OWASSO, Okla. — An Owasso assistant principal turned her front yard into a frozen classroom, teaching students from inside a homemade igloo during recent snow days that forced schools to switch to distance learning.
Jacqueline Pope, assistant principal at Morrow Elementary, spent five days with her husband building the ice structure in their front yard. The creative educator then used the igloo as her virtual classroom backdrop, captivating students and parents alike during online lessons.
"Igloos there, you kind of see them all over social media, families playing in the snow, making them, and so I was like, why not?" Pope said. "It was just kind of born from a last-minute, hey, it's gonna be cold, let's do this," Pope said.
The construction process involved freezing individual bricks and mixing snow and water to create mortar. Pope and her husband placed each brick carefully, adding packed snow to the sides before the mixture froze together, building the structure in a spiral pattern.
During virtual classes, Pope incorporated educational content on igloos, teaching students how snow forms and explaining the differences between snow igloos and ice igloos.
"We did little lessons on how snow, you know, occurs, how igloos are made, the difference between a snow igloo and my ice igloo because they're vastly different," Pope said.
The unique classroom setting engaged more than just students. Parents and siblings appeared in the background of video calls, drawn in by the novelty of the frozen learning environment.
"There were parents coming in the background of their screens and other siblings that were all engaged," Pope said.
Pope views the igloo classroom as an innovative way to connect with students during Oklahoma's rare winter weather events.
"Being able to have this distance learning opportunity and teach them about different, neat things that they might not be exposed to is a fantastic opportunity for them and for the teachers," Pope said.
The assistant principal is already planning improvements for next winter after seeing other community members build their own igloos.
"I have seen several other igloos throughout our community that people have posted online, and they are fantastic, and so I feel like I have to up my game a little bit," Pope said. "I mean, it might need to be a little taller next year."
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