Teachers Spend Snow Day Working and Relaxing

A snow day for students conjures up images of sleeping in, frolicking in the snow, getting in some sledding at Echo Lake and enjoying the luxury of an unexpected day off. And maybe some shoveling.

For Westfield's teachers, last Friday's snow day was different from what students imagined them to be doing on their day without students. Several of Westfield's teachers reported spending the day doing paperwork and planning ahead to teach this week. Others said they tried to take it easy and mix work and pleasure together during the week off.

Marie-Laure Hoffmann, a French teacher at Westfield High School, said after she received the early morning call that school was closed she settled in with a good book before tackling e-mails. Checking e-mail would not be the only work task on Hoffmann's plate for the day.

"I will be busy with school work so that I don't have to do any over the weekend: correct a set of tests, 2 sets of written paragraphs, write lesson plans for next week, complete interim comments online for each one of my students," she said the morning of the snow day.

Following this, Hoffmann did get some recreation in, taking a walk and cooking a bit, before visiting friends. She also was taking time to remember the snow days of old.

"My kids are now grown and living on their own," she said. "When they were little, we enjoyed playing in the snow and baking cookies."

Liz Green Schultz, a Spanish teacher at the high school, noted that with the hectic schedule in the school, she brings work home with her and wanted to concentrate her time on catching up on lesson plans, along with communicating with parents on student progress and colleagues on long term planning. Outside of school work, Green Schultz said she had to catch up on work at home during the day.

Green Schultz was not the only teacher using the day on personal work. Washington School teacher Kerri Anness reported that she spent the day mixing school work along with conducting research for her wedding. Anness, an assistant girls soccer coach, also fit in some shoveling.

At least two high school teachers reported getting in a relaxing day off. Bonnie Underwood, a Spanish teacher, and her husband, science teacher Chris Tafelski, were able to relax most of the day, including fitting in some card playing during the day.

Green Schultz noted that in between catching up on school and home work she was able to focus on a new hobby, bird watching. She has become known amongst WHS students for her love of watching the bird feeder in her yard and the snow day continued to allow her to follow bird patterns in weekday wintry weather, a luxury she doesn't have during the school day.

"I did however spend some time watching the snow and the bird feeder, something my students think I'm a complete loser for!" she said. "But I saw a bird I've never seen before so it was worth it! Still trying to figure out what it is."