Summer Goals

As the year that would never end finally came a close, one of the tasks I had to check out was to review my Professional Growth Plan.  I'm not sure if other professions require this level of introspection on a yearly basis, but at my school, we examine goals in a variety of categories, spiritual, relational, professional development, and technology use in pedagogy.  One of the things they ask us to do is to choose a word that we would like to focus on for the following year.  In the past, I have chosen words like Depth and Enjoy.  Last year, I chose the word Trust.  

The word I have chosen for next year is Restore.  This year was a lot of things, but most of all, it was exhausting.  I don't mean tiring (although it certainly was that).  I mean exhausting in the sense of depletion.  Teachers were drained of physical energy, mental energy, emotional energy without the social aspects that usually refill those reservoirs.  I chose the word Restore as a way of thinking about stocking back up on those resources.  To that end, I am also structuring my summer goals (which I always set to keep summer from slipping away while I just watch TV) around renewing some of what became depleted.

1.  Getting my brain back - For me, one of the things that occurred from the lack of physical contact during the lockdown was structural brain changes (I'm trying to avoid saying the phrase brain damage) resulting from a lack of oxytocin.  From March to June of 2020, the only other being I physically touched was my cat.  From June of 2020 until March of 2021, I was still only engaging in physical contact with my mom.  After vaccination, I started touching people a bit more, the occasional pat on the back or punch to the arm; but it wasn't until two weeks ago that I started having regular contact, hugging friends and students.  That lack of oxytocin has created some cognitive issues, mostly slow processing (kind of a brain fog) and searching for words (mostly people's last names).  For that reason, I am going to do a lot of mental weight lifting this summer.  I have a large stack of books on a variety of topics, both fiction and non-fiction; and I am starting with Tolkien.  I have already started The Hobbit, and I hope to get through at least one of the Lord of the Rings books in addition to other reading (The Stuff You Should Know book that's been waiting to be read since November, a book on church history I have had for a year and finally started reading last week, a few books about learning, and some novels).

2.  Physical Health - While I was careful not to eat poorly throughout the pandemic and did not gain weight from it, I know the stress under which I have been operating for the past year has taken a physical toll.  I first noticed it when I gave blood last September.  My blood pressure was higher than it has ever been, and it has been high (for me) every time that I have given blood since.  To that end, I have to do some aerobic activity to bring it back down.  I have been clenching my jaw at night since August 3rd.  My Vitamin D level got pretty low this winter, so I want to get back to long outdoor walks.  Also, at 45, I feel like it important to build muscle strength, so I'm doing a little weightlifting, including a full box of yearbooks so that, by next year's distribution day, it won't feel as strenuous loading those into the car.

3. Working on my House - School required all of my thought and energy in the past year, so my house got very little attention.  I've got some home repairs to do, and some of my walks will be to Home Depot for the tools I need to do that.

4. Reacquainting Myself with Public Spaces - This morning, I went to Walmart for only the third time since January of 2020, and it gave me just a little anxiety, not because I'm worried about the virus, but because I just haven't spent much time around strangers (or anyone outside of my family and school people) in a long time.  I know when I go to camp in July that I will have to make 6 or 7 trips to Walmart, so I need to reacclimate myself to this store.  I have only been in a restaurant three times, and I haven't been to church in person because we were supposed to register and sit with our bubble.  That would have meant me surrounded by six empty seats, which felt silly because a six-person bubble could have been in the space I was taking up alone.  That requirement has now been lifted, so I plan to return to church in person next week.  Many of my walks this summer are going to be public spaces, just so I can get back being in them.  

5.  School videos - For some time, I have thought that it might be good to have some videos for students to review while doing homework or to pull from on a day when I have a sub or to do a flipped lesson.  I had never done it because setting up and familiarizing myself with the tech I would need was time-consuming.  This year, doing everything online meant I had to develop familiarity with many tools.  I started making some of these videos on Memorial day weekend, and I have been making 1-3 each day (some are more complicated than others) ever since.  I will be able to begin school next year with a decent pool from which to draw different types of lessons, reviews, and help for struggling students.

This is what I have chosen for myself, and I do not expect it from anyone else.  You may have decided that recovery from this year looks like playing Fortnite with your kids all summer.  You might want to binge Seinfeld.  You might want to train for a marathon.  All of that is fine, but I would say that whatever you decide, be intentional about the goals you want to meet.  For you, it may be catching up with your family or allowing yourself to do nothing for an hour a day.  What do you want to restore this summer?  Design your days around that, so you don't enter August 2021 as depleted as you are right now. Get some rest.

Productive Summer Days

If you ask ten different teachers what they are going to do with their summer, you will likely get ten different answers.  We all approach it differently, based on our life circumstances and our philosophies.  Some want to supplement their income, so they take on summer jobs or tutoring.  Those with children will approach it differently than those without.  Some believe it is a time for professional development and preparing for the next school year while others believe they should do nothing but rest.  The following is how I approach summer days, but, as I tell my students, it is "a way" not "the way" to do it.

By nature, I'm a planner and a goal setter.  This looks different during the summer than it does during the school year, but I have to make some plans in order to keep one day from blurring into the next.  I don't want to wake up on the first of August and realize I didn't do anything.  I divide my goals into four categories, reading, exercising, school-prep, and home projects.  Then, I devote some time each day to each category.

Reading - I love to read, but the school year provides very little time for pleasure reading.  I do well to get two books read during the school year, and usually at least one of those is for school.  During early May, I make a list of books I want to read during the summer.  Some of those are professional development books.  This year, those are The Power of Moments, Fantastic Failures, and Powerful Teaching.  There are a few others on my list (The Left Brain Speaks, the Right Brain Laughs and Faking It come to mind), but I don't want ALL of my summer reading to be professional, so I also read some things just for fun.  On that list are a couple of Dean Koontz novels, some Sherlock Holmes stories, and Captured by the Labyrinth, a book about Sarah Winchester and the house she built out of her guilt over the people killed by the Winchester Rifle and her fear of their ghosts.  What I'm reading today is not even on my list.  I heard so many people talk about Educated that I let it jump in line.  I'm a planner, but I'm not rigid about it.

Exercise - One of the other things I rarely have time to accomplish during the school year is exercise.  I start the school year with good intentions about doing a little every day, but it rarely happens.  During summer, however, my car remains parked, and I walk everywhere.  As soon as I hit publish on this blog, I'm heading for the bank.  I walk to the grocery store, church, lunch with my parents, WalMart.  I walk everywhere.  That takes care of cardio and legs, but this year, I've been bothered by the way my arms look, so I'm also aiming at 10000 lifts (bicep curls to wall pushups, which could become real pushups by the end of the summer) by the time school starts.

School Prep - While I do believe in taking time to rest from school, I also know that I cannot improve my teaching while teaching.  Some time in April, I start thinking about next year and the changes I would like to make, so I make a list of activities that can be done during the summer.  This includes changes to rubrics, edits to the textbook, and seeking out some new demonstrations. Next year, I'll be teaching an elective I have not taught before, so I'm spending some time this summer preparing for that class.  Today is supposed to be rainy, which I find to be a good time to write recommendation letters, so I'll spend about two hours today working on that.  Depending on the goals I have, I spend anywhere from 1 to 3 hours a day working on school-related stuff during the summer.  When I was writing my textbooks, it was more.  This year, it is less.  I let the goal guide. 

Home Projects - Most teachers will tell you that if anything gets neglected during the school year, it is home maintenance.  Clutter builds, light bulbs go unchanged, and entropy just generally takes over.  I have a list of home projects that I take care of during the summer.  Some are large goals (paint the kitchen), and others are pretty small but need to be done (organize the closet and vacuum the stairs). 

I sort of treat these goals like a job, scheduling 8 hours of each day toward meeting them.  They aren't necessarily 8 continuous hours or evenly divided.  I may walk really far one day and devote less time that day to school projects.  I may spend a lot of time on a school project one day, leaving only doing a load of laundry or dishes for home activity.  Again, I let the goals guide rather than a rigid schedule. 

For those who think summer should be nothing but rest for teachers, don't worry.  I still play plenty of video games and watch a lot of television.  You can get rest without being completely unproductive.