The stereotypical assignment when students return from lollygagging through the summer is to write about what they did over the previous three months. Charlie Brown always had to do this and would ponder whether to write about yet another losing baseball season or his longing for the cute little red-headed girl.
However, I have never given my English students this assignment. Sure, they write about personal experiences, but I don’t feel a need to read about how much time they spent on Facebook or in front of a video console. But what do teachers do on their summer vacation?
My neighbor to the south often refers to how nice it must be as a teacher with these summer months off in addition to the periodic breaks throughout the school year. In reality, many teachers spend their summers involved in a lot of educational work.
Some teachers take classes to learn about new concepts in education or to expand their knowledge of an existing area. Others go to workshops to collaborate with other educators; it’s nice to leave the shell of our classrooms to interact with others in our field. Most teachers spend at least part of the summer working on curriculum.
A good teacher does not just roll over to the file cabinet and pull out the exact same thing from every other year. Times change, students change, and so must educators. Sure, I’ve taught Tom Sawyer every year I’ve been here and can’t foresee a time I wouldn’t teach Mark Twain’s classic, but I certainly don’t approach it the same way as I did when I began teaching.
This is how I spend parts of my summer vacation, between hauling my kids all over for activities. I often make notes in my files of ideas as I teach and changes to contemplate for the next year. The summer is a good time to reflect on those and figure out ways to improve. Again, the lesson plan might be a good idea, but it needs tweaks to make it better.
This past summer, I spent many hours between my laptop and my new iPad creating curriculum for our 1:1 initiative for our 8th-graders. This was a tremendous undertaking to look at how my materials would translate to this device. I created textbooks based on materials I used and tested out apps that will make my classroom much more tree friendly.
Do we have free time in the summer, perhaps more than many other jobs? Sure, but know that teachers spend more time thinking about the upcoming school year than you might think. We get time off from all of your kids, but after the summer with them, many of you can’t wait to send them back to us, and it should be easy to understand why we need that break: safety for all!
Word of the Week: This week’s word is vivacious. Vivacious means lively in conduct, as in, “The vivacious students flooded back, eager to begin the new school year.” Impress your friends and confuse your enemies!