Snow day and winter break planning in Maryland

Baltimore has been hit with a pretty significant blizzard, the biggest snowfall I've seen here since my second winter here, in 2002-2003. We were hit with around 20 inches of snow today. I sat at home like a shut-in, savoring the forced relaxation, cleaning the house, and watching a lot of The Shield. Tomorrow I'll be productive and start on the stack of papers that I have to grade.

Chances are that on Monday, school will be canceled. I'm already pretty bummed about going back to school next week. All the schools in Michigan are out already, but it seems all the schools in Maryland pretty much are staying through the 23rd. I'm not sure why, as not a whole of learning will occur in those three days, and I'm not sure what harm there is in giving everyone the two weeks off. Even without the snow, the travel on the night of the 23rd or all day on the 24th will be tough.

Now with the expected snow day, and perhaps more, next week will be an even rougher go of it. The days are rough because you don't want to plan too much, because attendance and attention will be poor, but you don't want to plan too little, because then behavior will be poor. Our school is magnifying the problem by making the holiday assemblies on Tuesday instead of Wednesday, a move that sends the messages that students aren't really expected to come on the Wednesday and thus Wednesday will be more problematic than it would have been otherwise. Now, I'm thinking we'll have school on Tuesday and Wednesday, but horrible attendance, so I'm not sure what to do. My planned quizzes are probably to be thrown out the window.

I'd be fine if Dr. Alonzo just sent out a message tomorrow canceling school for the rest of the week. Let me start my sojourn to Michigan a little early and not make me endure the mockery of education that the week will be.