![French teacher Marieme Toure serves a plate of the Senegalese food she prepared for her AP French Language and Culture class, to senior Faiza Syed. “I never had Senegalese food before,” Syed said. “I thought it was so cool that she was able to bring a part of her culture [and] background to us.”](https://theblazerrhs.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/IMG_0798-1200x906.jpeg)
![Junior Diya Arun stares out a window. For Arun, the winter season brings out the holiday blues. “ I think [the winter] has a negative effect on my mental health because I feel like the cold weather and people around me are also sadder [and] that affects me,” Arun said.](https://theblazerrhs.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/IMG_8047-1200x800.jpg)
![The Phoenix varsity volleyball team lines up for the national anthem. “We were more communicative [with each other] during this game, and I feel like we kept our energy up, especially after the first set,” senior Jessica Valdov said.](https://theblazerrhs.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/DSC_0202-1200x800.jpg)
Snow fills the town and leaves the air crisp and frigid, drawing people outside to take advantage of the winter weather. With snow falling occasionally throughout the winter time, people have made snow days into memorable days they will never forget.
Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) have a few snow days every year, with them having the first snowfall of the year. Because of snow, schools are usually canceled, leaving students to participate in fun winter activities at home. This year, LCPS had snow days Jan 6-9 and Jan 21.
Some students, such as freshman Nitya Polavarapu, found this extra break to be a chance to truly enjoy themselves and have fun. “I do believe the [snow day break] was beneficial to me since I was able to balance my work with fun activities,” Polavarapu said. “With around 20 days of break, [including winter break], I was able to do fun stuff with my friends and family.”
The first semester was loaded with plenty of work and assignments, but for freshman Hanan Ali, the snow day break came as an opportunity to quit procrastinating and focus on school work. “The extra days of break gave me some motivation to complete the assignments I was avoiding,” Ali said. The elongated winter break also served as more time for students to study for major tests without burning themselves out through the pressure of stress. “Regarding my academic life, I believe this break has helped me study even more and finish all of my assignments,” Polavarapu said. “Since there was a three-week break, this allowed me to finish my assignments and study for my upcoming tests without the stress of cramming.”
LCPS has no asynchronous learning plans, so making up schoolwork from snow days can be challenging. From an educational standpoint, teachers had to push back deadlines and lessons due to snow days. With the semester coming to an end, it was stressful figuring out new dates for assignments and assessments. “I had to check my calendar to see if it was possible to push back lessons or have to combine them,” psychology teacher Nicole Spage said.
As for student opinions on how teachers might view this break, they viewed it as both stress-inducing and relaxing at the same time. “From one perspective, teachers also enjoy longer breaks and snow days like students,” Polavarapu said. “However, from a different perspective, with four days of extra break, tests, and classwork had to be rearranged. In addition, the quarter is about to end, and with almost a week off before the quarter ends, that’s very stress-inducing for teachers to fit a week’s worth of materials and exams before the quarter ends.”
Overall, the snow day break at LCPS had its respective positives and negatives, depending on which perspective the situation was being viewed through. For students, it served as an extension of an already two-week break which gave them time to complete assignments and fully relax, and for teachers, it was a challenge in lesson planning and scheduling.
