It’s that time of year again when students and teachers are glued to some form of media to check the weather and hope for a big storm. 
When I was little, I remember learning the “snow dance” and in particular I remember in elementary school when we must have had some sort of assembly, a teacher taught all of us how to perform the snow dance. I remember thinking that he must have some kind of magical powers because amazingly enough, we had a snow day the next day. Being young and naive, it never entered my mind that maybe he had checked the weather reports before that assembly.
There are two things that I really find rather fascinating about snow days: the debate about making up those days at the end of the year and also the way in which students are informed these days. In this post, I will focus on the latter.
Back in the day, we listened to the local radio station or watched the TV. While these are still common forms of notification for snow days, and maybe even among the most popular, a growing number of our youth are relying on alternative forms of media to obtain this information. Kids are glued to Facebook and increasingly to Twitter. Many districts and media outlets are using Twitter to inform the public about things such as snow days. Another popular form of communication is the text message that is sent out to all that sign up upon cancellation of school.
How do you obtain information on school cancellations and such?
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I am strongly of the opinion that free airwave broadcast media (read that as radio) is still the way to go for this information. The free broadcast medium of television is threatened by extinction. My concern about internet mode of communication on this issue is in regards to the fact that not everyone has or can afford internet services; ditto for any other pay for service electronic communication, including telephones.