Summer is here. Finally. How many times this year did you utter the phrases, “I will do that over summer break” or “I can’t wait until summer gets here so I can….”?
Now is your time to catch up on all that you put off during the last nine months. You many have created a list of things to do this summer. If so, we have just a few more to add to your list. If you haven’t created a list of summer to-do’s because you don’t want to structure your break, we offer you these suggestions to do on your own time:
1.Read a book for pleasure. You spend nine months of the year touting the benefits of reading for knowledge and pleasure. However, lesson planning, committee meetings, and all of your other obligations may have left you with little time for pleasure reading yourself. Some of you have reading lists or piles of books just waiting to be read. If you’re not sure where to begin, ask a friend with similar reading tastes. Or, go to Amazon and search for some of the books you have already enjoyed and Amazon will give you suggestions based on your reading habits. If you haven’t already checked out Goodreads.com, take a look. Goodreads gives reviews, great suggestions, and even lets you know what your friends are reading. It is a great way to keep track of your reading. Finally, check out the hundreds of book lists on Pinterest. While you are there, be sure to follow our Pinterest page!
2. Read a book for professional development. This should NOT be the book about the newest curriculum that your employer told you to read over the summer. Think about what you would really like to know more about to become a better teacher. Then, search out information on this topic (see suggestions in #1 above) and find the book that seems like it would give you the most useful information in the format you would most enjoy. Want to know more about the adolescents you are teaching? We suggest Age of Opportunity- Lessons from the New Science of Adolescence by Laurence Steinberg. Want to better understand how to incorporated differentiated instruction? We suggest anything by Carol Tomlinson. Want to know more about the growth mindset idea? Read Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck. There are millions of resources out there to help you in your classroom. Find at least one that appeals to you.
3. Spend quality time with your family. You spend long hours during the school year making sure other people’s children are learning, engaged, and well-taken care of. At times, that can mean putting the needs of your own family in second place. Now is your chance to show your family how much fun you can be when you aren’t buried under school responsibilities. Read a chapter a day of a great novel while sitting on a backyard swing. Take a trip to the zoo, the aquarium or a museum. Go camping, explore nature and eat your fill of s’mores. Be intentional about building memories with your family because time goes too quickly in the summer.
4.Spend time with a friend who is NOT a teacher. This is not to say that having teacher-friends is bad. In fact, our teacher-friends are our support during the school year and we couldn’t survive without them. However, take time this summer to have work-related conversations with someone outside of education. What are their challenges at work? What are their successes? This will give you a broader world perspective about the workforce that you don’t have the chance to see between August and June. In many other professions, people get lunch breaks and leave their offices to have lunch with other professionals in different fields. They may even get to have these conversations on golf courses in the middle of a work-day Tuesday (can you imagine?). Professionals with these networking opportunities regularly get to see a different perspective. They learn things from these professional conversations that they can take back to make changes in their own job. Teachers rarely get to “network” with anyone outside of their district, let alone their building. Take the opportunity this summer to have these conversations with a non-teacher friend. You may be surprised at how much you learn about your own job and the ideas you may gather for your school by talking to people in other professions.
5. Relax. Sit outside and drink a lemonade. Get a massage or a pedicure. Take a yoga class…or a nap. Whatever it is that says relaxation to you- do it, you’ve earned it!
Happy Summer,
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