Category: Take your eyes off the clock

Teacher Time Out

Two weeks into my summer break and I’m already missing my teacher ‘leagues. I wake up without an alarm and stumble through my day with no bells to mark time. Who’s going to keep me on track with my long To-Do list? Who’s going to remind me what the schedule is today? What time that PLC meeting starts? What I have to read or click through before moving on? Who’s going to discuss that message with me? Or what spirit wear is it tomorrow? Who’s got the latest chisme gossip?
The What’s App group chat has gone silent and I don’t know what to do without the daily videos, Q & A, jokes, or the one teacher responding three days late to a message long forgotten. I haven’t yet left behind the chaos of my ordinary school life, moving among five different rooms every day, maneuvering through hallways teeming with students larger than me and in no hurry to get to class, sitting in a loud office where I can’t get away even when I put on headphones to signal I’m off-duty.
It’s funny that I miss the noise and over-stimulation of school, but am quickly adjusting to “summer mode.” I’ve already completed a little road trip, a rowing regatta (where I won a medal just for showing up), a Primary Election, a mini family reunion, and a visit to the Tall Ships in Baltimore.
On my schedule this summer are meet-ups with teacher friends. A lunch, a karaoke night, a walk in the park, a rowing date, and evening drinks at a brew pub. That’s how I pass time in the summer. Seeing colleagues outside of school keeps me grounded and helps me reinforce who I really am. Ten months a year, a teacher’s identity is shaped by others, as we comply with rules and expectations.
During the summer, we’re free to celebrate who we really are. I’d feel a little lost without teacher friends to join me.


On the way to Liberty Island. I lived in Manhattan for 10 years, but never once visited the Statue of Liberty
View from my table LES

Take your eyes off the clock

One of the things about being a full time K-12 teacher is that it takes several weeks after school ends to emerge as a whole person. I’m more than halfway through summer break and I finally feel like the real me.

In late June I started off the summer by traveling to El Salvador – not exactly a top tourist destination. It was for a graduate course on Visual Literacy as a Tool for Cultural Proficiency in the Classroom – how could I not go? That was almost the exact title of my last WATESOL presentation! Perfect synchronicity! Since I have so many students from El Salvador and Central America, I wanted to try to understand a little more about their country and culture. I also wanted a chance to speak Spanish every day in an authentic setting. And I’m getting graduate credits!

Laberinto Projects Educa was the perfect way to combine education and tourism – an experience led by a woman who grew up in San Salvador, a child of immigrant refugees, who is trying to keep her mother’s art legacy alive. Her personal story is a powerful entry into learning about the Salvadoran Civil War, the gangs, and how ordinary people are trying to find a way to make a difference. Our group of DC area teachers had several powerful lectures by local artists, a photo-journalist, a museum curator, an archeologist, a seed conservationist, and a gallery owner. We were able to travel around the western part of the country with a trusted driver. Everywhere we went we were the only tourists. In one colorful mountain town, villagers took photos of us taking photos.

Not everyone has the chance to kickstart their summer vacation like me, but I feel empowered. Now that I have had some down time, I’ve been able to catch up on exercise, my family, and my reading.

I subscribe to a blog called Curmudgucation that I absolutely love. It’s written by a retired teacher who stands up for public education. It’s usually more political than the following post, but I want to share it anyway. Time flies during the summer, and sometimes teachers need a reminder to unlearn certain behaviors that develop over the 10 months we’re jogging on the conveyor belt of the school year.

This is from the July 26th Curmudgucation blog, about teachers needing the summer to unlearn some things.

Here are some things I have had to learn.

* Measure out time in increments larger than 30 seconds. It is not necessary to squeeze achievements into every second of the day, particularly when you could be using the time to interact with the other carbon based life forms in your home.

* Eat a meal in more than five minutes.

* Read a book without repeatedly thinking, “I could use this in class for my unit about X.”

* Read a book that you couldn’t possibly use for class ever.

* Visit an interesting location without grabbing pamphlets for your classroom.

* Moving through your day without a gnawing sense of urgency that there’s something you should be grading, reading, planning or reviewing.

* Figuring out what to do with the uncontrollable urge that hits every time you learn something new, which is the urge to pass it on to somebody else.

* Understanding that you might never not be a teacher, and you’re going to have to figure out what to do with that.

* Exercise. Because you’re not walking ten miles a day any more.

* Face you’re unreasonable addiction to office supplies.

* Talk yourself out of running for school board.

* Seriously. You can take fifteen or twenty minutes to eat lunch. Take a breath between bites. Chew your food. Talk to somebody.

* Take your eyes off the clock.