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.