic among many students at the High School.

The past few weeks inconvenience both the students and the staff, yet we do know that all of the snow day call happened for the safety of the staff and students. One student I interviewed couldn’t agree more   “I believe that the snow days were a good thing for the safety of the students and staff members at the schools. Although, I do think that the snow days made it more complicated in the long run, but given the situation I think the snow days were a wise decision,” (Emily Potter). Everyone appears to agree on the same topics the snow days came as a necessary, and enjoyable, although, now we experience the effects of the events. Downside occur in every good situation, and the stress in school effect everyone and we have to learn to live with because we had so many days off of school.

No matter who you talk to in the Jenison High school, everyone will be able to tell you how this Michigan weather has made Jenison High School students lives more eventful. The snow days impacted the ways that the teachers teach their lessons, and the way that the students learn the material. Even though the weeks off of school appeared like a breath of fresh air, necessary through the bitter winter weather, every single citizen of Jenison High school learn to cope with the side effects.