In addition to the difficulties faced by teachers in covering all of the necessary material, the ice storm is also challenging students in preparing for the semester finals.

“I would feel like it’s really gotten faster for people,” senior Erin Vatteroni said. “You’re just trying to do it too fast that some people can’t learn what they need to learn, and not really having that ability to understand exactly why you’re doing something.”

The pressures of the time lost from the ice and the shortened grading period constituted a challenge to overcome. While some students dealt with this with relative ease, others required a little bit more adaptation.

“[Things I did to adapt were] To start making lists of things that I need to do,” Vatteroni said. “Figure out what I don’t understand and what I do understand of all that things I’ve learned so far in this semester.”

Through adjustment, it has become possible for students to overcome the lessened class time and be more prepared for the end of the semester.

“It really made me have to think of what I need to do to get better at it,” Vatteroni said.”It really has made me think ahead of what I need to do to improve on the learning.”

Some teachers also look at the lost time as an adjustment in speed.

“I don’t think it changes how the student gets information,” teacher Tami Parker said. “Because if there’s inclement weather, what it means is that they’re still going to get the information from the teacher; from the teacher’s classroom in whatever way he or she would have presented that anyway. What might happen is that you will have maybe two days put together in one day; a teacher may decide to shorten a lesson or to combine concepts, so they’ll have to move a little more quickly to get the information across.”

Other instructors have a more relaxed outlook towards the inclement weather.

“I love snow days,” teacher Homa Lewis said. “I think it’s a sign from the universe that we need to rest and calm down, and I don’t think students should be forced to make up work; to do extra work.”

In some ways, the process has taught helpful lessons for the future.

“It will help me be prepared for when I’m in college,” Vatteroni said. “When they’re trying to get you prepared for finals.”