Share your thoughts on 'blizzard bags'

Share your thoughts on 'blizzard bags'


Your input will help inform the MTA's future decisions

We’d like to get feedback from MTA members about what the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education refers to as “alternative structured learning day programs” — but you probably call “blizzard bags.”

The idea behind “blizzard bags” and similar programs is to provide an alternative to making up school days missed due to weather disruptions or other unplanned school closures. The MTA Board has some serious concerns about blizzard bags. But not everyone in our union agrees. That’s where your voice comes in.

First, please read the New Business Item adopted several months ago by the Board, which voted to request that local associations reject blizzard bags. It states: “The concept of ‘blizzard bags’ and other online alternatives to personal contact in the classroom de-professionalizes teaching and reduces the human interaction and collective experience of a classroom to e-mail communication and trivial ‘worksheet’ types of educational tasks.”

Here are some things to think about as you form your response:

Help guide our activism on this matter by sharing your thoughts. The deadline is Friday, March 15. A sampling of the responses we receive will be posted on the MTA website.