Just because school is out doesn’t mean students can’t get a little work done.

Homework is taking virtual form at some area schools as teachers across Northwest Arkansas reach out to students.

Teachers from Fayetteville’s Prism Education Center were snowbound Monday night after the school’s three buildings closed at noon Thursday, said Misty Newcomb, executive director. As she talked with teachers about canceling school, she asked them about meeting with their students online the next day and the idea took off.

Teachers set up the meetings through Zoom and sent a link to parents so children could sign on. On Tuesday morning, kindergartners learned not to block the camera with fingers and toes and to center their faces on the screen. Fourth- through eighth-graders had an hour-long class preparing for their project presentations when school is back in session.

The online day was an experiment, Newcomb said.

“I do hope we get to do it again,” she said.

About 90 percent of the older students came to online class and about half the kindergarten through third-graders did. For Newcomb, the best part of the meetings wasn’t the class work, but the bridges she saw it building among students and between teachers and students. The meeting also stirred excitement for students about going back to school. Parents took to Facebook posting photos of their children chatting with classmates.

If the school was larger, the online visit probably wouldn’t have worked as well, Newcomb said. The center serves about 150 children from kindergarten through eighth grade and its preschool is for children 6 months and older. The private school has a year-round schedule with short holiday breaks, so getting behind is not a good option.

“It’s not like we can make up this time,” Newcomb said.

Providence Christian Academy hasn’t had to add snow days in more than five years because of efforts to keep students on track even with missed days, said Jason Ross, headmaster.

The school is based on the university model and parents co-teach their students at Providence. Students in the grammar school take classes two days a week: either Monday and Wednesday or Tuesday and Thursday. High school students take core classes Monday, Tuesday and Thursday with electives the other two days of the week.

While that means students haven’t missed as many days of school, teachers are still working to make sure they are ready for final exams, said Sandra Shell, second-grade teacher and parent of a junior high school and two high school students at Providence.

Although parents co-teach, new ideas are introduced in the classroom and at-home days are supposed to be review, Shell said. She planned to send home an assignment at the end of this week for second-graders to learn to make brownies using measurements. She sent the assignment early.

As a teacher, she’s glad students won’t be getting too far behind. As a parent it can be overwhelming to see different assignments for each child coming in from every class, Shell said.

One of her children’s teachers sent a practice exam to accompany the study guide. Another is making a test optional if students don’t need it for the grade. A little school now beats going until June, Shell said.

“As a parent I like that my kids have something to do after this many days at home,” Shell said.

Teachers at Rogers’ New Technology High School were posting study guides this week in hopes students will be ready for finals when school returns to its normal schedule.

Students were issued laptops at the beginning of the school year and assignments are posted online every school day, said Lance Arbuckle, director. Part of the school’s vision is for students to claim their part in the educational process, he said.

Teacher Maria Akehurst continued posting assignments even after the snow kicked in. Akehurst said Tuesday students are asking her about grades, and if she got the assignment they’d been working on for weeks that was due Friday in her global communication class. Parents are also emailing questions. The online connectivity doesn’t replace the classroom, but it helps, Akehurst said.

“There’s kids out there who are wanting to get their stuff done and know the semester is ending,” Akehurst said.

“There’s plenty of things for them to be doing without me in the classroom with them,” said Tiffany Harris, a science teacher at the school.

Harris said her students are well-versed in submitting their work online through the charter school’s portal and that didn’t stop with the weather.

“Before we even had our snow day, I had students asking if we would still have class,” Harris said.

The charter school is part of the Rogers School District and will follow the district make-up days. Arbuckle said he looks at it as students getting in a couple extra days of school. The work teachers put in early in the year to connect students and parents paid off in their ability to reach them during the winter weather. The infrastructure has to be there to make the system work, he said.

“It has to be something you just don’t start on a snow day,” Arbuckle said.