Easy ways to make the most of summer

Tell me if this sounds like you.  You leave school with grand plans for the summer -- record all your videos for the next year, or write all new assessments, or redesign your LMS -- but when you get back to school in the fall, you've done little (if any of that). After all, you worked hard all year, and don't need summer to become a grind either.

This was definitely me!  Eventually, though, I learned to set more realistic goals — and in doing a few small things over the summer, I always felt more prepared to kick off the new school year. Here are three things I tried to do:

★ Reflect. As you can probably tell, I like writing — I’d find an hour or two and jot down the things I’d done well, the things I wanted to improve, and the questions I still needed to answer. I saved these reflections and revisited them the week before students returned to school. Reflection is as important for us as educators as I believe it is for students.

★ Converse. Over the summer I had more time to spend with family and friends, and I’d always tell them about how I was teaching. They’d been students too, and asked me all sorts of questions about my new approach. These conversations helped me learn to explain the Modern Classroom model, and generated some unexpected ideas as well.

★ Dream. What do I really want my classroom to look like? How would my ideal classroom work? These are questions I could only consider with a bit of distance from the school building. Asking them during idle moments helped me return in the fall with a clearer vision of what I wanted to achieve. And you never know when inspiration will strike.

If you do decide to plan, keep it manageable -- even having your first unit of the year ready in advance can make a huge difference.  This is what teachers in our Summer Institute will do.

Finally, if you're feeling ambitious, we'd love to hear about your reflections, conversations, and dreams in our Facebook Group, or as a published article.  But most of all, we wish you a restful and relaxing summer (if you're in the Northern Hemisphere at least).  You've earned it!