These past few months, Bishop Feehan has held many Structured Alternative Learning Days, also known as SAL Days. On these days, teachers assign 2-30 minutes of digital work via Google Classroom for students to complete. It is expected that students complete this work as they would in the classroom and by the due date. However, there is some flexibility in case students have lost power and no longer have access to the internet at home.
According to Mr. Kane, principle of Feehan, “SAL days…give us more flexibility in keeping everyone safe during stormy conditions, while at the same time keeping the learning going.” Of course, SAL days will never equate to a full day in school, but they offer a good alternative.
SAL Days are not a perfect system however, as Mr. Kane went on to say, “I think they [SAL Days] become less effective when we have multiple days in a row–like this year…So they are super useful in one off situations, far less so for covering a week of school…” Mr. Kane also describes what he would change about SAL Days: “If I could change one thing, it would be the feeling some might have to use them more liberally…SAL days should be used sparingly and for real emergencies.”
In situations where SAL Days are used, it would be called by early evening the day before, in order to give teachers, parents, and students plenty of advance notice. In cases where a SAL Day would have been called too late, a traditional snow day would be had and the day would be made up at the end of the year. All in all, SAL Days offer a good short-term solution to dangerous conditions where school cannot be held, but remains a flawed system.
