Summer Vacation: Education Interrupted or Not?

Picking the cursor up after ignoring this blog for many months is daunting. Trying to get school related work done while on summer vacation is another challenge. When school ended on June 30 I had so many good intentions. I was planning to formally write up the successful unit plans from the previous year, But then this happened:

My husband and I celebrated our 15th anniversary with a weekend in Martha's Vineyard, Don't all teachers get married in the summer?

I was hoping to read the stack of young adult books I collected at The Book Con. I did manage to read All the Bright Places, Everyday and half of the companion Another Day, I also read parts of Paper Towns, and am a few chapters into Saint Anything. The ability to read while relaxing at the beach helps get this summer task completed!

I wanted to read the stack of educational books I had downloaded to my Kindle, and am making some progress. I am leading a Voxer book club with school colleagues on the book 50 Things You Can Do With Google Classroom. I am doing most of the talking, which tells me that I am not the only teacher struggling to be productive during vacation.

I need to plan for the upcoming school year. I had ambitions to make folders for my students with all of the SHEG lessons I will be using with them. This involves downloading the 50 or so lessons from SHEG's Reading Like A Historian curriculum onto a flash drive, and then bringing to the print lab back at school. It's just a matter of sitting down and doing it, but then things like this happen:

 

Since I was a child I have spent the whole summer on Cape Cod. My childhood friends' children, including a friend from Honduras, are now friends with my children. My children, who put up with a lot all year having a busy school teacher mother, take center stage in the summer. Their scheduled and unscheduled activities and fun are the focus of July and August. 

Another goal is to refocus my attention on health and exercise. I participate in boot camp and cardio tennis, and my 10 year old yellow lab, Lucy, gets back in shape too by swimming.

 






I look for ways to "kill two birds with one stone" by hiking to the dog beach and reading after Lucy gets tired out playing fetch in the waves.

I packed The Secret Garden and Anne of Green Gables to read to my rising 4th grader, but then my rising 7th grader needed help with her assigned summer reading, so we put Mary Lennox and her garden on hold to tackle I Will Always Write Back: 

Our local book store 8 Cousins attracts some great authors to their events, and so we got to listen to Sarah Dessen and David Levithan, and my youngest has been once again searching for Waldo.

                      

So, while July hasn't been the most productive in the traditional sense of teacher professional development, in hindsight, it has been an mentally stimulating summer. August, the Sunday of the summer, is right around the corner. Once the calendar changes, the little ones will begin to work in earnest on their summer reading and math packets, and I will plan curriculum. But for now, our favorite lifeguard/big brother is waiting for a visit!