I enjoy my job, most of the time, but I also look forward to summer. As a teacher I spend 9 1/2 months of the year balancing 150 teenage personalities, who aren’t even quite sure what kind of personalities they want to be, on the ends of sticks and trying to move them from one place to the other in a positive and productive direction. I am exhausted, and summer is the opportunity for me to recharge, rejuvenate, and reload. To be clear, my job is not the first thing on my priority list for this summer so here is the first idea for making the most out of this summer.
Idea #1 for making a great flipping summer: Self/Family Care
Good teaching also requires good self-care. I am writing this blog from my morning walk before I have to get the kids out of bed. I need to get out of bed at a reasonable time and get going for the day and a morning walk is a great way to start. For you this may be a more intense work out or like @bakerhhhs, it might be that second job so many of us have. I have a number of summer projects and I find more of them get done if I get a great start to the day. Besides, if I get a good start to the day there may even be time for a siesta!
Good teaching of students from all sorts of family backgrounds requires that I also invest in the stability and maturation of my own family relationships. for the first time in nearly a decade, I am not teaching at the local community college over the summer. While I enjoy the class and the extra spending money it provides, my family situation this summer is such that I need to focus on being Dad more than I need the money. My son (14) has floated the idea of starting a YouTube channel and taking his little sister to swimming and therapy and so these are opportunities I can’t afford to miss. My son is also a little concerned about math in high school next year so we may even squeeze a little teaching in as well. (How often does a teenage child as their teacher parent for help and actually be willing to accept it?) I am sure your family and relationships are different than mine, but everyone has opportunities to make choices about the people closest to them and the relationships that mean the most to us. Take the opportunity to make conscious choices this summer to build those important and supportive relationships. And let’s be honest good teaching requires that I get at least more than a few of those pink slip “honey-do” jobs off that list my wife has been building for 9 1/2 months.
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