News Flash... Teacher gets summer off...NOT

Well it's officially here for me, my summer vacation.  How do I know? Is it because the signatures on my end of year checklist have all been collected?  Is it the bare walls of my classroom?  Maybe it is watching my colleagues walk the hall in shorts, tee shirts and the usually "banned" unsafe footwear.

No, it's the echoing, self reflecting voice, chiming in my head like the irritating alarm that I beg to leave me alone every morning of the school year.  Did you really make a difference in that child's life Karen?  Is she a better reader because she had you for a teacher?  Have you stopped the awful "Didn't your elementary teachers teach you anything?" cycle?

It has been 6 hours since I walked out of the building and I have already started my "How I will improve my teaching list."

Walk with me will you.

I will spend my summer...

Becoming an expert in the Daily 5, so I can use it effectively and help my fellow teachers successfully implement it.

Reading lots of books.  Adult books so I model reading for entertainment.  YA books so I can be a book whisperer to my students.  Some of the "classics" that fill my classroom, so I can remind students what was so great about them.


(I will begin my summer with the following books:   City lights, This means war, Red pyramid,  Downsiders,  Matterhorn, Everlost,  Everwild, Blood oath, Mazerunner, Boxcar children, Gordon Korman)

Researching data walls, deciding what data will inform my instruction and how to present it to my colleagues so they realize displaying data is a reminder of what we need to do, not a "you didn't do this" showcase.

Listening to podcasts like Books on the Nightstand, and TED Talks.  Inspiring me to read more, do more, think more.

Yep, I will be taking the summer off.


Lazy teachers... I wish I had their jobs.