Snow Days Online

So we have a potentially major snow storm coming to DC this week.  I am thankful that we have the technology to make up for not having school, esp. in classes like AP or IB ones where time can't really be missed and your students are more likely to do the work at home.  Of course my online students get to work no matter the weather.  So how can you get your brick and mortar students to work on a snow day.

1. For my online kids I use Blackboard Collaborate so I would create a shell for the brick and mortar students as well and set an agreed upon time to meet which I reminded them about a few days before a snow storm. 
2. If you don't have something like Blackboard Collaborate you could you a Google Plus Hangout live stream where you could send a link to your students and they could watch a live lecture (here's how).    You could then use Today's Meet to send a link to students and you could see their live questions.   You would be able to do this by splitting your screen. 
3. You can also decide not to meet online and just send an assignment.  In either case I give them a flipped video to watch (such as above)and often a "problem set" for which I go over a few of them in the online session with them.  Sometimes I also make a video the night before when I know for sure we aren't having school so it is perfectly timed for the work we are doing. 
4. I communicated with the kids by using Remind, (more on that coming in a post in a few days) Blackboard and even using my gradebook which has all of the kids' emails.  For the Remind message I used a shortened tinyurl (tinyurl.com/fcpscoldday) which linked a Google Drive e-sheet so I didn't have to text the kids multiple times with the assignments. 

All of this means that you can keep to the somewhat demanding schedule you might have for AP/IB kids.  Unfortunately it doesn't work as well for kids who are not in those classes.