Thousands of North Dakota students spend snow day in virtual classroom

BISMARCK, N.D. (KFYR) - The pandemic taught us all new ways to do things.

Most of us are now set up to work from home if we need to, and our kids are all too familiar with online learning.

So, while some kids do have a traditional snow day today, many across North Dakota are still in the classroom, virtually.

The Hintz sisters got up early to tackle their schoolwork. They are just three of the thousands of Bismarck Public Schools’ students spending this snowy day in a virtual classroom.

Fifth grader Veda Hintz is happy to do her schoolwork in her pajamas, but she’d still rather be in her classroom.

“I like my teacher and I can see my friends,” she said.

Beulah students learned they’d have another virtual learning day on TikTok.

“It connects with kids and kids seem to like it,” said Beulah superintendent Travis Jordan.

He says they decided to have virtual days because they had plenty of time to prepare.

“We met as an admin team early last week when we first heard about this and said, ‘We should just start preparing our teachers and our community for virtual learning,’ and so we did,” he explained.

While he knows virtual learning isn’t ideal, he says there are some benefits to days like this.

“The teacher has more opportunities to have one on one discussions with students or even small group discussions without disruptions,” explained Jordan. “It gives parents an opportunity to become engaged in their children’s learning.”

For Superintendent Jordan, that means spending time with his own kids, working on fourth grade and kindergarten schoolwork and hoping he doesn’t have to make any more TikTok videos anytime soon.

Superintendent Travis Jordan says if the weather doesn’t improve, Beulah will have another virtual day Thursday.

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