More Summer

I return to teaching because I want to soak up more summers.  That sentiment may prompt those in the general public to scoff and mutter, “Yep, there you go!  Even the ‘good’ ones are in it for their three months off!”  Let me explain-

A “teacher summer” is much more than just time off.  It is the complete and utter renewal of the human spirit and creative energy needed for the dynamic work of teaching and relationship building.  The cyclical nature of teaching is one of many reasons this work suits me and others who relish routine.  Naturally, every year holds new students and often changed curriculum or teaching schedules, but there is a reliable  pattern of each and every school year.

A familiar earmark of late May is the slide into the metaphoric home plate of the school year. As we neared the end of this school year, I’d see my colleagues in the hall and we’d just look at each other in passing, giving  closed lip smiles as sweat dripped from our brows and students wildly weaved around us, running despite our futile shouts of “walk!”  Having taught over twenty years, I’ve come to recognize the moment when “the spell of school” is broken.  Most years the spell breaks near the very end of May.  Contributing factors influencing the “breaking of the spell” seem to include the start of Little League, temperatures of 80 degrees or higher, Daylight Savings time and the Memorial Day holiday with its trips to the lake and family picnics.  Once the spell is broken, a good teacher knows his/her job has turned a corner.  It becomes time to encourage students to reflect on what they’ve learned throughout the year, it’s time to plan a culminating experience that honors and celebrates that learning, and it’s time to look ahead, helping students plan for moving to the next grade level.

A crazy fever pitch of activity begins, too, as students hurry to finish missing work and I attempt to input grades and prep the classroom for its summer cleaning. We clear out lockers, return library books, and pass back the towering stack of papers long overdue for return.  The classroom transforms from our cozy haven for reading and writing into a barren shell of its former self.  Every year the kids wail,”It looks so bare in here!  It’s sad. I don’t like it!”  I don’t like it either, but now I know that it is part of the ritual.   And I want more of it.  I like the ending and starting over fresh in the fall. I’m in love with the ultimate redo nature of teaching.  I remember my first end-of-the-school year.  Our principal passed me in the hall, smiled and asked how I felt about having my first year under my belt.  I remember smiling and gushing, “I can’t wait to do it again next year.  I have so many ideas, so many ways I can make it better!”  He laughed.  After twenty years, I still thrill at the prospect of tweaking and starting over.  Each year I set out to have the best teaching year yet!  It’s the lazy summer days that make my dream of reaching some sort of teaching nirvana seem even possible.

Early in my career I had delusions of planning my lessons for the entire year during the summer break.  I’ve come to realize that the day-to-day planning is hard to do before I actually meet my students.  I need to know them, even just a little bit, before I can make detailed plans for daily lessons.  Summer, for me, is the time for grand plans and projects that will stretch my teaching and enhance student learning.  The long summer days free me to daydream about writing projects I want to try with my young writers.  Rainy afternoons afford me the time to pour over fresh, innovative ideas on Pinterest.  Even on a getaway to Traverse City, I pick up a little book on How-To do Cat’s Cradle to supplement our “Animal Allies” Unit which includes informational writing/direction writing.  Also in Traverse City, I pick up a tiny card titled, “Why the Bumblebee Cannot Fly” and I consider how this little story could be used as a springboard for writing about the times students have accomplished something that didn’t even seem possible at first.

As  the summer days roll on, I get more and more anxious to put all of the potential energy of summertime imagining and planning into action.  August ends, and I’m ready.   I’m so ready, in fact, I can barely sleep the night before the first day of school.   I set and double-check my alarm clock and end up waking up way before that alarm even goes off. For me, waking up on the first day of school is most similar to waking up on Christmas morning.   I can’t wait to meet all those nervous 6th graders, to help them with their lockers, and to tell them a funny story or two.

Now since it is just July, let me sit here a bit in my chair on the porch considering which stories might be the most relevant and relatable for those first days of school.  Then I’ll read my book and maybe take a little nap.  By September I’ll be completely renewed.  It happens everytime; that’s the magic of  a “teacher summer.”